This course explores how identities, whether of individuals or groups, are produced, maintained, and transformed. Students will be introduced to various theoretical perspectives that deal with identity formation, including constructions of "the normal." We will explore the utility of these perspectives for understanding identity components such as gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, language, social class, and bodily difference. By semester's end students will understand better how an individual can be at once cause and consequence of society, a unique agent of social action as well as a social product.

This Geography assignment, ideal for Political Geography, Cultural Geography, Urban Geography, and so forth (and of course other related disciplines like Anthropology and Sociology), undergraduate courses, explores the concepts of in place and out of place. Based on a reading of the introduction of Tim Cresswell's 1996 book In Place/out of Place Geography, Ideology, and Transgression, this assignment is a great way to get students to think about these issues and connect them to their own experiences.

International Women's Voices has several objectives. It introduces students to a variety of works by contemporary women writers from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and North America. The emphasis is on non-western writers. The readings are chosen to encourage students to think about how each author's work reflects a distinct cultural heritage and to what extent, if any, we can identify a female voice that transcends national cultures. In lectures and readings distributed in class, students learn about the history and culture of each of the countries these authors represent. The way in which colonialism, religion, nation formation and language influence each writer is a major concern of this course. In addition, students examine the patterns of socialization of women in patriarchal cultures, and how, in the imaginary world, authors resolve or understand the relationship of the characters to love, work, identity, sex roles, marriage and politics.This class is a communication intensive course. In addition to becoming more thoughtful readers, students are expected to become a more able and more confident writers. Assignments are designed to allow for revision of each paper. The class will also offer opportunities for speaking and debating so that students can build oral presentation skills that are essential for success once they leave MIT. The class is limited to 25 students and there is substantial classroom discussion.

This course offers an introduction to Women's and Gender Studies, an interdisciplinary field that asks critical questions about the meanings of sex and gender in society. The primary goal of this course is to familiarize students with key issues, questions and debates in Women's and Gender Studies, both historical and contemporary. Gender studies scholarship critically analyzes themes of gendered performance and power in a range of social spheres, such as education, law, culture, work, medicine and the family. WGS. 101 draws on multiple disciplines--such as literature, history, economics, psychology, sociology, philosophy, political science, anthropology and media studies-- to examine cultural assumptions about sex, gender, and sexuality. This course integrates analysis of current events through student presentations, aiming to increase awareness of contemporary and historical experiences of women, and of the multiple ways that sex and gender interact with race, class, nationality and other social identities.

In the decades following the Second World War, a cluster of extraordinary French thinkers were widely translated and read in American universities. Their works were soon labeled as "French Theory." Why would sharing the same nationality make authors such as Lacan, Cixous, Derrida, Foucault or Debord, ambassadors of a specifically "French" theory? The course will explore the maze of transatlantic intellectual debates since 1945 and the heyday of French existentialism. We will study the debates on communism, decolonization, neo_liberalism, gender, youth culture and mass media. This course is taught in English.

This subject investigates the special relation of women to several musical folk traditions in the British Isles and North America. Throughout, we will be examining the implications of gender in the creation, transmission, and performance of music. Because virtually all societies operate to some extent on a gendered division of labor (and of expressive roles) the music of these societies is marked by the gendering of musical repertoires, traditions of instrumentation, performance settings, and styles. This seminar will examine the gendered dimensions of the music -- the song texts, the performance styles, processes of dissemination (collection, literary representation) and issues of historiography -- with respect to selected traditions within the folk musics of North America and the British Isles, with the aim of analyzing the special contributions of women to these traditions. In addition to telling stories about women's musical lives, and studying elements of female identity and subjectivity in song texts and music, we will investigate the ways in which women's work and women's cultural roles have affected the folk traditions of these several countries.

This course will study the contributions of Latina writers to the field of Latinx Studies in the United States. Through their literary and scholarly work, we will explore the historical roots of Latino/a culture in this country and how the politics of race, gender, and class have defined the field of Latinx Studies, with Latinas at the forefront of the struggle.

This course studies the interaction between law, courts, and social movements in shaping domestic and global public policy. Examines how groups mobilize to use law to affect change and why they succeed and fail. The class uses case studies to explore the interplay between law, social movements, and public policy in current areas such as gender, race, labor, trade, environment, and human rights. Finally, it introduces the theories of public policy, social movements, law and society, and transnational studies.

Graduate Women at MIT (GWAMIT) is an institute-wide, student-led group founded in 2009. Its mission is to promote the personal and professional development of MIT's graduate women. GWAMIT welcomes all members of the MIT community, including men. This OCW site features selected videos from the two conferences GWAMIT runs each academic year: a Leadership Conference in the fall and an Empowerment Conference in the spring. It also provides a list of related readings and other resources.

Introduces practice and theory of literary criticism. Seminar focuses on topics such as the history of critical methods and techniques, and the continuity of certain subjects in literary history. Instruction and practice in oral and written communication. Topic: Theory and Use of Figurative Language. How does one writer use another writer's work? Does it matter if one author has been dead 300 years? What difference does it make if she's a groundbreaking twentieth-century feminist and the writer she values has come to epitomize the English literary tradition? How can a novelist borrow from plays and poems? By reading Virginia Woolf's major novels and essays in juxtaposition with some of the Shakespeare plays that (depending on one's interpretation) haunt, enrich, and/or shape her writing, we will try to answer these questions and raise others. Readings in literary criticism, women's studies, and other literary texts will complement our focus on the relationship--across time, media, and gender--between Shakespeare and Woolf. As a seminar, we will work to become more astute readers of literature within its historical, artistic, and political contexts, and consider how literature both reflects and contributes to these societal frameworks. Central texts will include Shakespeare's Othello, Antony and Cleopatra, Cymbeline, and The Winter's Tale, and Woolf's A Room of One's Own, Mrs. Dalloway, Orlando, To the Lighthouse, The Waves, and Between the Acts. This subject is an advanced seminar in both the Literature and the Women's Studies Program.

Louisa May Alcott's classic story of the March sisters was originally published in 1868 and 1869 by Roberts Brothers, Boston. This text was prepared for Project Gutenberg in 2008 with last updates in 2010.

This seminar provides intensive study of exciting texts by four influential American authors. In studying paired works, we can enrich our sense of each author's distinctive methods, get a deeper sense of the development of their careers, and shake up our preconceptions about what makes an author or a work "great." Students will get an opportunity to research an author in depth, as well as making broader comparisons across the syllabus.

Close study of a limited group of writers. Instruction and practice in oral and written communication. Topic for Fall: Willa Cather. Topic for Spring: Oscar Wilde and the 90s. From Course Home Page: This seminar provides intensive study of texts by two American authors (Herman Melville, 1819-1891, and Toni Morrison, 1931-) who, using lyrical, radically innovative prose, explore in different ways epic notions of American identity. Focusing on Melville's Typee (1846), Moby-Dick (1851), and The Confidence-Man (1857) and Morrison's Sula (1973), Beloved (1987), Jazz (1992), and Paradise (1998), the class will address their common concerns with issues of gender, race, language, and nationhood. Be prepared to read deeply (i.e. a small number of texts with considerable care), to draw on a variety of sources in different media, and to employ them in creative research, writing, and multimedia projects.

Examines cultural developments within European literature from different societies at different time-periods throughout the Middle Ages (500-1500). Considers--from a variety of political, historical, and anthropological perspectives--the growth of institutions (civic, religious, educational, and economic) which shaped the personal experiences of individuals in ways that remain quite distinct from those of modern Western societies. Texts mostly taught in translation. Topics vary and include: Courtly Literature of the High and Late Middle Ages, Medieval Women Writers, Chaucer and the 14th Century, and the Crusades.

This course addresses the place of contemporary queer identities in French discourse and discusses the new generation of queer authors and their principal concerns. Class discussions and readings will introduce students to the main classical references of queer subcultures, from Proust and Vivien to Hocquenghem and Wittig. Throughout the course, students will examines current debates on post-colonial and globalized queer identities through essays, songs, movies, and novels. Authors covered include Didier Eribon, Anne GarrŽta, Abdellah Ta•a, Anne Scott, and Nina Bouraoui. This class is taught in French.

This website serves as an online platform for my course SOCY 2600 / WGST 3420 "Gender and Society."
The site provides students with free access to the course material. In unit I, we (attempt to) define gender and sex. In unit II, we study landmark feminist struggles in the United States. In unit III, we zoom-in into lived experiences of oppression and resistance.

An introduction to the field of gender studies as it is approached in the discipline of sociology. We will examine how sociologists have come to theorize about gender and how gender effects both social institutions and our everyday lives. Gender, as a social category and its consequences are so pervasive in the world around us that it is often taken for granted. In this course, you will be introduced to concepts, theories and facts which will enable you to render gender visible as it operates in society and in your lives. Because gender is an organizing principle in society, a sociological examination of gender necessitates that our primary concerns remain inequalities and power relations in our undertaking of this discussion. Therefore, an intersectional perspective will be taken in the class wherein the intersection of gender will race, ethnicity, social class, sexuality, and nationality will be examined.

The purpose of this course is to acquaint the student with the sociological field of the Welfare State. We will review a number of important contributions and debates in the topic with the goal of providing students with the tools to critically analyze social policy and learn theoretical frameworks that explain the emergence and development of different welfare regimes.

American welfare policies are particularly meager in comparison to any other industrialized country. We will review theoretical and historical explanations for the present state of U.S. welfare, zooming in on the neoliberal rollback since the late 1970s. We will allot special time to discuss current issues in welfare policy and bold policy proposals that are gaining traction among the population, such as Medicare for All and the Green New Deal.

The welfare state can be thought of as a set of a set of social policies that transform the relationship among three actors: individuals, their families and the state. In this sense, social policies have a strong impact on family relations and gender oppression. We will review some of the most important discussions around welfare and women’s liberation.

Descripción del curso
SPA203 - (For native or near-native speakers.) The grammatical structure of today's standard Spanish. Intensive practice in reading, speaking, and elementary composition.
En SPA203 vamos a explorar la relación entre el lenguaje y la diversidad en el marco de los derechos humanos fundamentales. El título del curso, “¿qué hacemos con la lengua?”, nos pregunta dos cosas: qué tipo de prejuicios perpetuamos por medio del lenguaje y cómo hacer para que la lengua albergue de manera efectiva la diversidad de nuestra sociedad. En un contexto actual, sorprendente estancado en la indiferencia, la ignorancia, el prejuicio y estigmatización de quienes son diferentes bajo excusas de todo signo, urge más que nunca tomar conciencia del mundo diverso en el que vivimos, desarrollar nuestra empatía (tanto en el lenguaje, como en los actos), fomentar la equidad como horizonte deseable para nuestra sociedad y considerar un lenguaje que funcione como herramienta de concientización y de cambio.
Con este impulso como hilo de discusión, en el curso trabajaremos la competencia lingüística y la mejora en la fluidez de español tanto a nivel oral como escrito, con privilegio del registro formal o culto. Pese a esta prioridad, el curso se enmarca en un reconocimiento de nuestra capacidad translingüe (somos poseedores de un continuo lingüístico que abraza lenguas sin separación natural) y ofrecerá una posición autocrítica frente a consideraciones prescriptivas y sesgos elitistas aun prevalentes en la enseñanza de la lengua. Los aspectos gramaticales estudiados estarán basados en las necesidades del grupo y tendrán un carácter eminentemente práctico.
Dedicaremos la primera parte del curso a entender aspectos esenciales de nuestra lengua: la importancia de nuestros nombres, qué características tiene el habla de herencia y qué es translenguar, cuál es el origen del español, qué son los niveles lingüísticos y qué trabajan estos niveles, de qué hablamos cuando hablamos de las variaciones de una lengua (dialectos, registros), y de qué hablamos cuando trabajamos la norma lingüística y el llamado español “neutro”. A continuación, nos plantearemos cómo hacer para que el lenguaje responda a la realidad social. A través de lecturas de textos, visionados de vídeos y debates, revisaremos conceptos fundamentales en nuestra sociedad como son los derechos humanos, la noción de privilegio, la discriminación lingüística (glotofobia y hablismo), cómo se manifiesta el racismo y el sentimiento anti-inmigrante en el lenguaje, que diferencia hay entre lo políticamente correcto y el lenguaje no discriminatorio, qué es el feminismo y que sentido tiene la interseccionalidad, que categorías definen nuestras identidad de género y orientación afectivo-sexual, qué términos deberíamos en casos de discapacidad y neurodiversidad, respectivamente, y por último hasta qué punto nuestra identidad procede de una raíz múltiple. A través de presentaciones, el grupo de clase compartirá su conocimiento o descubrimiento de aquellas comunidades comúnmente silenciadas cuando pensamos en la comunidad hispana y latina.
Se trata de un curso presencial, de asistencia obligatoria, ofertada para hablantes de herencia. Las sesiones y lecturas estarán, fundamentalmente, en español, con excepciones puntuales.