Fall 2011

WOM 393-01: Sex, Gender and the State
W 4:30-7:10PM

Professor Rachel Mattson: mattsonr@newpaltz.edu

Course Description:

Examination of the ways ideas about gender and sexuality have shaped nation-building processes in the United States—especially over the course of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries—by reading and discussing a range of visual, literary, and scholarly texts. Topics to be discussed include: gender and the history of naturalization law; technologies of surveillance; historical and legal debates about interracial and gay marriage; the invention of identity documents; activist citizenships; transgender histories; immigration restriction; and many other topics.

WOM393-02: Mothering/Motherhood
R 12:15-2:55PM

Professor Heather Hewett: hewetth@newpaltz.edu

Course Descrption:

This course will examine the cultural construction of motherhood and the range of mothering practices in the U.S. and globally.  It will provide historical, cultural, and economic frameworks for understanding the relationship between gender, sex, and motherhood (both biological and nonbiological); the diversity of women's experiences of mothering: fathering and fatherhood; mothers' movements; and the connections between mothers' activism and feminism.

 Spring 2012

WOM393: Women and Drugs
M 4:30-7:10PM

Professor Katherine (Kate) McCoy: mccoyk@newpaltz.edu

Course Description:

This course will examine historical, cultural, political, and economic contexts of women's drug use and its consequences in the US. We will look at the effects of racism, sexism, and classism on women's drug use and its consequences. Special focus will be placed on health, legal, and "moral" issues.