Current Catalog Courses
Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Course Descriptions
The following courses are Diversity and Equity certified.
DEu (United States)
- WGSS 303 Education, Race, and Gender
- WGSS 328 Body and Identity
- WGSS 345 Gender and Violence
- WGSS 347 Reproductive Rights
- WGSS 375 Feminist Activism
- WGSS 380 Gender and Social Movements in the United States
- WGSS 407 Politics of Sexualities
- WGSS 424 Women and Health
- WGSS 450 Cinema and Gender
DEg (Global)
- WGSS 301 Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality in Contemporary Societies
- WGSS 304 Ecofeminism
- WGSS 350 Chicana and Latina Feminist Thought
- WGSS 351 Black Feminist Thought and Activism
- WGSS 369 Gender and Hair
- WGSS 392 Gender, Culture and Representation in Film Original Versions and U.S. Remakes
- WGSS 416 Sex Work
- WGSS 101 (3) Introduction to Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Provides an overview of the field of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Utilizes a range of perspectives to evaluate how sex, gender, and sexuality are constructed in social and cultural contexts. Focuses on the intersections of gender and sexuality with race, ethnicity, ability, class and nationality.
Satisfies GE areas D7 and D
May be repeated for credit for a total of six (6) units. May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 101.
- WGSS 180 (3) Introductory Topics in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Introductory special topics in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. The course title and description will vary by offering.
Students should check the Class Schedule for listing of actual topics. May be repeated for credit as topics change, for a total of six (6) units. May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 180.
- WGSS 201 (3) Women: Contemporary Issues
NOTE: This course is not currently offered at Cal State San Marcos. It is listed for transfer-credit and course equivalency purposes.
Surveys contemporary issues in women’s lives from the standpoints of diverse groups of women. Subject matter includes, but is not limited to, images of women, reproductive rights, sexuality, economic justice, political empowerment, family relations, and cultural practices. Subject matter is introduced in a variety of ways, including case studies, narratives, novels, film, and music. Students may do cross-cultural research on the Internet and Lexis/Nexis for their final project.
- WGSS 205 (3) Gender and Sexuality in Pop Culture and the Media
Examines the ways in which gender and sexual identity have been portrayed in popular culture and the media, as well as the economic, political, and historical conditions that affect and inform these images. Focuses special attention on the economic, political, and historical conditions that have shaped representations of gender, race, class, and sexual identity in popular culture.
Satisfies GE area C2
May be repeated for credit for a total of six (6) units. May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 205.
- WGSS 300 (1-3) Topics in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Special topics in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. The course title and description will vary by offering.
May be repeated for credit as topics change for a total of six (6) units. May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 300.
- WGSS 301 (3) Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality in Contemporary Societies
Explores the intersection of gender and sexuality with variables such as race, class, and disability in the modern world.
Satisfies GE area CC
DEg CertifiedMay not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 301.
- WGSS 303 (3) Education, Gender and Race
Explores the relationships between education, gender, and race/ethnicity. Course content will include such issues as identity development in girls and boys; controversies about gender, race, and education; feminist theories about learning and teaching; social stratification in schools; and pedagogical methods designed to empower all students through education. Using contemporary case studies, students will examine multiple dimensions of school life—such as formal and informal curricula, student-teacher relationships, and the social construction of teaching—for their gendered and racialized components.
Satisfies GE area DD
DEu CertifiedMay not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 303.
- WGSS 304 (3) Ecofeminism
Examines the intersections and collaborations of feminist and ecological thought. The course examines the ways in which feminist movements have prioritized the environment, focused on relationships between humans and the natural world, and engaged a range of environmental issues. The course explores ecofeminist perspectives, including critiques of the parallel oppression of women and nature, multiple hierarchies of domination, and the gendered effects of environmental problems; the reframing of militarism, corporate globalization, and technology as environmental issues; and the promotion of distinctive feminist alternatives, including sustainability, earth democracy, and spirituality.
Satisfies GE area DD
DEg CertifiedMay not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 300-21
- WGSS 323 (3) Women in Performance: Choreographies of Resistance
Explores issues of power, representation, and access in relation to the female body in dance, performance art, body arts, and the staging of political empowerment. Examines crucial historical figures and moments when the body in motion ruptures or destabilizes normalized expectations.
Satisfies GE area CC
Cross-listed: Also offered as DNCE 323. Students may not receive credit for both. May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 323.
- WGSS 326 (3) Feminist Art and Motherhood
Critically examines what has been the taboo relationship of motherhood to feminist art and theory as they have developed during the late 20th Century. This interdisciplinary course focuses on the various ways feminist artists, writers, philosophers and other cultural theorists are addressing the dilemmas of representing feminist motherhood and how these approaches are interpreted in contemporary visual culture. Previous historical limitations and mutual exclusivities for women as mothers will be analyzed in relation to new revisioning of motherhood by women and men who have different ethnicities, classes and other varied life experiences.
Satisfies GE area CC
May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 300-18 or WMST 326. Cross-listed: Also offered as AMD 324. Students may not receive credit for both.
- WGSS 328 (3) Body and Identity
Explores the social construction and performances of the body and identity through a cross-cultural look at definitions and meanings of the body, codes inscribed on it by our everyday practices (wearing makeup, working out), and choices of decorative markers (clothing, jewelry, tattoos, piercings). How are gender, race, ethnicity, and power status signaled by the body? How is rebellion enacted through the body? Anthropological perspectives are used to explore how people approach these issues across cultural, economic, political, social, and religious contexts.
Satisfies GE area DD
DEu CertifiedCross-listed: Also offered as ANTH 328. Students may not receive credit for both. May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 328.
- WGSS 338 (3) Sexualities, Gender Identities, and Incarceration
Exploration of punishment, criminalization, and adjunction processes related to gender and sexualities in the prison system.
Satisfies GE area DD
May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 338.
- WGSS 341 (3) Men and Masculinities
Focuses on various meanings of male identity and the effects that notions of masculinity have had on both men and women. Examines cultural beliefs, values, and representations of masculinity and male identities. Explores distinct perspectives on the meanings of masculinity—past, present, and future—in relation to socialization, work, family, race and ethnicity, class, culture, sexuality, and technological change. Focuses primarily on the United States, with cross-cultural comparisons to the construction of masculinity in other countries.
Satisfies GE area DD
May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 341.
- WGSS 343 (3) Power and Gender in the Muslim World
Explores the intersection between Islam, gender, culture, and politics in Muslim countries in contemporary Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
Satisfies GE area DD
Cross-listed: Also offered as PSCI 343. Students may not receive credit for both. May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 343.
- WGSS 345 (3) Gender and Violence
Explores the intersections of violence against women through the following frameworks: feminism, masculinity studies, sexuality, dis/ ability, age, race and class. Interrogates the concept of violence, exploring physical, emotional, psychological, and structural violence, as well as state violence, societal responses to violence, and feminist resistance to violence in the U.S. and around the globe. Subjects may include intimate partner violence, LGBT violence, violence against transgender people, rape and sexual assault, state-sponsored violence, and militarized violence.
Satisfies GE area DD
DEu CertifiedMay not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 300-11 or WMST 345.
- WGSS 347 (3) Reproductive Rights
Explores the history of reproductive rights for women in the United States and globally, including the emergence of family planning practices, the design and availability of contraception, access to abortion, and assistive technologies. Emphasizes intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, abilities, and geography, as context to this exploration. Course materials will focus on legal and policy developments, religious/political/cultural contexts, women's activism, and feminist theoretical perspectives of reproductive rights and wrongs.
Satisfies GE area DD
DEu CertifiedMay not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 300-13 or WMST 347.
- WGSS 350 (3) Chicana and Latina Feminist Thought
Introduction to the foundational writings in Chicana and Latina feminist theory with close attention to how race, class, gender, and sexuality affect Chicana and Latina lives. Includes triple oppressions theory, identity politics, mestiza consciousness, Chicana subjectivity (agency), lesbian identities, and media analysis.
Satisfies GE area DD
DEg CertifiedMay not be taken for credit by students who received credit for WMST 350.
- WGSS 351 (3) Black Feminist Thought and Activism
Explores Black Feminist consciousness and activism along with its impact, historically and theoretically. Focuses on the principles and practices associated with its evolution through struggle over time in the U.S. and the Diaspora, the relationship of Black Feminist theorizing with other feminisms, and resistance and applications for social change. Explores key scholarly debates about self and community, the "multiplicity of oppressions," and the intersection of race with gender, class, sexuality, and nation.
Satisfies GE area DD
DEg CertifiedMay not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 300-2 or WMST 351.
- WGSS 369 (3) Gender and HairExplores the intersections of hair with beauty, culture, race, gender, class, sexuality, among other categories. Themes include beauty and hair, histories, cultures, stereotypes and perceptions about hair, capitalism and hair, and power and hair.
Recommended Preparation: WGSS 205.
Satisfies GE area: CC
Satisfies Diversity & Equity area: DEg - WGSS 370 (3) Transnational Feminisms
Focuses on non-Western feminisms—their histories, practices, politics, theories, and the connections with Western feminisms that helped shape the transnational dynamics of feminist movements. Highlights relations among local, national, and regional feminisms and women’s movements; explores competing theories of gender relations and women’s rights and powers; and examines critically key debates about transnational activism, including how women differ, what interests and problems they share, the nature of agency, and the role of international institutions.
Satisfies GE area DD
May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 370.
- WGSS 375 (3) Feminist Activism
Explores women’s international movement, giving attention to the relationship between U.S. women’s movements for social change and global feminist struggles. Interdisciplinary readings, including fiction and feminist theory, focus on women’s activism in various countries and regions of the world.
Satisfies GE area DD
GEu CertifiedMay not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 375.
- WGSS 380 (3) Gender and Social Movements in the United States
Analysis of the intersections of gender and social movements in the United States. Explores the intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality in relation to these social movements.
Satisfies GE area DD
GEu CertifiedMay not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 380.
- WGSS 392 (3) Gender, Culture and Representation in Film Original Versions and U.S.
RemakesExplores gender, identity and their representations in U.S. film remakes from a global perspective, contrasting with their original foreign film versions. Compares and analyzes U.S. and foreign films emphasizing the framework of intersectionality between nationality, gender, race, class and language. Develops a broad understanding of the interactions among these relevant categories. Introduces film analysis and fundamentals of gender and representation theories.
Recommended Preparation: WGSS 101, WGSS 205, and WGSS 301 (core requirements for Major) are recommended. Cross-listed: MLAN 392 and WGSS 392 are cross-listed. Students may not receive credit for both.
Satisfies GE area: CC
Satisfies Diversity & Equity area: DEg - WGSS 398 (3) Independent Study
Directed readings and research under the guidance of an instructor. Semester project, paper, or performance required.
May be repeated for a total of six (6) units. May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 398.
Enrollment restrictions: Enrollment restricted to students who have obtained consent of instructor.
- WGSS 401 (3) Seminar in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Topic announced each semester prior to registration. Explores readings in feminist theory and scholarship. Includes a cross-cultural or cross-national perspective.
May be repeated for a total of six (6) units as topics change. May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 401.
- WGSS 407 (3) The Politics of Sexualities
Examines the social and political construction of categories of sexual and gender identities (such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, transgender, heterosexual), the resulting social coercion of behavior, and the role coercion plays in dividing and disempowering people cross-culturally. Subject matter includes the history of romantic and sexual relationships between people in relation to culture and social institutions, the development of gender and sexual identities in social contexts, related political movement, and the power of heteronormativity in society.
Satisfies GE area DD
DEu CertifiedMay not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 407.
- WGSS 416 (3) Sex Work
Examines a variety of issues related to sex work, such as prostitution, trafficking in women and children, pornography, sex tourism, and erotic shows. Material will draw from communications, economic, feminist, health, socio-political, and other perspectives, with an emphasis on the global nature of the sex industry.
Satisfies GE area DD
DEg CertifiedMay not be taken for credit by students who have eceived credit for WMST 416.
- WGSS 424 (3) Women and Health
An exploration of women and health. Analysis of women's health maintenance and disease prevention, gender bias in medical treatment, medicalization of "natural" processes, women and the health system, medical-legal system, and bio-medical research. Subject matter may include, but is not limited to: eating disorders, contraception, sexually transmitted diseases, fertility from pregnancy to birthing, stress and mental illness, menopause, breast cancer, and alternative and traditional healing systems. Issues of social class, nationality, race, culture, and sexual preference are emphasized throughout.
Satisfies GE area DD
DEu CertifiedCross-listed: Also offered as SOC 424. Students may not receive credit for both. May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 424.
Recommended Preparation: Previous coursework in the area of health and illness.
- WGSS 450 (3) Cinema and Gender
Investigates the power of film and the film industry in representing and shaping gendered positions in a variety of cultural settings. Explores dominant and alternative practices of gendering cinematic characters and viewers. May employ particular thematic frameworks (e.g., mothers and daughters, gender and European cinema, women in the silents, or gender and documentary film).
Satisfies GE area CC
DEu CertifiedMay not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 450.
- WGSS 490 (3) Senior Seminar in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Examines major schools of feminist theory and feminist approaches to research on women, gender and sexuality across an array of academic disciplines. The application of feminist perspectives and reassessments of social theory in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences may be included. Student research projects may include bibliographies, archival research, ethnographic, survey, literary analysis, or other formats.
May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 490.
- WGSS 495A (1) 495B (2) 495C (3) 495D (4) 495E (5) 495F (6) Internship in WGSS
Combines readings with placement in an appropriate social justice or women’s advocacy organization, public, private, or nonprofit.
May be repeated for a total of nine (9) units in any combination of units from WGSS 495A through WGSS 495F. May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 495A through F.
- WGSS 499 (3) Independent Research in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
In consultation with a faculty advisor, students develop an extended research project using primary and/or secondary sources.
May be repeated for a total of six (6) units. May not be taken for credit by students who have received credit for WMST 499.
Enrollment Restrictions: Enrollment restricted to students who have obtained consent of instructor.