MA Required Courses (this information is posted originally on the GFWS website)
GFWS 6002 3.0 FEMINIST THEORY
Offers an analysis of contemporary feminist theoretical debates in the program's fields of specialization: Cultural and Literary Studies, Performance and Fines Arts; Diaspora, Transnational and Global Studies; Histories; Politics, Economies and Societies; Race; Sexualities; Theories and Methods.
GFWS 6007 3.0 FEMINIST RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM
This course is designed for incoming master’s students. It provides a supportive learning environment to develop research and writing skills appropriate to the discipline.
GFWS 6907 3.0 MA SEMINAR IN GENDER, FEMINIST AND WOMEN'S STUDIES
Presents students with an overview of the fields of specialization available in this program and introduces them to current critical issues and debates. It also deals with professional development, such as preparing grant applications, conference papers and articles.
MA and PhD Core Course Options - Electives
GFWS 6111 3.00 (DE)COLONIZING RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES
This course examines the colonizing roots, contemporary problems, and possibilities of field-based research methodologies with relevance to education. From issues in science and positivism to anthropological questions of representation and ethics, the course asks what it means to decolonize methodology.
GFWS 6113 3.00 GENDER AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF GLOBAL MARKETS
No summary provided online.
GFWS 6114 3.00 RACE, GENDER, AND AMERICAN POLITICS
In recent years, a wealth of scholarship on race, gender and ethnicity has transformed the way scholars treat almost every aspect of US. history. This course uses this historical literature to re-examine conventional topics, such as the New Deal and the Cold War, broach fresh subjects like the history of whiteness, and shed new light on American culture and politics. Weekly readings explore such topics as slavery, the formation of the US. welfare system, Americanization and ethnicity, lynching and miscegenation, African American organizing in the Jim Crow south, gay history, and the urban crisis.
GFWS 6214 3.00 MATERNAL THEORY
Theory on mothering and motherhood has emerged as a distinct boy of knowledge within motherhood studies and feminist theory more generally. This course examines the rich and diverse tradition of maternal theory that has evolved over the last thirty years.
GFWS 6301 3.00 FEM. ISSUES IN ANTH. HIST. & CURRENT DEBATES
Perceiving Women. This course explores literature in feminist anthropology during the past twenty years. Major theoretical contributions and debates discussed include issues that dominated the field during the 1970's (women in the ethnographic literature; the public/private dichotomy; male dominance; impact of colonialism) as well as current concerns regarding feminist methodology, cultural constructions of gender and the female body, and women's resistance.
GFWS 6801 3.00 READING COURSE
Individual students or small groups may conduct readings under a faculty member's supervision in one or two selected areas during one term. Students wishing to enrol should contact the Director of the Graduate Program in Women's Studies for permission.
GFWS 6801A 3.00 DIRECTED READING
Students undertake a detailed independent study of their own choosing and will undertake intensive reading and writing in one or two selected areas. Students wishing to enrol should contact the Director of the Graduate Program in Women's Studies for permission.
GFWS 6801 6.00 READING COURSE
Individual students or small groups may conduct readings under a faculty member's supervision in one or two selected areas over two terms. Students wishing to enrol should contact the Director of the Graduate Program in Women's Studies for permission.
GFWS 6805 3.00 HEALTH AND ILLNESS
This course is designed to consider current debates about health and care within a feminist political economy framework. The focus will be Canada, but a Canada located within an international context. Of course, students will be invited to introduce other perspectives and other countries into the readings, discussions and their papers.
GFWS 6904 3.00 CRITICAL APPROACHES TO ‘RACE’ AND RACISM
Explores historical and contemporary projects of race-making and race-thinking through an interdisciplinary and intersectional approach. It investigates the possibilities and limits of critical debates about race and racism through a range of overlapping theoretical perspectives, including poststructuralism, critical race theory, critical whiteness studies, anti-racist feminism, post-colonial studies, queer theory, and transnationalism and diaspora studies.
GFWS 6906 3.00 THE CULTURAL AND SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF GIRLS AND GIRLHOOD: CRITICAL FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES
Drawing upon multiple theoretical perspectives from contemporary girlhood studies, students explore the cultural and social construction of girls and girlhood. Critical feminist perspectives combined with "girls'" own experiences enable students to uncover and critique the ways in which girlhood is socially constructed and regulated through time, place and space. The role of oppression will be explored through an intersectional lens.
GFWS 6910 3.00 BLACK FEMINISMS
An introduction to the histories, theories, concepts, and praxis of Black Feminism, as produced through intersectional struggles around race, class gender and sexuality. It considers shifts in the articulation of Black feminisms across geography, culture, and time, and encourages further research into the specificities of Black Canadian feminism.
GFWS 6915 3.00 ISLAMOPHOBIA AND GENDER IN NORTH AMERICA AND EUROPE
This course will provide students with a graduate level seminar and discussion space to articulate and develop a deeper understanding of the relationship between Islamophobia or/and anti-Muslim racism and gender. We will discuss the historical roots and contemporary manifestation of anti-Muslim racism and how it enables the production of gender representations and stereotypes, as well as different types of resistance to this racism and its consequences, including by looking at the work done by Islamic feminists.
GFWS 6916 3.00 FEMINIST DIGITAL CULTURES: MEDIATIONS OF IDENTITY, AFFECT, EMBODIMENT, AND POLITICS
This course focuses on intersectional feminist approaches to understanding digital texts, contexts, technologies, and practices, engaging with entanglements of self, social bonds and political action and digital media from within fabric of everyday life. The course will both critique dominant digital systems and discuss Feminist political interventions and creative projects that utilize digital tools for social transformation.
There are ways to take courses in other departments, and at other schools, if you can’t find offerings relevant to your interests in GFWS! Make an appointment to speak with the Graduate Program Director, by emailing gpdgfws@yorku.ca, and complete the appropriate form.