Courses
WOMS 201 Sex,Gender and Society 3.00 credits
Explores theories and research on the constructions of masculinity and femininity and how these influence our individual lives and social institutions.
 
Equivalent: SOCI 244 - Successful completion
WOMS 220C Studies in Fiction 3.00 credits
The elements of fiction through careful examination and discussion of short stories and novels. While not all authors read are female, the focus is primarily on female characters, gender roles, and feminist themes and issues. This course satisfies the ENGL 200 requirement.
 
Prerequisite: ENGL 101 Minimum Grade: D and ENGL 102 Minimum Grade: D
Equivalent: ENGL 202 - OK if taken since Fall 2005
WOMS 237C Ethics 3.00 credits
Explores several approaches to ethics, including a feminist perspective, considering how each theoretical approach is grounded. Examines the process of ethical decision-making and how gender affects how we approach ethical issues. Contemporary ethical issues are examined, some of which are gender-related. This course satisfies the PHIL 301 requirement.
 
Prerequisite: PHIL 201 Minimum Grade: D
Equivalent: PHIL 301 - Successful completion
WOMS 251 A Feminist Intro to Old Testmt 3.00 credits
This course will introduce students to the Old Testament with special attention given to texts dealing with women. After analyzing the literary types and social roles of biblical women, the course examines how their stories shaped attitudes toward women in American society. In addition to the biblical text, students read contemporary feminist and womanist commentators, and study what is involved and presumed by a feminist reading of the Bible. This course satisfies the RELI 100 requirement.
 
Equivalent: RELI 111 - OK if taken since Fall 2007
WOMS 252C Christian Doc from Femnst Prsp 3.00 credits
Informed by the voices of contemporary feminist theologians and biblical scholars, this course examines the traditional understanding of what it means to live Christian faith in a pluralistic world. This course satisfies the RELI 200 requirement.
 
Equivalent: RELI 211 - OK if taken since Fall 2007
WOMS 255C Women and Contemporary Church 3.00 credits
An examination of the identity and mission of the church as an institution and a community of faith emerging from Vatican Council II, with feminist theology providing the lens for examining the roles of women in the church in both historical and cotemporary situations. This course satisfies the RELI 200 requirement.
 
Equivalent: RELI 231 - OK if taken since Fall 2007
WOMS 265 Biology of Disease 3.00 credits
This course investigates how medicines work. It covers various affected organ systems (e.g., immune, endocrine, reproductive), the scientific method, development of effective medicines/treatments, and the potential sex/race/ culture bias of experimental results from drug trails. Various diseases (e.g., AIDS, cancer, diabetes) and treatments will be covered in the course. Designed for non-science majors. This course satsifies the natural science core.
 
Equivalent: BIOL 165 - OK if taken since Fall 2007
WOMS 270 Sex & Gender in European Hist 3.00 credits
An introductory survey of ideas about gender, sex, and the family in western culture, and women's experiences of and contributions to civilizations in the Mediterranean and western Europe from ancient times to the early modern period (circa 1600).
 
Prerequisite: HIST 101 Minimum Grade: D
Equivalent: HIST 219 - OK if taken since Fall 2007
WOMS 271C Western Civilization I 3.00 credits
An introduction to women and men in the civilizations in the Mediterranean region and Europe from circa 3100 BC to AD 1648, with a focus on political, social, economic, religious and cultural matters; this course will highlight individual and group ideas, institutions and events which have contributed to western society.
 
Equivalent: HIST 101 - Successful completion
WOMS 313 Think Globally, Act Locally 4.00 credits
Studies the changes that globalization precipitates in the economy, in the capacity of the welfare state, and in civic activity. Develops new "habits of the heart" and political engagement, including advocacy; service learning through local organizations to perform all forms of household labor for women who are raising children alone.
 
WOMS 321C American Literature I 3.00 credits
This course examines a variety of genres in American Literature through the 1840s: essays, novels, short stories, sermons, poems, women's captivity narratives, and autobiographies. The course will move from Spanish and Native American narratives of contact to the self-questioning of Puritan writers and the mythologizing tendencies of Crevecoeur, Franklin, Cooper, and later writers. In exploring Native American and African American texts as well as works by Emerson and Hawthorne, students will consider the ways in which gender and race help to shape an American literary canon.
 
Equivalent: ENGL 310 - Successful completion
WOMS 323C American Literature II 3.00 credits
The course analyzes the development of American literature from the romanticism of the 1830s to the blooming of the American Renaissance of the 1850s and 1860s. Writers such as Hawthorne, Poe, Emerson, Whitman, Thoreau, and Dickinson will be read alongside less canonical writers such as Fuller, Davis, Douglass, Jacobs, and Stowe. This course seeks to broaden an understanding of American literature by reading works from a variety of genres (short stories, poems, essays, autobiographies, novels) and from writers of different races, classes, and geographical backgrounds.
 
Equivalent: ENGL 311 - OK if taken since Fall 1996
WOMS 324C The Italian Historical Novel 3.00 credits
This course will explore the development of the historical novel in Italy with a strong emphasis on modern historical novels.
 
Prerequisite: ITAL 301 Minimum Grade: D
Equivalent: ITAL 322 - Successful completion
WOMS 325C African American Literature 3.00 credits
Examining both nineteenth- and twentieth-century literary works, African-American literature seeks to expose students to the historical, aesthetic, and cultural backgrounds of black writers and writing in America. Beginning with the classic slave narratives, late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century black intellectuals (e.g., Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Dubois) will introduce the students to the social and political dissension among advocates of black liberation. The course will sample the aesthetic flowering of writers of the Harlem Renaissance (e.g. Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston) and twentieth-century plays and novels (e.g. Lorraine Hansberry, Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, August Wilson) Fulfills American literature requirement.
 
Equivalent: ENGL 318 - OK if taken since Fall 1999
WOMS 326C American Literature III 3.00 credits
This course surveys American literature from the 1870s to 1950. We will discuss some of the following developments and authors of the 19th century: The rise of realism (James, Wharton) and naturalism (Crane, Dreiser), regional literature (Jewett, Freeman), and African American literature (Washington, DuBois, Chesnutt). The survey of 20th-century works includes works by several modern poets (Eliot, Frost, Hughes), novelists (Hurson, Faulkner, Welty), and dramatists (Odetts, O'Neill).
 
Equivalent: ENGL 312 - OK if taken since Spring 2000
WOMS 330 Women in US History 3.00 credits
An examination of the roles, experiences, and activities of American women from the colonial period to the 1970s.
 
Equivalent: HIST 363 - OK if taken since Fall 2007
WOMS 331 Women in Colonial Latin Amer 3.00 credits
An investigation of the lives of women in both the pre-contact and post-conquest societies. The activities of women and their roles in society among the Aztec, Inca, and Pueblo civilizations, followed by a study of their experiences after the Spanish Conquest and women's experiences and roles in the Spanish colonies, including a woman who fled a nunnery dressed as a man, served in the Spanish army and killed men in duels.
 
Equivalent: HIST 384 - OK if taken since Fall 2007
WOMS 340 Gender And Politics 3.00 credits
Survey of feminist theories and their impact on the political position of women in America. The history of the postwar women's movement in the U.S. A variety of issues raised by women will be explored, and placed in comparative context to further illuminate possible choices and consequences.
 
Equivalent: POLS 322 - OK if taken since Fall 1996
WOMS 342 Women in Comparative Societies 3.00 credits
The course aims to develop awareness that globalization is precipitating changes in the nature of the American economy and in the nature of civic life, and to develop the civic skills and "habits of the heart" that globalization demands. Several learning modes are featured: exposure to traditional academic reading, engagement in classroom discussion, and involvement in service, leadership training, and community activism. Students work with locally-based groups devoted to economic justice, community activism, and service to women and children.
 
Equivalent: POLS 363 - OK if taken since Fall 1996
WOMS 343 Civil Liberties:Race & Gender 3.00 credits
Civil liberties is the legal face of the fundamental issue of democratic politics: how can we combine majority rule AND cultural pluralism AND protection of individual rights? Beginning with a study of traditional civil rights: the tension between protection of individual rights and the power of the majority in a democracy, we then survey how that traditional understanding has been modified to protect "individuals" who are only in court because they belong to a non-mainstream group or subculture, focusing in depth on two such groups - African Americans and women - reading books which argue that the traditional individualistic understanding of civil rights fails to provide justice. We conclude with a mainstream defense of the traditional view.
 
Equivalent: POLS 303 - OK if taken since Fall 1996
WOMS 344 American Social Policy 3.00 credits
This course examines the origins, patterns, reforms, and criticisms of American social policy. Consideration of ties between knowledge and social policy, and the particular impact of education, health care, and welfare policies on women, children, different racial and ethnic groups, and the middle class. A review of normative claims for the proper role of the state and capitalism as well as comparisons with other western, capitalist societies and their policy regimes. On sufficient demand.
 
Equivalent: POLS 327 - OK if taken since Fall 2000
WOMS 350 Women in Visual Arts 1875-1975 3.00 credits
This course examines the work of women artists in North America and Europe from 1875 to 1975. Initially, we will examine the social, political, and ideological restrictions that have historically limited women's involvement in the visual arts: however, we will also consider, through a series of case studies (e.g. Mary Cassatt, Suzanne Valadon, Romaine Brooks, Kathe Kollwita, Lee Krasner, Eve Hesse, Judy Chicagok, Faith Ringgold, and Mary Kelly), how women artists have chosen to define themselves and to forge their own artistic identities despite these limitations. Although the course will focus on women as creators of art, it will also address how women have been represented by men and other women. General themes of the course include the nature of gendered space; women and modernism; women and abstraction; visualizing 'female' experience; and the intersection of gender with race, class, and/or sexual identity.
 
WOMS 355 Feminist Theologies 3.00 credits
Examines the tasks of feminist theologians and surveys the challenges and unique contributions they make to the integrity and vitality of contemporary Christianity. This course satisfies the RELI 300 requirement.
 
Equivalent: RELI 385 - Successful completion
WOMS 356 Women & Christian Spirituality 3.00 credits
Explores the major theological and spiritual foundations of Christian spirituality. Considers how women have, at different points in Christian history, lived the 'spiritual life.' Also considers new questions raised in recent years about women's experiences of God. This course satisfies the RELI 300 requirement.
 
Equivalent: RELI 370A - Taken before Fall 2007
WOMS 360 Gender, Family and Society 3.00 credits
Examines images and practices of family life in American society. Uses historical material to show how ideals about family life have developed. Discusses definitions of "family" as political, with a special emphasis on the politics of gender. Connects debates over how to define and understand family with decisions about social policies.
 
Equivalent: SOCI 342 - OK if taken since Fall 1996
WOMS 384 Women's Studies Internship 2.00 - 3.00 credits
Opportunities to work as an intern with various agencies that assist women in Spokane. Students meet to discuss their experiences and write a paper integrating their internship experience with their women's studies coursework. Fall and Spring.
 
WOMS 401 Feminist Thought 3.00 credits
Analyzes the contributions of feminist scholars to social theory and shows how feminist scholarship is transforming topics, methods, and goals. Reviews the major approaches to feminist theorizing and invites students to put these to work examining contemporary social and political issues. Spring.
 
Prerequisite: WOMS 201 Minimum Grade: D or SOCI 244 Minimum Grade: D
Equivalent: SOCI 390 - Successful completion
WOMS 416 18th Century British Novel 3.00 credits
The British novel from Behn to Austen.
 
Equivalent: ENGL 436 - OK if taken since Spring 2003
WOMS 417 Tudor & Stuart Drama 3.00 credits
Focuses on the varied dramatic traditions of Tudor and Stuart London besides Shakespeare. This is a period in which questions about gender roles were being openly debated, and in which literary and otherwise discursive interrogations of social roles, particularly the role of women, pervaded genres but were most vivid on stage.
 
Equivalent: ENGL 434 - Successful completion
WOMS 418 Shakespeare: Gender & Genre 3.00 credits
This course will discuss the language, themes, and preoccupations of Shakespeare, as well as his social, philosophical, and historical context. All the texts selected for our close reading will feature strong female figures, and we will pay particular attention to the construction, impact, and implications of these women on other characters, on the form of their texts, and on us, the inheritors of their literary and cultural tradition. Readings will include Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, and Anthony and Cleopatra, in addition to secondary sources featuring feminist theory and literary criticism.
 
Equivalent: ENGL 330 - Successful completion
WOMS 420C Language & Cultural Identity 3.00 credits
This seminar is designed for students who are interested in socio-cultural perspectives on identity and language and their intersection in diverse cultural communities. Our goal will be to explore the theoretical and methodological issues and substantive findings surrounding current research focusing on identity and language. We will also examine related theoretical and empirical research on identity and language (multicultural education, literacy education, feminist pedagogy).
 
Equivalent: MTSL 304 - OK if taken since Fall 2005
WOMS 422C 19th-Century American Novel 3.00 credits
This course explores the diverse literary themes, social contexts, and intellectual backgrounds of the American novel from its beginnings in romantic tradition through the realist and naturalist movements of the late nineteenth century. Works by Hawthorne, Melville, Stowe, Wharton, James, Twain, Harper, and others offer a rich opportunity to investigate issues not only of literary value but of race, class and gender in nineteenth-century America. In addition to analyzing each work's form and genre, we will ask the following questions: What accounts for the inclusion (or exclusion) of this work from the canon of American literature? In what ways does the work reflect, critique, or ignore its social context?
 
Equivalent: ENGL 413 - OK if taken since Fall 1999
WOMS 423C 20th-Century American Novel 3.00 credits
Close reading of works by Edith Wharton, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Ralph Ellison, EL Doctorow, and Toni Morrison. The course will also examine the novels against the backgrounds of social history, literary history, and race and gender in American culture. Students are expected to participate in class discussion, collaborate in group work, and write in-class exercises and formal critical essays.
 
Equivalent: ENGL 414 - OK if taken since Fall 1998
WOMS 424C Studies in the Novel 3.00 credits
Focuses on thematically or historically-related novels (general topic/theme of the class varies). Through close examination of texts, critical background and theory, this course explores the way gender issues, among other issues, are portrayed by various English and/or American writers.
 
Equivalent: ENGL 462 - OK if taken since Spring 1999
WOMS 427 Women in Italian Literature 3.00 credits
This course will analyze five novels by Italian women writers. The course will explore the forces that have historically disenfranchised and isolated women, and what is important and beautiful in women's writing.
 
Equivalent: ITAL 440 - OK if taken since Spring 1999
WOMS 435 Feminist Ethics 3.00 credits
Explores women's experiences of oppression and some of the ways in which this has marginalized their concerns and their perceptions of the moral dimension. Feminist contributions to rethinking the concept of moral agency, the traditionally sharp distinction between the public and private domains, the relevance of personal relationships to ethics, and the process of moral development and moral decision-making are considered. Spring.
 
Prerequisite: PHIL 301 Minimum Grade: D
Equivalent: PHIL 456 - OK if taken since Fall 1996
WOMS 436C Faces of Oppression 3.00 credits
 
Prerequisite: PHIL 301 Minimum Grade: D or PHIL 301H Minimum Grade: D or WOMS 237C Minimum Grade: D
WOMS 455 Women and the Bible 3.00 credits
Examination of primarily Old Testament narratives involving women, using literary, theological, and socio-historical categories of interpretation to critically reflect on the biblical views of women. Special attention to reading strategies of attending to women's speech, women's values, and narrative point of view so as to consider whether the depictions of women contribute to or denigrate the full humanity of women and how they may be used to subvert oppressive actions and attitudes toward women.
 
Equivalent: RELI 408 - OK if taken since Fall 2007
WOMS 457 Women & the Spiritual Journey 3.00 credits
An exploration of the impact of the women's movement on the understanding and the experience of spirituality; issues include God-imagery, scriptural approaches, and expression of prayer and ritual.
 
Equivalent: RELI 486 - OK if taken since Fall 2007
WOMS 460 Studies of Women Writers 3.00 credits
This course will examine various literary works written in dialogue with or in response to other literary works, but not all of the texts we examine will illustrate women writers responding to earlier male authors.
 
WOMS 465 Biology of Medicine 3.00 credits
This course investigates how medicine works. It covers various affected organ systems (e.g., immune, endocrine, reproductive), the scientific method, development of effective medicines/treatments, and the potential sex/race/culture bias of experimental results from drug trials. Various diseases (e.g., AIDS, cancer diabetes) and treatments will be covered in the course. Three lectures and one laboratory per week. Designed for non-science majors.
 
WOMS 480 Womens Health 2.00 - 3.00 credits
This course will address a broad range of health issues that are either unique women or of special importance to women. Summer.
 
Equivalent: NURS 499 - OK if taken since Fall 2006
WOMS 490 Directed Reading 1.00 - 3.00 credits
Supervised reading in one of the previously mentioned areas of study, not to replace existing courses but to provide an opportunity for advanced study not available within the regular curriculum.
 
Prerequisite: WOMS 201 Minimum Grade: D and WOMS 401 Minimum Grade: D
WOMS 491 Directed Study-Women's Studies 1.00 - 3.00 credits
Directed study requires completion of a form, department permission, and cannot be registered for via Zagweb.
 
WOMS 499 Symposium in Women's Studies 3.00 credits
The capstone course in the Women's Studies concentration provides an opportunity for a special kind of faculty and student conversation. Responsibility for organizing and structuring this course will rotate among women's studies faculty. Topics will vary. Regardless of the texts or topics, the goals will be to create a conversation in which students play active roles and in which they develop collaborative skills as well as analytic and writing skills. Students will share responsibility for initiating and facilitating class discussions. Students and faculty will work together to develop credible readings of assigned texts. Students will write regularly. Where possible, faculty and students will discuss implications of the course readings and conversation for the anticipated future work worlds of the students.
 
Prerequisite: (WOMS 201 Minimum Grade: D or SOCI 244 Minimum Grade: D) and (WOMS 401 Minimum Grade: D or SOCI 390 Minimum Grade: D or POLS 341 Minimum Grade: D)