• Gender Course Guide 2012-2013
• Gender Course Guide 2011-2012
• Gender Course Guide 2010-2011

Gender Course Guide 2012-2013

The Arts and Gender

Literature | Visual Arts

Literature and Gender

ENGL E-154a
Literature and Sexuality
Matthew Kaiser
Fall, Harvard Extension School
Over the last 300 years, the concept of sexuality has gradually displaced soul, mind, and character as the most essential and salient ingredient in modern subjectivity, as the truth of the self. How has Western literature grappled with, embraced, or stubbornly resisted the sexualization of subjectivity? From Freud to Foucault, Venus in Furs to Story of O, D.H. Lawrence to Dennis Cooper, we map the uneasy alliance between and intertwining histories of literature and sexuality.


GSAS 7766
Aesthetic and Interpretive Understanding 47. Forbidden Romance in Modern China
David Der-wei Wang
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
This course introduces a unique dimension of Chinese modernity: amorous engagement in fiction and lived experience, its discursive and visual representations, and its institutional implementation (gender, marriage, family, law, nation/state, etc.), censorship, and transgression. It examines how the modern lure of free will and emancipated subjectivity drove Chinese to redefine terms of affect, such as love, feeling, desire, passion, sexuality, loyalty, dedication, revolution and sacrifice. It also looks into how the moral, legal and political consequences of affect were evoked in such a way as to traverse or fortify consensual boundaries and their manifestations.


GSAS 8181
Culture and Belief 37. The Romance: From Jane Austen to Chick Lit
Linda Schlossberg
Fall, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
A critical investigation of the genre’s enduring popularity, beginning with Austen’s satirical Northanger Abbey and three novels credited with providing narrative templates for contemporary romances (Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights). We will then read twentieth-century revisions of these works (Rebecca, Wide Sargasso Sea, Bridget Jones’s Diary). Topics: the female writer and reader/consumer of literature; moral warnings against romance, “sensation,” and titillation; the commodification of desire; Harlequins; the relationship between high culture and low.


GSAS 12567
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1234. A Voice of One’s Own: Creative Writing in Women, Gender, and Sexuality
Linda Schlossberg
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
This creative writing course asks: How does one balance the demands of "politics" with the subtleties of "artistry?" We’ll study short stories in order to figure out how the genre works in terms of pacing, characterization, rhythm, dialogue, and setting, along with secondary readings by authors such as Audre Lorde, Dorothy Allison, and Adrienne Rich that illuminate the ways in which issues of power, agency, and voice have emerged as key themes in feminist writing.


GSAS 18583
Expository Writing 20.046. Darwinian Dating
Elissa Krakauer
Fall and Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
In this course we will examine patterns of human attraction, using an evolutionary perspective to better understand mate choice. In the first unit, we will explore the roles of biology versus culture in human behavior. Next, we will address female attraction and attempt to determine whether women prefer “nice guys” or “bad boys.” In the final unit, students will have an opportunity to undertake independent research as they explore the nature of male attraction.


GSAS 36248
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1263. Sexuality and Intimacy in British Literature, 1680-1815
Henry Abelove
Fall, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Desire, same-sex sexual practice, cross-sex sexual practice, sexual ethics, gender, marriage, friendship, libertinism, and love, in writings by the Earl of Rochester, David Hume, Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Mary Leapor, John Cleland, Martha Fowke, Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, and Jane Austen.


GSAS 53601
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1236. Gender and the Postcolonial Novel
Katherine Stanton
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Deepika Bahri describes a meaningful transnational literary as one that reads literature "by and about ’Third-World’ women as more than informal sociology." This seminar will take up this challenge, reading postcolonial novels about women, gender, and sexuality as rich aesthetic works that are, to echo Edward Said, complexly affiliated with the world. Novels by Dangarembga, Desai, and Hagedorn will illuminate connections between patriarchy and colonialism, feminism and the imperial mission, and gender, race, and poverty.


GSAS 55515
French 117. Witches’ Narratives in Medieval and Early-Modern French Literature
Andreea Marculescu
Fall, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
In medieval and early-modern Europe, witches were objects of torture, marginalization, subjugation, and mass destruction. This class explores how the female witch emerged as an object of knowledge, investigation, control, and agency in literature and theological thought. We will study literary texts (Merlin, Roman de la Rose, Mélusine, Champion des dames, Médée), excerpts from witchcraft treatises, and contemporary critical thought (Foucault, Michel de Certeau, Adriana Cavarero).


GSAS 60203
French 188. They Write in French from Egypt, Lebanon, and the Maghreb: Feminine Voices
Molène Priam
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Explores the multifaceted and polyphonic presence on the literary landscape of French expression, of women writers from North Africa, Egypt, Lebanon, and Iran, whose writings are a continued dialogue between feminist and gender theory, western feminine literature, the defense of the cultural particularities of their regions, and transnationalism. Works by Assia Djebar, Leïla Sebbar, Malika Mokkedem, Nadia Chafik, Vénus Khoury-Ghata, Andrée Chedid, Nawal el Saadawi, Evelyne Accad, Chahdortt Djavann.


GSAS 70134
Freshman Seminar 38u. Sex and Decadence in Fin-de-Siècle Literature
Francois Proulx
Fall, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Examines themes of decadence and transgression in works from the end of the last three centuries in France, Germany, Britain, and the United States. Questions include the history of sexuality and concepts of "deviance"; the aesthetics of shock and obscenity; and the roles of scandal. Readings by Laclos, Sade, Huysmans, Wilde, Wedekind, and others; opera and films by Strauss, Greenaway, Araki.


GSAS 76892
Japanese Literature 271. Topics in Gender and Culture in Japan: Seminar
Tomiko Yoda
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
A seminar course that studies the constructions of gender and gender relations in Japan through the examination of various forms of expressive culture (visual, textual, sonic) in their historical contexts.


GSAS 99381
English 90sv. Sexing Victorian Fiction: Seminar
Leah Price
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Sex and money, reading and shopping, work and marriage, domestic realism and imperial fantasy, unsexed women and unmanned men, feminism and anti-feminism, single-sex communities and same-sex desire. Short stories and long novels by Austen, Brontë, Gaskell, Dickens, Collins, Eliot, Oliphant, and Conan Doyle, as well as essays by Ruskin, Mill, Trollope, and others.

Visual Arts and Gender

GSAS 1598
History of Art and Architecture 271x. The Origins of Modernity: The “New” 18th Century
Ewa Lajer-Burcharth
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Issues include: art and the public sphere; the birth of the critic; high & low; interiors and interiority; intimacy; artistic identity; sexuality, sexual difference, and gender; the discourse of race. Emphasis on new research and methodologies.


GSAS 5590
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1210ft. Theories of Representation
Maria San Filippo and members of the Committee
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
This course explores visual media’s power to shape, challenge, and transgress gender roles and sexual norms. Course materials, drawn from photography, film, television, and digital media, will address the body, gender politics, intimate relationships, and erotic desire through the lens of feminist, queer, and critical race theory discourses. As we explore how these transgressions are accomplished representationally and ideologically, we will assess visual media’s potential to provoke new ways of thinking about gender and sexuality.


GSAS 10829
African and African American Studies 117x. Of Mean Streets and Jungle Fevers: Race, Gender and Ethnicity in Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee
Biodun Jeyifo
Fall, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Against the background of radical theories of racial formation and identity politics in America, this course will comparatively explore controversial images of African Americans and Italian Americans in selected films of two of the most important contemporary American filmmakers, Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee. On their road to becoming iconic figures in America's contemporary cinematic and artistic avant-garde, Scorsese and Lee radically transformed received or conventional perceptions of Italian Americans and African Americans in mainstream American film. In this course, we will explore both similar and contrastive styles and approaches by the two filmmakers. Special attention will be paid to popular and scholarly discourses that the selected films of Scorsese and Lee have generated.


GSAS 26366
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1245. Virgins, Vamps, and Camp: Gender and Sexuality in Classical Hollywood Cinema
Maria San Filippo
Fall, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
From the 1930s-1960s, the Hollywood studio system dominated cinema worldwide and with it images of sex, gender, and sexuality. Through critical analysis of classics such as Gilda, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, It Happened One Night, Mildred Pierce, Pillow Talk, and Vertigo, we will investigate Hollywood’s role in constructing, negotiating, and occasionally transgressing norms of identity, behavior, and desire. Taught from a cinema/cultural studies perspective, and incorporating topics and texts integral to feminist and queer film theory.


GSAS 48191
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1127. Beyond the Sound Bite: Women, Gender, and Sexuality in the Daily News
Alice Jardine
Fall, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
We are bombarded by sound bites from all over the globe, moving at disorienting speeds, reorganizing our relationship to time and space with increasingly dystopic results. This course qill focus on selected televisual and digital events in "real time" from September-December 2012. We will analyze the embedded bits of gender and sexuality always at work in the representations of those events. Topics include: politics, the environment, military adventures, and popular revolt in dialogue with important texts in WGS Studies.

Business, Law, Public Policy and Gender

Business | Human Rights | Law | Public Policy

Business and Gender

HBS 2062
How Star Women Succeed: Leading Effective Careers and Organizations
Boris Groysberg
Winter, Harvard Business School
The focus of this course is twofold: managing one’s own individual talents, and managing gender diversity in the workplace. Men, as well as women, will be able to leverage the skills taught in this course when making their own career decisions, as well as when managing, being managed by, or collaborating with others.

Human Rights and Gender

GSAS 70642
Societies of the World 44 Human Trafficking, Slavery and Abolition in the Modern World
Orlando Patterson
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
This course surveys the nature, types and extent of modern servitude, distinguishing broadly between those resulting from international trafficking such as trans-national prostitution, human smuggling into bonded labor, child soldiering and organ trafficking, and more intra-national forms such as debt-bondage and the domestic exploitation of women and other vulnerable groups. Examines the conceptual and theoretical issues raised in attempts to distinguish among these types of differential power relations; the empirical difficulties of estimating the magnitude of what are inherently secretive processes; and the ideological controversies surrounding the subject. Explores ethical, socio- political and practical issues raised by these trends.


IGA–351M
Human Rights, Human Trafficking, and International Norms
Charlie Clements and Siddharth Kara
Spring, Harvard Kennedy School
This course will examine the various typologies of human trafficking - sexual exploitation, bonded labor, and forced labor - which has been described as the fastest growing business enterprise in the world. It will examine the commonalities in recruitment, transit, and exploitation of the three issues as well as examine patterns and trends in countries of origin, transit, and destination. It will explore the business model upon which these types of exploitation exist with the purpose of understanding vulnerabilities for effective intervention. It will also examine the Palermo Protocol at age 10 and the U.N. Global Initiative to Fight International Human Trafficking. National strategies and best practices, both in the U.S. and elsewhere, will be examined for effectiveness for designing policy interventions. This course will be particularly relevant for students who may work in situations where humanitarian protections are necessary for the most vulnerable populations - refugee camps, conflict and post-conflict settings, natural disasters, and settings of extreme poverty.

Law and Gender

HDS 2108
Women, Justice, and Sharia in Nigeria
Hauwa Ibrahim
This course will address the practical as well as theoretical challenges of protecting women’s rights under Shariah Law as it is practiced in Nigeria. The course will explore the tensions between Rule of Law and Rule of the Law in Shariah States; the questions as to whether basic human rights, as defined by international standards, are protected. The outcomes of this course will be a ‘white paper’ by students on the dialectics of justice and Shariah.


LAW-3615A
Family, Domestic Violence and LGBT Law: Litigating in the Family Courts: Clinical Seminar
Nnena Odim
Fall and Spring, Harvard Law School
The Family, Domestic Violence, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Law clinical course provides students who are concurrently enrolled in the WilmerHale Legal Services Center’s Family, Domestic Violence, LGBT Law Clinic, with the practical skills and substantive knowledge necessary to effectively advocate for their clients in and out of the courtroom. Objectives of the course include: developing practical lawyering skills to be applied in the clinical component and beyond; understanding the statutory and case law applicable in family law litigation; enhancing student understanding of the professional roles, values, and ethics involved in the practice of law; gaining insight into the unique challenges of low-income clients, victims of domestic violence, and the LGBT community; as well as analyzing and proposing legal advocacy approaches to contemporary family law issues. The course emphasizes a collaborative “health-law” approach to advocating for our client populations.


LAW-35330A
Employment Discrimination
Elizabeth Bartholet
Fall, Harvard Law School
This course addresses developments in civil rights law in the important context of the workplace. We will look at the growing body of law designed to protect against discrimination based on race, gender, age, or disability. We will examine the ongoing debate in the Supreme Court, Congress, and the nation as to the appropriate meaning of the anti-discrimination norm, a debate that involves questions as to intent as compared to impact theories, individual as compared to group theories, affirmative action, and mandatory arbitration. At issue in this debate is the future of much of the law governing discrimination developed in the 1960s - 70s.


LAW-36600A
Family Law
Janet Halley and Jeannie Suk
Fall and Spring, Harvard Law School
This basic course is an introduction to the legal doctrines and policies that regulate family and other intimate relationships. The course will examine marriage, alternatives to marriage (common law marriage, civil unions, "covenant marriage" regimes, cohabitation, singleness, and nonrecognition of legal relatedness), divorce, child custody, property division, alimony, child support, and parenthood. Substantial coverage will be devoted to constitutional rights in family law, such as the right to privacy in sex, reproduction, and raising children; the right to marry; and the problem of equality.


LAW-37163A
Feminist Legal Theory
Laura Rosenbury
Fall, Harvard Law School
In this course, we will read feminist theory, queer theory, and other critical theory in order examine constructions of gender and the roles legal systems play in those constructions. We will explore some of the general themes and debates that have emerged as feminists attempt to understand and critique the law’s explicit and implicit constructions of gender as they relate to various groups of women and men. We will also discuss specific applications of theory to law and social policy, including topics related to work and wealth distribution, intimate and familial relationships, power and violence, identity performance and constraints on agency, and the regulation of sexuality. Throughout the semester, students will be expected to engage in their own theoretical analyses, both in writing and during class discussion.


LAW-37634A
Gender Violence Legal Policy Workshop
Diane Rosenfeld
Fall and Spring, Harvard Law School
This workshop offers the student hands-on experience in analyzing, evaluating and creating legal policy on a range of issues related to gender violence. Two main foci of the workshop are developing legal policy on preventing and addressing campus sexual assault using Title IX’s legal framework and improving the criminal justice and community responses to intimate partner violence. Prerequisite: must be enrolled in either the Title IX seminar or the Gender Violence, Law and Social Justice seminar during the 2012-2013 academic year.


LAW-47271A
Theories of Sexual Coercion
Diane Rosenfeld
Fall, Harvard Law School
The reading group integrates evolutionary perspectives into an analysis of the law’s ability and effectiveness in addressing sexual coercion. The prevalence and variation of forms of sexual coercion in primates and humans indicate that it is not predetermined, but rather influenced by a range of factors. Thus, we consider the social and structural factors made visible by a look at our primate relatives to discern patterns that might be useful in challenging male sexual coercion.


LAW-47275A
Title IX
Diane Rosenfeld
Fall, Harvard Law School
Title IX of the Civil Rights Act promises “equal access to educational opportunities.” This seminar considers how Title IX has impacted educational opportunities in relation to sex equality on campus. After a brief look at the history of Title IX and its provisions on athletics, we consider its less well-known--but equally important--requirements regarding schools’ obligations to address campus sexual assault. Recently announced guidance from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”), the enforcement arm for Title IX, focuses on what schools can and must do to prevent and address sexual violence on campus. In the seminar, we develop legal policy on implementation of the guidance as we explore Title IX’s potential to promote campus climates of sexual respect. Readings include cases, articles, and OCR decisions. There are no prerequisites for this course.


LAW-99095A
Trafficking and Labor Migration: Seminar
Janet Halley
Fall, Harvard Law School
A new, rapidly evolving body of international and domestic law focuses on human trafficking and human smuggling. This course will focus on understanding the legal mechanisms of this new legal order, the ideological and policy impulses that produced and sustain it, the complex ways in which it is interacting with other legal regimes affecting labor migration (immigration law; human rights law and governance, including refugee law; international criminal law; international and national labor law; etc.), and the distributive effects it is producing both in the developed and the developing worlds. Guest speakers will apprise us of recent developments both in the US and at the international level. Participation on panels discussing reading assignments will be a course requirement. There will be a last-day take-home examination with a paper option available upon the instructor’s approval.


LAW-94020C
Gender Violence, Law and Social Justice
Diane Rosenfeld
Spring, Harvard Law School, Harvard Kennedy School
This course offers an in-depth examination of the phenomenon of gender-motivated violence. Following a consideration of the prevalence and variation of types of sexual violence and coercion around the world, we consider questions such as: How, if at all, is violence against women different from other types of violence? How effective have legal strategies to address violence against women been, and what shifts in thinking about gender-motivated violence would be necessary finally to eradicate it? How does the toleration of sexual violence shape people’s expectations and sense of entitlements? What are the implications of gender-based violence for the constitutional guarantee of equal protection of the laws? Does equal protection itself have a gendered meaning and reality? Among the types of violence against women we will consider are: intimate-partner violence; domestic homicide; prostitution; rape; sex trafficking of women and children; and violence against women facilitated by the Internet. The readings consist of primary and secondary materials drawn from several disciplines: law, social science, political science, psychology, evolutionary biology and women’s studies. There are no prerequisites for this class.


Reproductive Rights and Justice
Mindy Roseman
Spring, Harvard Law School
This seminar will examine reproductive rights and justice, domestically and globally. The concept of reproductive rights cuts across many legal doctrines such as family law, property, health law, criminal law, immigration, human rights, and constitutional law. Reproductive rights include access to fertility treatment, pre-natal care, contraception, pregnancy termination, perinatal and post-natal care, genetic counseling, gender equality and more-and yet in public and political discussions, attention is often limited to questions involving abortion. This course will address the entire range of reproductive rights through the interdisciplinary and cross-cultural examination of historical, anthropological, sociological and public health articles as well as legal cases, film and literature. We will explore social movements, population policy, sexuality, gender, race/ethnicity and poverty, as well as look at legal and policy responses such as decriminalization, financial regulation, and public interest litigation. Some of the questions this seminar will consider actions do they enable and constrain? What roles have the US Supreme, and other Constitutional Courts, played in constructing elite and popular debates? Why is abortion so central? How do reproductive and new media technologies contribute to the global and local conversations and social movements? How have the concepts of reproductive rights transformed into claims for reproductive and what does it mean?

Public Policy and Gender

GOVT E-1062
Theories of Citizenship
Jan L. Feldman
Fall, Harvard Extension School
Citizenship is one of the few devices for countering the centrifugal forces of pluralism. Can it succeed in the face of competing demands on our loyalty and competing sources of identity? This course explores the concept of citizenship, traces its historical evolution, and discusses the special challenges of citizenship in the face of multiculturalism, ethnicity, race, gender, religion, and globalization. Professor Feldman lectures from Burlington, Vermont using videoconferencing technology. This approach allows for a real-time interactive discussion between the instructor and the students. (4 credits)


GSAS 2053
Government 94oa. Inequality and American Democracy
Theda Skocpol
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
The “rights revolutions” of the 1960s and 1970s removed barriers to full citizenship for African Americans, women, and other formerly marginalized groups. But inequalities of wealth and income have grown since the 1970s. How do changing social and economic inequalities influence American democracy? This seminar explores empirical research and normative debates about political participation, about government responsiveness to citizen preferences, and about the impact of public policies on social opportunity and citizen participation.


GSAS 14911
Government 94of. Law and Politics in Multicultural Democracies
Ofrit Liviatan
Fall, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Examines the role of law in the governance of cultural diversity drawing on examples from the USA, Western Europe, India and Israel. Central themes at the intersection of law and politics will be explored, including: the impact of courts on rights protections, law’s function as a venue of conflict resolution, and courts’ relationship with other political institutions. Specific attention will be given to contemporary controversies such as Islamic veiling, abortion and same sex marriage.


GSAS 48064
Government 94sh. Feminist Perspectives on Justice and Oppression
Cheryl Welch and members of the Department
Fall, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
This seminar provides an overview of feminist contributions to political thought. It asks what the concept of gender adds to debates about justice and equality, as well as to the social scientific study of politics. We consider the main currents of liberal, radical, socialist, and postmodern feminism; how gender intersects with other socially and politically constructed categories such as race, class, sexual orientation, nationality, and culture; and the status of feminist arguments in contemporary politics.


GSAS 64666
United States in the World 26. Sex and the Citizen: Race, Gender, and Belonging in the United States
Caroline Light
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Even before the formal establishment of the United States, assumptions about sex have helped determine who is entitled to - and not entitled to - the privileges and protections of full citizenship. This course investigates the roles that sex, gender, and sexuality have played in configuring notions of citizenship over time as well as the ways in which sexual rights remain a site of contestation and struggle in the modern United States.


IGA–150Y
Seminar: International and Global Affairs
Monica Toft
Full Year, Harvard Kennedy School
This year-long seminar focuses on the process of generating, assessing, and advancing innovative ideas in the arena of international and global affairs. Students will work to develop new thinking which offers leaders new roadmaps for action in international and global contexts, addresses the challenge of implementing change, and strives to improve policy and organizational effectiveness. The initial part of the seminar will profile women and men from around the world who have successfully advanced ideas that had a n impact on social, political, and economic problems. The latter part will focus on real-world strategies for transforming analysis about policy problems into action. The seminar structures students' thinking and efforts around the Policy Analysis Exercise (PAE). The seminar strives to hone the professional skills students developed during their first year as MPPs, including writing memos, drafting op-eds, delivering crisp oral presentations, and mapping political networks.


IGA–218M
Inclusive Security
Swanee Hunt
Winter, Harvard Kennedy School
Here is an unusual opportunity to break open the traditional concept of security and tackle an array of leadership skills while examining the little understood structure of women's critical role in preventing or stopping violent conflict. Working in groups, you'll formulate concrete policy recommendations for women's full inclusion in formal and informal peace processes. The course bridges theory and practice, providing students close interaction with inspiring women leaders from conflicts worldwide. In addition, you'll receive individual classroom coaching to develop nuanced presentation skills that have a big impact on leadership. Grades are heavily based on an analytical briefing paper for a policymaker, as well as class participation. Role-play, debate, video clips, films, a mock policy briefing, and small group work enrich learning beyond readings, lectures, and classroom discussion. Many students describe this course as not only iconoclastic, but also transformational. They also say it is a relief to hear gender acknowledged as a significant factor in the field of international security.


MLD-101 B
Strategy, Structure, and Leadership in Public Service Organizations
Hannah Riley Bowles
Fall, Harvard Kennedy School
This course introduces students to concepts and analytic techniques fundamental to managing and leading organizations. The course includes material on topics such as organizational strategy, leadership and motivating people, performance measurement, managing teams, decision making and persuasion, and operations. (Different sections will cover these different topics in different detail.)


MLD-221 C
Introduction to Negotiation Analysis
Kessely Hong
Fall, Harvard Kennedy School
Introduces students to the theory and practice of negotiation. The ability to successfully negotiate rests on a combination of analytical and interpersonal skills. Analysis is important because negotiators cannot develop promising strategies without a deep understanding of the context of the situation, the interests of the other parties, and the range of possible moves and countermoves. Interpersonal skills are important because negotiation is essentially a process of communication, trust building (or breaking), and mutual persuasion. This course will develop a set of conceptual frameworks that should help students analyze future negotiation situations and prepare more effectively. Through participation in negotiation simulations, students will have the opportunity to exercise powers of communication and persuasion and to experiment with a variety of negotiation tactics and strategies.


PED-101
Economic Development: Theory, Evidence, and Policy
Rohini Pande, Asim Khwaja, and Dani Rodrik
Fall, Harvard Kennedy School
This is a semester long course that provides a graduate-level overview of the theory of, and evidence on, economic development and the design of development policy. The course will identify key features of the development process across countries, and then combine an analytical framework with rigorous empirical evidence to identify when and how public policies can enable economic growth and development. Topics covered include: contemporary and historic features of development; household models of development and investment in human capital; economy-wide models of trade and growth; and structural transformation.


PED-102
Economic Development: Using Analytical Frameworks to Design Policy
Rohini Pande, Asim Khwaja, and Dani Rodrik
Spring, Harvard Kennedy School
This is a half-semester module (taught over the course of the semester) that examines how economic theory and rigorous evidence can be harnessed to design development policies that respond to market and political failures in developing economies. The module builds on the analytical framework and evidence base provided in PED-101 (which is a prerequisite). Topics covered include: Policies for Productivity Growth, Policy Design for Markets in Human and Financial, Capital and Governance Reform.


SUP-201
Poverty and Social Policy
Kathryn Edin
Fall, Harvard Kennedy School
Examines the causes and consequences of poverty and explores strategies for addressing it. Begins with the major theoretical explanations scholars have advanced to explain the persistence of poverty including family structure, urban labor markets, residential segregation, welfare policy, the criminal justice system, and other topics. The focus then shifts to the consequences of poverty, especially for children. Throughout the course, students are introduced to current policy approaches to alleviating poverty.


SUP–582
Health Policy Reform: Comparative Approaches to Reducing Inequalities
Mary Ruggie
Fall, Harvard Kennedy School
The United States spends more than any other country on health care, yet ranks low among developed countries in terms of equality in access and health outcomes. At the same time, inequalities in health care abound across the states in the U.S. This course asks how and why some policies and programs are more successful than others in reducing inequalities based on SES, race/ethnicity, age, and gender. We compare efforts in the U.S. with those in Canada, Britain, and Germany, as well as efforts at decentralized levels, including across the states in the U.S., in a search for transferrable lessons and best practices. Our main focus is new developments in financing, paying physicians and other providers, and delivering primary and integrative health care. We examine the roles of public and private sector actors, the distribution of responsibilities for provision and outcomes, the construction of regulatory frameworks, forms of rationing, and the relationship between health and social policy.


SUP-921
Proseminar on Inequality and Social Policy I
Kathryn Edin and Christopher Jencks
Fall, Harvard Kennedy School
The first doctoral seminar in the Inequality and Social Policy three-course sequence, this course considers the effects of policies and institutions in creating or reducing inequality in the U.S. and other advanced democracies, we well as the reciprocal effects of inequality on political activity and policy choices.

Gender Focused Research

API-901
Doctoral Research Seminar
Hannah Riley Bowles
Fall, Harvard Kennedy School
The purpose of the course is to facilitate the development of students' dissertation research ideas and to build community among Harvard Kennedy School doctoral students and faculty. Invited speakers from the Harvard Kennedy School faculty will engage students in conversations about the stages of research development (e.g., generating ideas, choosing research methods, building a research agenda). Students will generate research proposals and present them at a day-long retreat at the end of the semester.


HDS 2698/GSAS 8016
Religion 3005. Doctoral Colloquium in Religion, Gender, and Culture
Leila N. Ahmed
Spring, Harvard Divinity School/Faculty of Arts and Sciences
The colloquium will explore key-topics and works in women’s/gender/feminist studies in religion.


GSAS 3232
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1322. Theory Makes Practice Makes Theory: Feminist Fieldwork and Activity Based Learning
Keridwen Luis
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
This course brings service work and community advocacy together with critical thinking about the complex intersection between feminist "theory" and "practice." Although we are accustomed to thinking of theory as something which is applied to practice, doesn’t practice also influence or build theory? What is the role of academics in advocacy, community initiatives, politics, and other forms of cultural change? Participants will perform volunteer community service work and/or fieldwork in a pre-approved setting, and classroom discussions and readings will focus on feminist, queer, and intersectional analyses.


GSAS 6225
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 91r. Supervised Reading and Research
Director of Studies and staff
Fall and Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
The study of selected topics in studies of women, gender, and sexuality.


GSAS 6763
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 99a. Tutorial-Senior Year
Linda Schlossberg
Fall and Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Note: Both WGS 99a and 99b are required of all honors concentrators in their senior year.


GSAS 7217
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 97. Tutorial-Sophomore Year
Robin M. Bernstein
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
An introduction to foundational concepts and analytical tools in the study of gender and sexuality. Focus on the ways in which diverse people have understood gender, sexuality, race, and nationhood as categories of knowledge. Case studies of activists and theorists forging complex alliances across unstable differences. Readings include Gloria Anzaldúa, Adrienne Rich, Simone de Beauvoir, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Donna Haraway, Patricia Hill Collins, Inderpal Grewal, Judith Butler, Monique Wittig, Alison Bechdel, and Michel Foucault.


GSAS 8094
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 98r. Tutorial-Junior Year: Research and Methods
Afsaneh Najmabadi
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Required for Honors concentrators, this seminar gives students in-depth exposure to interdisciplinary feminist methodologies as they develop their own research projects. The common weekly seminar is organized around a single topic, and students will consider how the topic has been approached in the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences. Weekly seminar meetings provide a collaborative space for students to develop their own research agenda, which culminates in a 25-30-page paper.


GSAS 9620
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 2000. Introduction to WGS: Graduate Proseminar
Alice Jardine
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
An overview of major questions raised by the interdisciplinary study of women, gender, and sexuality and the challenges thus raised to traditional divisions of knowledge. We will privilege dialogue and process while assessing trends in the often tense, but overlapping, areas of feminist, lgbt and queer inquiry. Special attention given to intersectional and international issues across a range of disciplines, including history, anthropology, psychoanalysis, sexology, critical theory, economics, law, cultural studies, literature, art, and film.


GSAS 17353
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 3000. Reading and Research
Alice Jardine and members of the Committee
Fall and Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Open only by petition. Applicants for admission should first confer with the Director of Graduate Studies.


GSAS 72605
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1500. The Senior Capstone
Karen P. Flood
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
This course allows advanced students to synthesize previous semesters of study in WGS in an intensive research-oriented seminar. Students will complete independent projects while also building collective knowledge around a topic in gender and sexuality studies. The likely focus for 2012 is sex, gender and work. Possible areas of study include the sex-typing of occupations, care work, gender and LGBT discrimination and harassment in the workplace, sex work, labor activism, and the politics of welfare.


WGH 300
Women, Gender, and Health Independent Study
Any WGH faculty
Fall and Spring, Harvard School of Public Health
An opportunity for independent study is offered for interested and qualified students or small groups of students. Arrangements must be made with individual faculty members and are limited by the amount of faculty time available. These programs are open to all students who wish to go beyond the content of regular courses.

Health and Gender

Health | Mental Health | Reproductive

Health, Medicine, Science and Gender

HDS 3587/GSAS 81052
History of Science 108. Bodies, Sexualities, and Medicine in the Medieval Middle East
Ahmed Ragab
Fall, Harvard Divinity School/Faculty of Arts and Sciences
This course will examine the ways in which medical, religious, cultural, and political discourses and practices interacted in the medieval and early modern Middle East to create and reflect multiple understandings of human bodies and sexualities. Special attention to debates on health, sexuality, and gender and racial identities.


GSAS 2265
Human Evolutionary Biology 1310. Hormones and Behavior
Judith F. Chapman
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
An introduction to the interaction between hormones and behavior, emphasizing research in humans. General principles of endocrine physiology are presented. The course then focuses on how hormones affect the brain and body in early development and later in adulthood, and the relationship of hormones to sex and gender. We will explore human reproduction, energy metabolism, mating and sexuality, parental behavior, learning and memory, stress, and dominance interactions.


GSAS 57761
History of Science 146. Introduction to Women’s Bodies in Medicine
Chin Jou
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
This course examines: 1) the evolution of medical and scientific discourse on women’s bodies, and the social and political developments that have informed those discussions; 2) the ways in which classifications and diagnoses of various pathologies have been gendered; and 3) the surveillance of women’s bodies via various screening measures. Specific course topics include: the history of hysteria, eating disorders, women’s representation in clinical trials, the HPV vaccine, contraception, and cosmetic surgery.


GSAS 59285
Neurobiology 95hfx. The Neurobiology of Sex and Aggression
Ryan W. Draft and members of the Department
Fall and Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Ever wondered why animals are attracted to the opposite sex, why they attack other animals, or how they decide with whom to mate or to fight? We will study how genetic and neural pathways direct males and females to act the way they do. Topics covered include fighting flies, testosterone-promoted male behavior, same-sex sexual partners, and more. We will also discuss the way sex research is covered by the media and its social implications.


GSAS 62507
Human Evolutionary Biology 1366. Mating Strategies
Stephanie Lynn Meredith
Fall, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
In this advanced seminar, we will examine the selection pressures that drive animals (including the human animal) to make particular mating decisions. We will engage in a broad, comparative exploration of the diversity of mating strategies across the animal kingdom, paying particular attention to primates, in order to ground our understanding of human mating strategies in an evolutionary perspective. Topics to be covered include the evolution of: sex, paternal care, sex-role reversal, social monogamy versus sexual monogamy, sexual coercion, homosexual behavior, and frequency dependent mating strategies.


GSAS 72868
History of Science 250. Readings in Women’s Bodies in Medicine
Chin Jou
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
For graduate students and advanced undergraduates. Topics will be similar to those covered in History of Science 146, "Introduction to Women’s Bodies in Medicine," but with additional readings and a focus on historiography. Students will complete a 20-25 page paper based on original research.


GSAS 89352
Human Evolutionary Biology 1329. Sex, Love, and War: The Evolution of Human Behavior - (New Course)
Katherine J. Hinde and Richard W. Wrangham
Fall, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
This introductory course is designed to familiarize students with the behavioral ecology of human from an evolutionary perspective. Here we will survey behavioral diversity and consistency across human societies. Moreover, we will gain insights into the evolution of human behavior by exploring the social dynamics of non-human primates. Topics to be covered include cooperation and reciprocal altruism, aggression and warfare, dominance and hierarchy, mating and pair-bonds, parenting, social learning, language and religion.


ME552M.3
Women’s Health Elective
Olga Smulders-Meyer and Elizabeth Roth
Full time for one month; except Jul, Aug, Nov, Dec, March, Harvard Medical School
The course will cover common primary care problems in women, including contraception, office gynecology, endocrine disorders, eating disorders, issues around menopause, breast cancer screening, medical problems in pregnancy, and common dermatoses seen in women. Students will see patients under the close supervision of the preceptor in our offices at Women's Health Associates. They also have an opportunity to rotate through the breast clinic, colposcopy clinic, and other specialties of their particular interest. The student will also learn how to incorporate the history and physical examination into a concise and comprehensive note that reflects the visit.


MG722.0/GSAS 7905
Social Issues in Biology
Jonathan Roger Beckwith and Roberto G. Kolter
Spring, Harvard Medical School/Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Readings, discussion of social/ethical aspects of biology: history, philosophy of science; evolution vs. creationism; genetics and race; women and science; genetic testing; stem cell research; science journalism; genetics and the law; scientists and social responsibility.


SHDH 360
Maternal and Child Health/Children, Youth and Families Seminar: Year 1
Fall, Harvard School of Public Health
Weekly seminar on topics in Maternal and Child Health/Children, Youth and Families. Required for: SHDH/EPI/NUT/GHP doctoral students either majoring or minoring in Maternal Child Health or Children Youth and Families (MCH/CYF) until they defend their thesis; SHDH/NUT/EPI/GHP masters students and MPH/HSB students concentrating in MCH/CYF for the duration of their program. Open to all HSPH students.


SHDH 361
Maternal and Child Health/Children, Youth and Families Seminar: Year 2
Fall, Harvard School of Public Health
Weekly seminar on topics in Maternal and Child Health/Children, Youth and Families. Required for: SHDH/EPI/NUT/GHP doctoral students either majoring or minoring in Maternal Child Health or Children Youth and Families (MCH/CYF) until they defend their thesis; SHDH/NUT/EPI/GHP masters students and MPH/HSB students concentrating in MCH/CYF for the duration of their program. Open to all HSPH students.


SHDH 506
Disease Distribution Theory/A
This course offers an introduction to the social and scientific contexts, content, and implications of theories of disease distribution, past and present. It considers how these theories shape questions people ask about and explanations and interventions they offer for patterns of health, disease, and well-being in their societies. Designed for both master level and doctoral level students, SHDH 506 also serves a pre-requisite for SHDH 507, the in-depth continuation of the course required for SHDH doctoral students. SHDH 506 accordingly begins by reviewing the role of theory in the production of scientific knowledge. It next introduces both text-based theories of disease distribution developed in ancient Greece and China, and also oral traditions reflecting diverse American Indian, Latin American, African, and medieval European explanations of disease distribution, followed by an overview of theories employed during the rise of epidemiology as a distinct discipline in both Europe and the United States, from 1700 to 1950. It then introduces current theories and controversies, and employs selected case examples to illustrate their application to and implications for understanding current and changing population distributions of disease and health inequities, especially in relation to class, race/ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. Emphasizing relationships between epidemiologic theory and practice, theories and frameworks covered include: miasma, contagion, germ theory, biomedical model, lifestyle, social production of disease/political economy of health, Latin American social medicine, health & human rights, social determinants of health, population health, psychosocial, lifecourse, and ecosocial theory.


SHDH 507
Disease Distribution Theory/B
This course builds on the prerequisite course SHDH 506 and its critical focus on theories of disease distribution, past and present. Intended for doctoral students (and required of SHDH doctoral students), SHDH 507 deepens historical and present-day understanding of contemporary mainstream theories of disease distribution and their social epidemiologic alternatives. Pairing 20th and 21st CE historical and contemporary books (not articles!), the course both builds substantive knowledge regarding the content and public health implications of diverse theories of disease distributions while also developing skills in conducting literature searches about and engaging with complex scholarly arguments and discourse.


SU503M.12
Breast Diseases
Mary Jane Houlihan
Full time for one month; except July, August, and September, Harvard Medical School
This course is multidisciplinary in nature, designed to help the fourth year student develop an understanding of both benign and malignant breast disease, and the problems encountered by women suffering from them. The experience will focus on honing basic clinical and surgical skills, as well as developing an understanding of and appreciation for the psychosocial aspects of breast disease. As such, this course is aimed at the generalist student, not just students considering surgery as a career. Students will spend 25 hours a week in clinical activities in the Breast Care Center at BIDMC. Students will be assigned their own patients, and be responsible for taking histories, performing physical examinations, reviewing mammograms and ultrasounds, and evaluating the patient's problem and developing therapeutic options. In cases where surgery is indicated, the student will follow his/her patient, actively assist in the surgery, and meet during surgery with the pathologist diagnosing the surgical specimen. Students will follow their own patients post-operatively, and participate in planning their management. Students will also participate in the multi-disciplinary breast clinic and spend time in Breast Imaging and Pathology.


WGH 207
Advanced Topics in Women, Gender, and Health
Spring, Harvard School of Public Health
This interdepartmental, interdisciplinary seminar will offer the chance to analyze ways by which diverse constructs of gender influence public health research and practice. Using different examples each week, the core WGH faculty and students will focus on how gender contributes to classifying, surveying, understanding and intervening on population distributions of health, disease, and well-being. Discussion of these examples will draw on different disciplines, conceptual frameworks, and methodological approaches (both quantitative and qualitative). For example, traditional epidemiological and biostatistical methods, along with multilevel, ecosocial, and health and human rights frameworks will be applied, as appropriate, in the assessment of gender-based health related disorders. The format will include formal presentations and informal discussions.


WGH 211
Women, Gender and Health: Introductory Perspectives
Stacey A. Missmer
Fall, Harvard School of Public Health
This course will introduce students to gender as a theoretical concept and a category of analysis in public health-that is, the way gender has contributed to differentially structuring women and men's experiences of health. The course aims to answer such questions as: How has gender influenced the construction of public health in diverse societies? How do our social frameworks and structures, such as gender, affect people's experiences and expectations of health?


WGH 220
Sexuality and Public Health
Sydney B. Austin
Fall, Harvard School of Public Health
This course provides an introduction to the breadth of research and research methods in the study of sexuality and sexual health promotion in diverse contexts and populations. Students will develop skills needed to carry out epidemiologic research and community-based interventions related to sexual health promotion. Students will be introduced to ways to integrate conceptual models, methodologies, and perspectives from a variety of fields to inform a unique transdisciplinary, holistic approach to public health promotion of sexual health. Class session format includes lectures, discussions, case studies, individual and group presentations, and in-class writing assignments.


WGH 250
Embodying Gender: Public Health, Biology, and The Body Public
Nancy Krieger
Winter, Harvard School of Public Health
This course will focus on the social and biological processes and relationships – from interpersonal to institutional – involved in embodying gender, as part of shaping and changing societal distributions of, including inequities in, health, disease, and well-being. It will consider how different frameworks of conceptualizing and addressing gender, biological sex, and sexuality shape questions people ask about – and explanations and interventions they offer for – a variety of health outcomes. Examples span the lifecourse and historical generations and include chronic non-communicable diseases, HIV/AIDS, occupational injuries, reproductive health, mental health, and mortality, each analyzed in relation to societal and ecological context, global health policy and human rights, work, and the behaviors of people and institutions. In all these cases, issues of gender and sexuality will be related to other societal determinants of health, including social class, racism, and other forms of inequality. The objective is to improve praxis for research, teaching, policy, and action, so as to advance knowledge and action needed for producing sound public health policy and health equity, including in relation to gender and sexuality.

Mental Health and Gender

GSAS 96979
Freshmen Seminar 48e. Gender, Health, and Mental Health
Mary Ruggie
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
This course adopts interdisciplinary perspectives toward understanding how gender differences and similarities in health and mental health are manifest, if and how common patterns are changing, and what circumstances and context impact outcomes. We also examine differences within genders based on race/ethnicity and other personal and social characteristics. Topics include depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, sexual activity and gender-based violence. Throughout, we traverse the boundary between health and illness in order to explore the role of individuals, their social support networks, and health care professionals in developing and guiding strategies for coping and healing.


WGH 210
Women, Gender and Health: Critical Issues in Mental Health
Barbara Gottlieb
Fall, Harvard School of Public Health
This course explores issues relevant to mental illness, mental health from a gender perspective. Course themes include illness constructs, life cycle and transitions, collective and individual trauma, role and relationship and embodiment. Topics include eating disorders, pain, hormonally mediated mood disorders, and PTSD. Examples highlight US and international experience. Readings are multidisciplinary, including public health and medicine, social sciences, history and literature.


WGH 304
Women, Gender, and Health: Citical Issues in Mental Health, Independent Study
Barbara Gottlieb
Fall, Harvard School of Public Health
This independent study course is offered to students who are enrolled in WGH 210 Fall 2. The course will supplement the themes and topics of WGH 210, including illness constructs, trauma, embodiment, pain and eating disorders with a mentored field and service learning experience. Students will be required to provide 20 hours of service to one of several local sites selected for their relevance to course themes (for example, a shelter, an psychiatric in-patient unit, a school-based clinic), maintain a structured portfolio of reflections and commentary based on field experiences and readings, and attend 2 mentoring sessions.

Reproductive Health and Gender

AE502M.1
Pain Relief in Childbirth
Philip E. Hess
Fall and Spring, Harvard Medical School
This course covers the theory and practice of pain relief during childbirth and the medical management of high risk obstetrical patients. Special attention will be focused on the interaction between obstetric anesthetic techniques and maternal/fetal physiology. The student will work closely with the obstetric anesthesia team (residents, fellow, and attendings) in the daily activities including providing analgesia for labor and anesthesia for cesarean delivery. Students will be expected to perform medical assessments, play an active role in the anesthetic care, and round on their patients the following day. In addition, the students will be assigned to follow particular high risk patients and will be expected to research and discuss the anesthetic implications of their diseases. Schedule will be M-F 7am to 5pm. Students will attend all afternoon and morning lectures. Overnight and weekend call is optional at the discretion of the student.


EPI 269
Epidemiologic Research in Obstetrics and Gynecology
Daniel Cramer, Karin K. Michels, and Kathryn Terry
Fall, Harvard School of Public Health
This course will provide an overview of the current research in reproductive epidemiology. The course will cover epidemiologic research in the areas of contraception, infertility, pregnancy, menopause, and both benign and malignant gynecological conditions. Students will be introduced to methods used in reproductive epidemiology and learn how to critically evaluate results from epidemiologic studies in obstetrics and gynecology. An overview of the clinical and physiological underpinnings of particular topical areas will be provided.


GHP 231
Sexual and Reproductive Health
Ana Maria Langer
Spring, Harvard School of Public Health
This course is designed to provide an overview of the way international institutions deal with health and human rights issues. Focus will be on the responses of the United Nations system, including the World Health Organization (WHO), regional organizations, and non-state actors to some of the pressing issues of health from a human rights perspective. Issues to be explored include: mother-to-child transmission of HIV and ARV drug pricing in Africa; traditional practices, such as female genital cutting (FGC); forced sterilization and rights of indigenous people in Latin America; accountability for mass violations of human rights; health of child workers; and international tobacco control. Among the international institutions to be examined are the WHO, UNAIDS, the World Trade Organization (WTO), UNESCO, the Council of Europe, the Organization of American States, the World Bank, and the International Criminal Court (ICC). The principal teaching method is simulation of actual cases, in which students prepare and present positions of various protagonists, based on research into those positions. The ultimate aim of the course is to prepare students to work for and interact professionally with international institutions to advance the health and human rights objectives, whether through governmental, intergovernmental or nongovernmental processes.


GSAS 53113
Human Evolutionary Biology 1377. Birth
Meredith W. Reiches
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
This lecture course will explore human birth from the perspective of evolutionary biology, asking: Why is human labor so laborious? What are the nuts and bolts of birth? How do babies "know" when to be born? How do we understand birth in novel selective environments of the modern world? We will cover principles of human evolution, birth in primate relatives and ancestors, research design with laboring women, and the physiology of late pregnancy and birth before examining medical interventions and maternity care policy from historical, functional, and legal perspectives. Guest speakers will offer perspectives from a variety of birth-related professions.


HT070.0
Human Reproductive Biology
Anastasia Herta Koniaris
Fall, Harvard Medical School
This course is designed to give the student a clear understanding of the pathophysiology of the menstrual cycle, fertilization, implantation, ovum growth development, differentiation and associated abnormalities. Disorders of fetal development including the principles of teratology and the mechanism of normal and abnormal parturition will be covered, as well as ethical issues in reproductive science and significant medical issues affecting pregnant women such as pre-eclampsia and diabetes. Fetal asphyxia and its consequences will be reviewed with emphasis on the technology currently available for its detection. In addition the conclusion of the reproductive cycle, menopause, and the use of hormonal replacement will be covered. Emphasis on quantitative techniques, when applicable, including modern approaches to fetal surveillance and in vitro fertilization as well as prenatal diagnosis will be employed. Each lecture will be complemented by a brief clinical pathologic conference emphasizing relevant clinical applications of basic principles discussed in the lectures. Weekly thought questions will be assigned and a multiple choice final examination is given.


OB503M.1
OB/GYN and Women’s Health in Urban Community Settings
Lucy Yen-Chai Chie
Fall and Spring, Harvard Medical School
This course is offered to provide students greater exposure to the health issues of underserved urban women and their care at community health centers. BIDMC is affiliated with several of Boston’s community health centers: South Cove Community Health Center in Chinatown and North Quincy, Dimock Health Center in Roxbury, Bowdoin Street Health Center in Dorchester, Fenway Health Center, and BIDMC Chelsea. Students may rotate through several or all sites. Students will evaluate patients in the outpatient clinical setting and will be supervised primarily by attending faculty. While most of the rotation will be in the health centers, students also will longitudinally follow several patients into the hospital setting. Night call is optional. Student evaluation will be based on clinical performance, completion of a community health center project, as well as a final paper/oral presentation on a topic of interest. Spanish or Chinese language skills are a plus.


OB506M.23
Fertility and Reproductive Endocrinology
Janis Heidi Fox
Full time every month, Harvard Medical School
The course is designed to acquaint students with current concepts of infertility and management of interrelated reproductive endocrine problems and to familiarize them with laboratory techniques used in evaluating patients with such problems. Students will observe the workup and care of fertility and endocrinology patients as well as patients with recurrent miscarriage. There is extensive exposure to surgical management of such patients, including mininmally invasive surgery and robotic cases. They will attend conferences and seminars related to these subjects. Students will also have exposure to laboratory techniques used in the work up and treatment of such patients. Exposure to assisted reproductive technologies in clinics and laboratories, and pediatric gynecology and endocrinology is also available and encouraged.


OB507M.23
Family Planning
Deborah Anne Bartz
Full time every month, Harvard Medical School
This course will expose the student to the range of clinical experiences and issues related to family planning, in order to provide a comprehensive knowledge base, an opportunity for skill development, and a context for clarification of values related to family planning. Seventy percent (7-half day sessions) of the student's time will be spent in family planning and gynecology clinics where she will gain exposure to abortion and contraceptive care. This clinical training will include exposure to abortion in a hospital setting and with community-based abortion providers, as well as time spent in outpatient gyn services within a community health center (CHC). By observing the full spectrum of family planning care delivery sites—from the integrated approach to primary prevention within the CHC medical home model to the tertiary care afforded to more complex cases in the hospital—the student will gain appreciation of the role of family planning in the full spectrum of women’s health. Across these settings, advanced instruction will be provided in patient counseling and health promotion related to reproductive decision-making.


OB510M.3
Maternal Fetal Medicine
Laura E. Riley
Full time one month, Harvard Medical School
The student will function as a sub intern on the maternal-fetal medicine service at MGH as part of a three person team which includes the maternal fetal medicine(MFM) specialist, the MFM fellow and the sub intern. The activities will include: Participating in daily sign out rounds of laboring and complicated postpartum patients Rounding daily on the antepartum service Labor and delivery night call 1x per week to allow participation in deliveries Scrubbing on select MFM surgical cases Spending 4 outpatient sessions doing MFM consultation with MFM attendings and seeing patients in the MFM practice Spending 2-3 outpatient sessions doing genetics, obstetric ultrasound and general obstetrics The student will also attend all weekly MFM conferences including: Perinatal Morbidity/Mortality conference, Ob/Gyn resident didactics, Ob/Gyn Grand Rounds, Ob Case Reviews, Perinatal Conference, MFM fellow didactics, Perinatal NICU rounds.


SHDH 246
Issues in Maternal and Child Health Programs and Policies
Spring, Harvard School of Public Health
This course is designed to provide an overview of the way international institutions deal with health and human rights issues. Focus will be on the responses of the United Nations system, including the World Health Organization (WHO), regional organizations, and non-state actors to some of the pressing issues of health from a human rights perspective. Issues to be explored include: mother-to-child transmission of HIV and ARV drug pricing in Africa; traditional practices, such as female genital cutting (FGC); forced sterilization and rights of indigenous people in Latin America; accountability for mass violations of human rights; health of child workers; and international tobacco control. Among the international institutions to be examined are the WHO, UNAIDS, the World Trade Organization (WTO), UNESCO, the Council of Europe, the Organization of American States, the World Bank, and the International Criminal Court (ICC). The principal teaching method is simulation of actual cases, in which students prepare and present positions of various protagonists, based on research into those positions. The ultimate aim of the course is to prepare students to work for and interact professionally with international institutions to advance the health and human rights objectives, whether through governmental, intergovernmental or nongovernmental processes.

Religion and Gender

HDS 1505/GSAS 9539
Religion 1410. Women, Sex, and Gender in Ancient Christianity
Karen L. King
Fall, Harvard Divinity School/Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Takes the numerical dominance of women in most religious groups as the point of departure for an exploration of American history focusing on the interrelation of gender systems and religious world views. Topics include witchcraft, African American women evangelists, ideologies of domesticity, and the relation of gender to religious dissent, among others. The course emphasizes historical research methodology using gender as a category of analysis.


HDS 2325/GSAS 6508
Religion 2501. The Religious History of American Women: Seminar
Ann D. Braude
Fall, Harvard Divinity School/Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Takes the numerical dominance of women in most religious groups as the point of departure for an exploration of American history focusing on the interrelation of gender systems and religious world views. Topics include witchcraft, African American women evangelists, ideologies of domesticity, and the relation of gender to religious dissent, among others. The course emphasizes historical research methodology using gender as a category of analysis.


HDS 2690
Religion, Gender, and Culture Colloquium: Feminist Theory and Theology
Leila Ahmed
Spring, Harvard Divinity School
The Religion, Gender and Culture Colloquium explores the intersection of feminist theory with feminist theologies and gender studies in religion. Required for doctoral students in Religion, Gender, and Culture. Interested MTS, ThM, and MDiv students should contact the instructor. May be taken on a Sat/Unsat basis only.


HDS 2692/GSAS 6407
Religion 1572. Sex, Gender, and Sexuality
Amy Hollywood
Spring, Harvard Divinity School/Faculty of Arts and Sciences
The course will explore the theoretical articulation of sex, gender, and sexuality in twentieth-century medicine, social science, psychoanalysis, philosophy, and feminist and queer theory. Attention will be given to the ramifications of these concepts for the study of religion. Readings will include texts by Sigmund Freud, Simone de Beauvoir, Jacques Lacan, Michel Foucault, Gayle Rubin, Julia Kristeva, Monique Wittig, Judith Butler, Moira Gatens and others.


HDS 3223/GSAS 9774
Religion 1009. Religion, Gender, and Politics in Transnational Perspective
Ann D. Braude and Leila N. Ahmed
Spring, Harvard Divinity School/Faculty of Arts and Sciences
The use of gender as a category of analysis has transformed the study of religion. This course will explore a range of topics in women's studies across a range of religious contexts. Members of the faculty will introduce issues of women and gender from their specific disciplinary and theoretical perspectives.


HDS 3559/GSAS 4463
Religion 1730. Buddhist Women and Gender Theory
Janet Gyatso
Spring, Harvard Divinity School/Faculty of Arts and Sciences
This course explores gender conception and the place of women in Buddhist monastic discipline, in lay life, and in tantric sexual traditions. Our sources include Buddhist and contemporary Western and Asian gender theory, Buddhist narrative, and autobiographies by Buddhist women. The course takes up feminist criticism of Buddhism, historical Buddhist efforts to promote gender equality, and contemporary debates on whether feminist criticism is a modern or western imposition.


HDS 3916
Feminist Environmental Philosophy and Theology
Susan Abraham
Fall, Harvard Divinity School
What beliefs, practices and theologies can give rise to green living for the world’s religions? Feminist thinkers such as Rosemary Radford Ruether, Sallie McFague, Catherine Keller, Vandana Shiva, Waangari Maathai, Susan Griffin, Carolyn Merchant, Gayatri Spivak, M. Jacqui Alexander and Val Plumwood assert that the gendered representations of nature and influence our imagination of ethical and planetary living. This course aims to inspire feminist and constructive religious practices for planetary ecological health.

Society, Race, Culture, and Gender

Education | History | Race/Ethnicity | Sexuality | Sociology and Anthropology

Education and Gender

GSAS 3232
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1322. Thoery Makes Practice Makes Theory: Feminist Fieldwork and Activity Based Learning
Keridwen Luis
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
This course brings service work and community advocacy together with critical thinking about the complex intersection between feminist "theory" and "practice". Although we are accustomed to thinking of theory as something which is applied to practice, doesn't practice also influence or build thoery? What is the role of academics in advocacy, community initiatives, politics, and other forms of cultural change? Participants will perform volunteer community service work and/or fieldwork in a pre-approved setting, and classroom discussions and readings will focus on feminist, queer, and intersectional analyses.


GSAS 72986
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1168. Education, Race, and Gender in the United States.
Chiwen Bao
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Education in the United States often appears as democratizing and a means of upward mobility, an idea complicated by issues of race, gender, class, and sexuality, all of which shape students’ and teachers’ experiences. This class examines theoretical and empirical studies on various schooling spaces and practices and explores how intersecting constructs of identity — such as girl, boy, black, Latino/a, Asian, white — become meaningful in schools and bear implications for individuals and society.


H-236
Adolescent Development
Nancy E. Hill
Spring, Graduate School of Education
Adolescence marks change on multiple levels--biologically, cognitively, socially--and in multiple contexts--family, school, community, peers, and friendships. Adolescence marks the single largest growth period in human development outside of infancy. Development during adolescence is not simply more of the processes and development of childhood, but is functionally and qualitatively different. Adolescents' struggle between marking their autonomy and independence and their need for guidance and dependence influence family relationships, social and educational practices, and the ways we engage with them in our day-to-day lives. As they are shaping and developing their identities, our interactions with them become part of who they are becoming. The purpose of this course is to explore adolescent development through various developmental lenses, using multiple teaching tools, contemporary film, and literature. This course is especially designed to provide educators with a practical understanding of the developmental trajectories of adolescent thinking and reasoning and to prepare those interested in applied research on adolescence. Beginning with classic conceptions of adolescence, biological and cognitive development, and its hallmark, identity development, the course builds toward a more complex understanding of the roles of relationships and cultural contexts in shaping and reflecting development, multiple identities (racial, ethnic, cultural, gender, and sexual), and the adolescent experience during the middle-and high-school years. We will consider a broad range of adolescent experiences from the developmental opportunities and challenges of everyday life to risk behavior.


T-313
Gender and Sexuality in Schools: School Climate and the Hidden Curriculum
Sherry Deckman
Spring, Harvard Graduate School of Education
This course, which was formerly a two-credit module numbered T-311A, explores both the role of gender and sexuality--including intersections with other identity markers such as race and class--in shaping young people's schooling experiences, opportunities, and outcomes, and the role of schooling experiences in shaping young people's notions of gender and sexuality. In many ways, the course is about the "hidden curriculum" of "heteronormativity," or the subtle practices in schools that privilege heterosexual, gendered identities and ways of being. As such, students in the course will apply the concept of the hidden curriculum to the study of gender and schooling in order to understand why and how boys and girls experience schooling differently, and also why and how heteronormative schooling detrimentally impacts not only LGBTQ students but all students. The course draws on a variety of literature including theoretical works; qualitative and quantitative empirical research; applied, practical texts; and instructional materials for K-12 educators, such as young adult novels. Students in the course will have the opportunity to build knowledge and the skills necessary to addressing gender- and sexuality-related inequity in schools of various levels. The course incorporates whole-class and small-group instruction.

History and Gender

GSAS 7597
History 81f. Women’s Voices in Medieval and Early Modern Europe
Rachel L. Greenblatt
Fall, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Seeks out the voices of Jewish, Protestant and Catholic women, with an emphasis on women’s writings, and examines methods for uncovering information about women’s lives when their own voices are absent from the historical record. Considers ideal images and the daily realities of both men’s and women’s gendered roles in such areas as life-cycle rituals, livelihood and spirituality.


GSAS 8070
History 2805. Gender and Sexuality: Comparative Historical Studies of Islamic Middle East, North Africa, South, and East Asia: Seminar
Afsaneh Najmabadi
Informed by theories of gender and sexuality, this seminar investigates how historically notions of desire, body, sex, masculinity, femininity, gender and sexual subjectivities have formed and reformed in Islamicate cultures of the Middle East, North Africa, and South and East Asia.


GSAS 98463
History 79j. ‘The Oldest Profession? A Global History of Sex Work 1750 to the Present’
Erez Manela
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
The notion that prostitution is the ‘world’s oldest profession’ suggests both that sex work has a long history, and that this history is a homogeneous one based on unchanging gender roles and economic relations. In this course, students will learn to question the latter assumption, and examine the ways in which sex work, social attitudes towards it, and state attempts to regulate it or suppress it have changed over time.


GSAS 9095
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1200sh. Power to the People: Black Power, Radical Feminism, and Gay Liberation 1955-1975
Michael Bronski
Fall, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
An introduction to the radical American social change movements of the 1960s and 70s. We will examine the specific historical conditions that allowed each of these movements to develop, the interconnections and contradictions among them, and why they ultimately lost political power. Along with historical analysis, we will examine primary source materials, manifestos, autobiographies, and media coverage from the period, as well as relevant films, music, and fiction. The class will be a mixture of lecture and discussion.

Race, Ethnicity and Gender

HDS 2466
Gender, Race, and Transformational Latina Theory
Mayra Rivera Rivera
Spring, Harvard Divinity School
One of the distinctive features of Latina theory is its reluctance to compartmentalize knowledge along categories of gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, activism and spirituality, or philosophy, religion, and literature. This course focuses on works that exemplify such interdisciplinary theoretical. Readings will include works by Gloria Anzaldúa, Laura Pérez, María Lugones, Chela Sandoval, and Ana Castillo, among others.


HDS 2749/GSAS 49412
African and African American Studies 104y. Transnational Feminisms
Aisha Mahina Beliso-De Jesus
Spring, Harvard Divinity School/Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Typically understood as an unbound field, transnational feminisms comes together as a paradigm that calls attention to the intersections of globalizations, race, sexuality, diasporas and nationalisms from a transnational perspective. Mostly from third world and women of color feminists, we will examine this unwieldy designation in relation to methodologies, analytics, contentions and silences. Where and when does the emergence of this term come to be? How does it differ from other feminist and internationalist/globalization perspectives? What role (if any) does religion or spirituality play in the differing theoretical frameworks?


GSAS 57498
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1411. Sex, Gender Roles, and Sexuality in Native America
Keridwen Luis
Fall, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
This course examines issues of gender, sex, and sexuality in various Native American cultures in a historical, anthropological, and political context, using a variety of scholarly, fictional, and personal texts. We will explore sex roles, marriage and the family, and gender variant identities, as well as the massive impact of colonialization and racism on gendered understandings in present-day American cultures.

Sexuality

GSAS 7683
Psychology 1703. Human Sexuality
Justin J. Lehmiller
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
This course examines the development and expression of sexual behavior as a complex psychological, socio-cultural, and biological phenomenon. Students explore topics including: historical perspectives on sexuality; sexology research methods; biological bases of sexual behavior; sexual arousal and response; gender identity and gender roles; sexual orientation; romantic attraction and love; sexual dysfunctions and sex therapy; safer sex and STD prevention; typical and atypical sexual behaviors; and pornography and prostitution.


GSAS 51355
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1459. History of Sexuality: Theory and Practice
Henry Abelove
Fall, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Our goal will be to consider how historical work on topics such as sexuality, friendship, intimacy, sociability, and marriage may be improved and advanced. Writings by anthropologists, Gayle Rubin, David Valentine, Elizabeth Povinelli; by literary critics, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Michael Warner, Leo Bersani; by philosophers, Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Michel de Certeau; and by historians, Matt Houlbrook, Joan Wallach Scott, Alan Bray.

Sociolgy and Anthropology

 GSAS 2276
Social Studies 98kb. Gender in Developing Nations
Meghan Elisabeth Healy
Fall, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
This seminar examines national identities, international solidarities, and struggles for social justice in the modern world from gendered perspectives. We take an historical approach, informed by ethnography and social theory. We first explore how gendered ideals and relations shaped colonial and anti-colonial projects in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We then analyze how gender has shaped transnational movements since the Second World War, emphasizing international development projects and ’Third World’ and ’Global South’ alliances.


GSAS 7015
Anthropology 2765. Gender in Conflict: Violence, Militarism and War
Kimberly Theidon
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
In this seminar we will combine theoretical texts with classic and contemporary ethnographies to explore the anthropological study of ethics and ethical resources as related to debates that have animated the field of medical anthropology.


GSAS 7766
Aesthetic and Interpretive Understanding 47. Forbidden Romance in Modern China
David Der-wei Wang
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
This course introduces a unique dimension of Chinese modernity: amorous engagement in fiction and lived experience, its discursive and visual representations, and its institutional implementation (gender, marriage, family, law, nation/state, etc.), censorship, and transgression. It examines how the modern lure of free will and emancipated subjectivity drove Chinese to redefine terms of affect, such as love, feeling, desire, passion, sexuality, loyalty, dedication, revolution and sacrifice. It also looks into how the moral, legal and political consequences of affect were evoked in such a way as to traverse or fortify consensual boundaries and their manifestations.


GSAS 9095
Studies of Women Gender and Sexuality 1200sh. Power to the People: Black Power, Radical Feminism, and Gay Liberation 1955-1975
Michael Bronski
Fall, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
An introduction to the radical American social change movements of the 1960s and 70s. We will examine the specific historical conditions that allowed each of these movements to develop, the interconnections and contradictions among them, and why they ultimately lost political power. Along with historical analysis, we will examine primary source materials, manifestos, autobiographies, and media coverage from the period, as well as relevant films, music, and fiction. The class will be a mixture of lecture and discussion.


GSAS 9124
Sociology 107. The American Family
Martin K. Whyte
Fall, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
The American family is often thought to be changing in ways considered unfortunate for children and society. At the same time, the family continues to occupy a central place in people’s lives. We examine how and why American families have changed and explore the consequences of these changes. Aspects of family life considered include premarital sex, mate choice, marriage relations, work and family, gender roles, childrearing, family violence, divorce, and intergenerational relations.


GSAS 12001
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1258. Friends with Benefits?
Afsaneh Najmabadi
Fall, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
This course begins with a discussion of popular media productions, such as Friends and Sex and the City, in which friendships and sexual relationships are configured through each other. What does that tell us about meanings of friendship and sex, and their inter-relationship, in contemporary American culture? Readings will include Plato, Biblical sources, Montaigne, Bray, Marcus, Sedgwick, Foucault. We end by asking what gay marriage, Facebook, and changing conceptions of masculinity/femininity are doing to/for friendship.


GSAS 13231
Economics 980x. Economics of Work and Family
Claudia Goldin
Fall, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
How are the most personal choices and life transitions decided? When and whom do you marry, how many children do you have, how much education should you obtain, and which careers or jobs will you pursue? Much will be explored in terms of change over time, particularly concerning the economic emergence of women and the growing role of government. Readings draw on economic theory, empirical analyses, history, and literature from the 19th century to the present.


GSAS 13485
Sociology 108. Inequality at Work
Mary C. Brinton
Fall, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
The American workplace has become much more diverse over the past 30 years, with women and minorities moving into greater positions of authority. But significant inequalities remain. Why? This course explores how sociologists go about analyzing the reasons for workplace inequalities using a variety of methods from ethnography to surveys to experiments. Using case studies, we pay particular attention to how work can be restructured in ways that increase participation and equality.


GSAS 15985
Anthropology 1882. The Woman and the Body
Susan Greenhalgh
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
This course probes the culture and politics of the body in America today, stressing America's role as a center of bodily ideals that now dominate global imaginations. Emphasizing the intersections of gender with race/ethnicity, class, and sexuality, the course examines the diverse notions of beauty, bodily practices, and body politics embraced by American women (and, to a lesser extent, men) of different classes, ethnicities, and sexualities. It deals with critical issues facing our society in the early 21st century -- the growing prevalence of eating disorders, the normalization of cosmetic surgery, rising levels of childhood and adult obesity using contemporary theory to tease out their complex sources and effects. Lying at the intersection of the anthropology of the body, medical anthropology, and women's/gender studies, the course outlines an important new arena for critical inquiry.


GSAS 48191
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1127. Beyond the Sound Bite: Women, Gender, and Sexuality in The Daily News - (New Course)
Alice Jardine
Fall, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
We are bombarded by sound bites from all over the globe, moving at disorienting speeds, reorganizing our relationship to time and space with increasingly dystopic results. This course will focus on selected televisual and digital events in "real time" from September-December 2012. We will analyze the embedded bits of gender and sexuality always at work in the representations of those events. Topics include: politics, the environment, military adventures, and popular revolt in dialogue with important texts in WGS Studies.


GSAS 54265
Anthropology 1214. The Archaelogy of Women and Children
Jennifer Lynn Carballo
Fall, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
This course explores approaches to gender and family life in anthropological and archaeological research, by comparing data from a variety of ancient societies. We consider relationships between men, women, and children in the past, as well as how contemporary gender relations have influenced the practice of archaeology and our interpretation of the past. How can we recognize gender archaeologically? In what ways did ancient women and children contribute to subsistence, technology, political life, ritual activities, and more? Peabody Museum collections are incorporated into our methodological and theoretical study of gender in archaeology.


GSAS 55183
Studies of Women, Gender, Sexuality 1464. Gender and Consumer Culture
Juliet Schor
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Focus on the intersection of consumer culture and gender, with attention to theoretical issues and contemporary dynamics of consumer culture.


GSAS 76892
Japanese Literature 271. Topics in Gender and Culture in Japan: Seminar
Tomiko Yoda
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
A seminar course that studies the constructions of gender and gender relations in Japan through the examination of various forms of expressive culture (visual, textual, sonic) in their historical contexts.


GSAS 79196
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1466. Virtue, Vice, and Everyday Life
Erin R. Helfrich
Spring, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
This seminar will explore the areas of overlap and also of disconnect between our conscious decisions, our unconscious reactions, and our moral values. We will focus specifically on the ways that our moral, social, and psychological environments give rise to ethical challenges relating to gender. Topics may include: workforce discrimination; women’s participation in STEM fields and representation in governing bodies; how work is coded masculine or feminine; and women and welfare.


GSAS 91598
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1424. American Fetish: Consumer Culture Encounters the Other
Caroline Light
Fall, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
How are notions of human difference, including ethnicity, race, gender, and sexuality, used to sell products in an increasingly global market? We will start in the nineteenth century with the rise of consumer culture, examining how cultures and people considered "primitive" achieved value as objects for exchange and entertainment, and then investigate how this idea takes shape in our contemporary moment. Topics include: sex tourism; commodification of "queer" and multiracial aesthetics; "compassionate" consumption.