Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies

Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Programs | Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Courses

Faculty and Staff List

Professor Emeriti
J. G. Simalchik, B.A., M.A., Ph.D.

Professors
B. Bain, B.A., M.A., Ph.D.
K. Bos, B.A (Hons), M.St., Ph.D.
N. Charles, B.A., M.A., Ph.D.
J.A. Ellapen, B.A., M.A., M.A., Ph.D.
R.C. Lord, B.A., M.A., Ph.D.
V. Tahmasebi-Birgani, B.A., M.A., Ph.D.

Chair
Dr. B. Chrubasik
Maanjiwe nendamowinan, Room 4264
905-828-5283
hs.chair@utoronto.ca

Program Director
Dr. R.C. Lord 
Maanjiwe nendamowinan
wgs.historicalstudies@utoronto.ca

Departmental Manager
Duncan Hill
Maanjiwe nendamowinan, Room 4260
905-569-4913
dl.hill@utoronto.ca

Academic Advisor & Program Administrator
Sharon Marjadsingh
Maanjiwe nendamowinan, Room 4272
905-569-4914
hs.advisor@utoronto.ca

 

Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) at UTM is an interdisciplinary program focused on feminist research and theory, examining how power shapes gender and intersects with race, class, culture, and other identities. Drawing from fields such as history, sociology, philosophy, science, political science, Indigenous studies, cultural studies, critical race studies, black studies, and diaspora studies, students analyze society through critical approaches grounded in historical and social contexts. The program fosters innovative teaching and experiential learning on issues affecting women, men, queer, trans, and racialized communities. It prepares students to engage these challenges across local, national, and transnational contexts. A major or minor in WGSS prepares students for careers in a range of academic and professional areas including policy, law, health, social justice, social service, government, technology, education, media, and culture.

Students should also review the Degree Requirements section prior to selecting courses

Program website: https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/historical-studies/undergraduate-programs/w…

Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Programs

Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies - Major (Arts) - ERMAJ1443

Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies - Major (Arts) - ERMAJ1443

Enrolment Requirements:

Limited Enrolment – Students enrolling at the end of first year (4.0 credits) must achieve a minimum grade of 65% in WGS101H5. Students who do not meet this criteria can apply to enrol after second year (8.0 credits) with a minimum grade of 65% in WGS200Y5.

Completion Requirements:

7.0 credits, meeting the following requirements:

First Year:

WGS101H5

Higher Years:

3. WGS200Y5
4. 1.0 WGS credits at the 200-level
5. 2.0 WGS credits at the 300-level
6. 1.0 WGS credits at the 400-level
7. 1.5 additional credits in WGS at any level or from the list of electives below

Electives:
Students are responsible for checking the co- and prerequisites for all courses.


ERMAJ1443

Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies - Minor (Arts) - ERMIN1443

Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies - Minor (Arts) - ERMIN1443

Completion Requirements:

4.0 credits, meeting the following requirements:

First Year:

1. WGS101H5

Higher Years:

2. WGS200Y5
3. 0.5 WGS credit at the 200-level
4. 1.0 WGS credits at the 300-level
5. 0.5 WGS credit at the 400-level
6. 0.5 additional WGS credit at any level


ERMIN1443

Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Courses

WGS101H5 • Introduction to Women and Gender Studies

This foundation course introduces the core ideas students will explore throughout their studies in Women and Gender Studies. It immerses students in a highly participatory and provocative encounter with history, social theory, politics, policy, art and culture seen through a gender lens. It provides an interdisciplinary overview of the historical 'waves' of women's movements for equality in a global context and background to the development of Women/Gender Studies as a site of learning and feminist inquiry.

Exclusions: WGS160Y5 or WSTA01H3 or WSTA03H3

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L/12T
Mode of Delivery: In Class, Online (Summer only)

WGS102H5 • Reading and Writing in Women and Gender Studies

Using key feminist texts, this course advances students thinking, reading and writing in the discipline of Women and Gender Studies. The emphasis is placed on the development and application of interdisciplinary skills in the interpretation, analysis, criticism, and advocacy of ideas encountered in Women and Gender Studies.

Recommended Preparation: WGS101H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L/12T
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS200H5 • Theories in Women and Gender Studies

This course provides an opportunity to engage in an in-depth examination of specialized and scholarly work within women and gender studies with a focus on the diverse and multidisciplinary expressions of feminist thought from the perspective of postcolonial, transnational, intersectional, diasporic, Black feminist, and Indigenous theories. This course situates the importance of praxis—the relationship between theory and social practice—to women and gender studies. Students will engage throughout with the theories of gender and its connection to race, sexuality, class and ability across historical and contemporary contexts.

Prerequisites: WGS101H5
Exclusions: WGS200Y5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L/12T
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS201H5 • Introduction to Sexuality Studies

This course provides an in-depth introduction to the interdisciplinary field of sexuality studies. Students will focus on how sexual identities and norms are shaped by cultural, historical, and social contexts.

Exclusions: WGS200Y5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L/12T
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS202H5 • Fundamentals of Research in Women and Gender Studies

This interdisciplinary course focuses on the visions and methods that feminist scholars use to study women's and gender issues within and across a range of traditional disciplines. The course explores feminist epistemologies and research methods to understand how to carry out feminist research. We will focus on how feminist scholars challenge dominant theories of knowledge and the major methodologies employed in the social sciences and humanities.


Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS205H5 • Introduction to Feminism and Popular Culture

This course explores the forms and functions of popular culture and its representation and understanding of the social category of women. It examines specific media forms including, but not limited to, film, song, visual arts, music, video, television, advertising and new media forms. It critically analyzes the impact of these portrayals on women in society while examining the cultural constructions of race, sexuality, class and ability.

Exclusions: WGS271Y1 or WSTB13H3. May not be taken with or after WGS470H5.

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L/12T
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS210H5 • Women, Gender and Labour

This course covers a wide range of issues relating to female participation in public and private sectors of the today's Canadian workforce. It examines the relevance of education, perceptions, sexuality and family issues. Services and infrastructure, as well as collective bargaining are also addressed.


Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L/12T
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS211H5 • Gender, Technology and the Body

This course engages with feminist theories of embodiment to explore the body’s intersections with gender and technology. Drawing on the interdisciplinary fields of feminist studies, science and technology studies and disability studies, it explores a range of technological and scientific policies and processes that shape and affect bodies in transnational contexts.

Recommended Preparation: WGS101H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L/12T
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS215H5 • Introduction to Women, Public Policy and the Law

This course introduces students to women's position in Canada as political actors and provides gender-based analysis in relation to public policy and law in Canada. Students will study women's historical participation in and exclusion from policy decision-making processes, and evaluate the impact of feminism and women's activism on Canadian public policies. Using intersectional framework, the course will also examine different ways in which public policies can be made more responsive to gender and diversity concerns as well as the role public policy can play in overcoming gender inequalities. We will investigate key historical changes in public policies affecting Canadian women in such areas as family, workplace, education, poverty-welfare, sexuality and reproductive laws, immigration and refugee laws, and global issues. The course concludes with women's achievements in this area.

Exclusions: WSTC14H3
Recommended Preparation: WGS101H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L/12T
Mode of Delivery: In Class, Online (Summer only)

WGS250H5 • Women in Families

This course studies how the notion of family is conceptualized and organized transnationally and historically and examines the multiple familiar roles of women in diverse contexts.

Recommended Preparation: WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L/12T
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS299Y5 • Research Opportunity Program

This course provides a richly rewarding opportunity for students in their second year to work in the research project of a professor in return for 299Y course credit. Students enrolled have an opportunity to become involved in original research, learn research methods and share in the excitement and discovery of acquiring new knowledge. Participating faculty members post their project descriptions for the following summer and fall-winter sessions in early February and students are invited to apply in early March. See Experiential and International Opportunities for more details.

Prerequisites: Minimum 4.0 credits or permission of the instructor.

Course Experience: University-Based Experience
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS301H5 • Representing Islam

The course explores historical and contemporary debates regarding the construction of gender in Islam. It examines historic and literary representations, ethnographic narratives, legal and human rights discourses, the politics of veiling, and Islamic feminism. This course situates Muslim women as complex, multidimensional actors engaged in knowledge production and political and feminist struggles, as opposed to the static, victim-centered, Orientalist images that have regained currency in the representation of Muslim women in the post 9/11 era.

Prerequisites: WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5
Exclusions: NEW368H1 or WSTC13H3
Recommended Preparation: WGS202H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS325H5 • Sustainability: Society and Feminist Praxis

Sustainability considers humanity’s relationship to the environment. It reflects on a feminist politic of care and the specific ways people are affected along lines of race, gender, class, sexuality and citizenship. It explores how feminist scholarship seeks to direct policy change and respond to ecological and climatic crises.

Recommended Preparation: WGS101H5 or WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS335H5 • Women, Migration and Diaspora

This course examines the process of migration to Canada from a gender perspective, noting the interplay between structural impediments and women's own agency. Historical perspectives on migration and government policy, and on ways women have rebuilt lives and shaped communities.

Exclusions: ERI335H5 or NEW335H1 or WGS380H1 or WSTB06H3
Recommended Preparation: WGS202H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS336H5 • Political Aesthetics and Feminist Representation

This course engages with feminist theoretical models and approaches to examine the ways in which the “body” has been constructed, enacted, and embodied through aesthetic forms like photography, cinema, music, performance, film and to understand how women, queer, and racialized artists use aesthetics as a response to social and political crises. This course considers what constitutes the relationship between the political and the aesthetic and approaches aesthetics as important sites of ideological and political tension.


Exclusions: JNV300H1
Recommended Preparation: WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5 or WGS202H5 or WGS205H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS337H5 • Special Topics in Women and Gender Studies

A special topic by guest instructor. Topics vary from year to year. Visit the Departmental web site at Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies for further information.

Recommended Preparation: WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5 or WGS202H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L
Mode of Delivery: Online, In Class

WGS340H5 • Black Feminisms: Diasporic Conversations on Theory and Practice

This course examines how Black Feminisms are theorized, produced and practiced, by predominantly Black women scholars, activists and cultural producers located in the diaspora - Canada, the United States and the Caribbean.

Prerequisites: WGS101H5 or WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5
Recommended Preparation: WGS202H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS341H5 • Black Queer Cinema and Visual Culture

This course introduces students to LGBTIQ themed films and visual culture from Africa and the diaspora. It analyzes gender and sexuality from the perspective of black/African filmmakers, visual artists, and theorists.

Prerequisites: WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5 or WGS205H5
Recommended Preparation: WGS336H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS343H5 • The Montreal Experience: Sex and Gender in la Cité

This course examines how gender and sexuality intersect with factors such as nationhood, race, language, politics, religion, geography, and the arts in Quebec. After six classroom sessions, the class will travel to Montreal for 4-5 days, where they will visit museums, cultural institutions and attend guest lectures at various institutions. This experiential learning opportunity allows students to engage in deeper learning to see the issues and histories they have been studying come to life. Ancillary fees apply for this course.

Recommended Preparation: WGS101H5 or WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5 or WGS202H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS345H5 • Genealogies of South Asian Feminisms

This course examines the histories of activism for and by women in South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka) from the colonial period to the present. Topics include colonialism, the Partition of 1947, war, religion, development, labour, nationalism, and the family/reproductive rights.

Prerequisites: WGS101H5 or WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5
Recommended Preparation: WGS202H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS347H5 • Indigenous Feminisms and Decolonization

This course explores themes related to Indigenous feminist scholarship and activism in North America. The course centres on how Indigenous women engage in decolonial practices as a response to histories of colonialism and genocide. Themes include status and tribal nations; oral history and narrative; violence and resistance, knowledge construction and pedagogy, community, self-governance and freedom.

Prerequisites: WGS101H5 or WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5
Recommended Preparation: WGS202H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS348H5 • Sex, Gender, and the Environment

This course discusses, historicizes, and theorizes the undeniable connection between the health of our bodies and the health of our planet. This course engages with Indigenous feminisms, Black feminisms, and queer/decolonial/anticolonial thought to build a response to historic and ongoing colonial, gender-based, and environmental violence through grounded justice practices.

Prerequisites: WGS101H5 or WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5
Recommended Preparation: ANT241H5 or GGR202H5 or SOC228H5 or WGS102H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS350H5 • Critical Race Theory in Women and Gender Studies

This course's central focus is an examination of the way race and gender operate together in structuring social inequality. It offers the analytical tools for exploring the interconnections between race and gender, along with other systems of domination, and incorporates perspectives from women of colour and from women in the global "South."

Prerequisites: WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5
Exclusions: WSTB11H3
Recommended Preparation: WGS202H5 or WGS368H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS351H5 • Gender, Race, and Surveillance

From forced sterilization and sex-selective abortion, to selfies, prisons, and biosecurity, this course conceptualizes suspicion and technologies of surveillance in transnational perspectives. Informed by a range of interdisciplinary scholarship, namely critical transnational feminist and Black feminist texts, it interrogates how surveillance has long enacted racialized, gendered, and biopolitical injustices.

Prerequisites: WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5
Recommended Preparation: WGS101H5 or WGS202H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS353H5 • Theories of Masculinity

Working with gender studies' theories, this course draws on social and cultural constructions and practices to offer a complex reading of masculinities. It explores contemporary debates of the ways in which masculinities have been theorized and experienced in practices and identity formation.

Exclusions: WGS275H1
Recommended Preparation: WGS101H5 or WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5 or WGS202H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS354H5 • Gender, Sexuality and Sport

This course explores how gender, sexuality and other intersectional identity markers work within and against structures of privilege and oppression in the world of sport. It takes up topics and themes that inform popular culture and influence the construction of social norms.

Recommended Preparation: WGS101H5 or WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5 or WGS201H5 or WGS202H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS355H5 • Wired Women: Gender, Cyberspace and New Information Technology

The course examines how computer technologies facilitate women's participation in cyberspace and how women define and construct their involvement. It studies the simultaneous generation of new modalities of empowerment and disempowerment including language, role-playing, communication, gaming, and networking and conduits for sex trafficking, harassment and other forums of exploitation.

Recommended Preparation: WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5 or WGS202H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS365H5 • Gender, Justice and the Law

This course discusses the construction and representation of women in Canadian and International law. It analyzes specific contexts and historical issues including employment, sexuality, reproduction, deviance and a variety of justice theories relating to gender.

Exclusions: WGS365H1 or WSTC16H3
Recommended Preparation: WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5 or WGS202H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L
Mode of Delivery: Online, In Class

WGS366H5 • Women and Psychology

An interdisciplinary analysis of the relationship of women to a variety of psychological and psychoanalytical theories and practices. Topics include gender development, stereotyping and gender roles, the impact of gender on intimate relationships, women and the psychological establishment, women's mental health issues and feminist approaches to psychoanalysis.

Prerequisites: WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5
Exclusions: PSYD18H3 or WGS372H1
Recommended Preparation: WGS202H5 or WGS367H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS367H5 • Women and Health

Feminist theories and frameworks examining the interconnections between women, health and biomedicine in North America and transnationally.

Exclusions: NEW367H1 or WGS367H1 or WSTC21H3
Recommended Preparation: WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5 or WGS202H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS368H5 • Women in World Cultures

Examines the diversity and shared experiences of women in western and non-western societies. This is primarily a history course, supplemented with some contemporary perspectives. It compares women in diverse economic, cultural and religious settings. As part of this course, students may have the option of participating in an international learning experience that will have an additional cost and application process.

Exclusions: ERI368H5 or NEW368H1 or WGS368H1
Recommended Preparation: WGS202H5

International Component: International - Optional
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS369H5 • Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (S.T.E.M.) analyzes how society, culture, education, and intersectional power relationships shape women’s lives and their career choices and studies the underlying gendered issues in these professions.

Recommended Preparation: WGS101H5 or WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS369Y5 • Gender, Colonialism and Postcolonialism

An examination of the complexities and the processes of colonialism/postcolonialism. Emphasis is placed on writings by feminists in the Global South, and the diaspora, to explore how subordination was forged and resisted in specific colonial and postcolonial settings.

Exclusions: NEW369Y1 or WGS369H1
Recommended Preparation: WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5 or WGS202H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 48L
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS370H5 • On Love: Gender, Sexuality, Identity

This course considers the construction and mobilization of the gendered, sexed and sexualized subject within its historical, cultural and geographical contexts and seeks to understand the role of love in the construction of gendered identity and sexuality. Through its examination of texts on love, passion and desire, it investigates the lives and treatment of selected women in feminist scholarship in order to think through how ideas about race, class, sexuality, desire and danger are mediated in and through the body.

Prerequisites: WGS200Y5 or WGS201H5
Exclusions: WGS374H1
Recommended Preparation: WGS202H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS372H5 • Theories of Sexuality

This course offers a critical overview of contemporary theories of sexuality, focusing on transnational discussions by feminists and queer theorists.

Exclusions: WGS450H5 or WSTD03H3
Recommended Preparation: WGS101H5 or WGS200Y5 or WGS201H5 or WGS202H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS373H5 • Gender, Violence and Resistance

This course will focus on how gender and violence shapes and impacts the lives of women and LGBT persons. The course will explore the concept of gender and the myriad of ways in which it has been shaped by historical, and contextual relations of power and privilege. The course will explore how scholars in the feminist/women's movement have defined the concept of violence as it impacts women and girls.

Exclusions: WGS373H1 or WSTB12H3
Recommended Preparation: WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5 or WGS202H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS375H5 • The Aesthetics of Sexuality

What is the relationship between aesthetic form and sexuality? Drawing on theories and methods from feminist and sexuality studies, this course engages this question to understand the emergence of queer aesthetics as a response to social and political crisis, whilst comprehending how LGBTIQ+ artists create livable worlds by imagining otherwise.

Prerequisites: WGS200Y5 or WGS201H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24L
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS410H5 • Independent Project in Study of Women & Gender

An opportunity to carry out an extended research project under the supervision of a faculty member. A proposal must be presented to the faculty member and consent obtained before the end of the July registration period.

Prerequisites: WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5 and 2.0 WGS 300+ level credits
Exclusions: WGS411Y5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Mode of Delivery: In Class, Online (Summer only)

WGS411Y5 • Independent Project in Study of Women & Gender

An opportunity to carry out an extended research project under the supervision of a faculty member. A proposal must be presented to the faculty member and consent obtained before the end of the July registration.

Prerequisites: WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5 and 2.0 WGS 300+ level credits.
Exclusions: WGS410H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS415H5 • Black Feminist Performance in Popular Culture and Everyday Life

This course provides students with an understanding of how Black Feminist Performance is read, interpreted and experienced in popular culture and everyday life. The course focuses on texts and cultural work produced by feminist scholars, critics and artists who engage with race, gender and sexuality across multiple sites.

Prerequisites: WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5 and 1.0 WGS 300+ level credits.

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24S
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS418H5 • Feminist Cultural Studies of Biomedicine

From vaccines and contraception, to erectile dysfunction drugs and clinical trials, biomedicine and biotechnologies are increasingly powerful and transformative modalities transnationally. Incorporating methods from feminist postcolonial, cultural, media and technoscience studies, this course examines biomedicine by critically attending to its intersections with gender, race, sexuality, colonialism, capitalism and culture.

Prerequisites: WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5 and 1.0 WGS 300+ level credits.
Recommended Preparation: WGS202H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24S
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS419H5 • Gender and Disability

A critical interdisciplinary investigation of how gender impacts on central topics in disability studies: the normalized body and cultural representations; sexuality; violence; the cognitive and social roles of medicine; transnational perspectives on disability; and disability rights and issues of social justice including the experience of people with disabilities and responses of resistance.

Prerequisites: WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5 and 1.0 WGS 300+ level credits.
Exclusions: WGS366H1
Recommended Preparation: WGS202H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24S
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS420H5 • Engendering Human Rights

This seminar analyzes human rights responses to particular gendered sites of historical repression including examples of genocide, torture and war. It includes reactions generated from government and international organizations as well as remedies developed by victims/survivors. As part of this course, students may have the option of participating in an international learning experience that will have an additional cost and application process.

Prerequisites: WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5 and 1.0 WGS 300+ level credits or ( HIS338H5 or HIS438H5).
Exclusions: WSTD04H3
Recommended Preparation: WGS202H5

International Component: International - Optional
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24S
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS421H5 • Engendering Ethics

This course situates feminist ethics within the context of Western moral theories, and will consider the challenges that have been posed to this tradition from careful consideration of the category of women's experience. It will examine foundational texts in the history of ethics as well as more recent feminist interventions in such paradigms. The course complements the study of the theoretical texts with analysis and discussion of contemporary social and political issues pertaining to gendered selves.

Prerequisites: WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5 and 1.0 WGS 300+ level credits.
Recommended Preparation: WGS202H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24S
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS425H5 • Decolonial Feminist Archival Practices

This course challenges the notion of the archives as institutions and repositories of historical truths. It develops students’ archival analytical skills using critical feminist intersectional, decolonial, diasporic, and queer approaches. Students learn to reimagine and rethink archival spaces.

Prerequisites: WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5 and 1.0 WGS 300+ level credits.
Recommended Preparation: WGS372H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24S
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS430H5 • Diasporic Sexualities

What can diaspora studies teach us about sexuality studies? And, what can sexuality studies teach us about diaspora studies? This class examines the relationship between diaspora studies, sexuality studies, and feminist studies by focusing on how diasporic movements of bodies have altered and transformed modern conceptualizations of gender and sexuality. It will investigate how diasporic subjects negotiate their relationship to constructs of home and (un)belonging.

Prerequisites: WGS200Y5 or WGS201H5 and 1.0 WGS 300+ level credits.
Exclusions: WGS430H1
Recommended Preparation: WGS202H5 or WGS205H5 or DTS201H5 or DTS202H5 or DTS301H5 or DTS401H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24S
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS434H5 • Special Topics in Women & Gender Studies

A special topic by a guest instructor. Topics vary from year to year. Visit the Departmental web site at Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies for further information.

Prerequisites: WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5 and 1.0 WGS 300+ level credits.
Recommended Preparation: WGS202H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24S
Mode of Delivery: Online, In Class

WGS435Y5 • Women and Gender Studies Practicum

The practicum allows advanced WGS students to combine theory and practice through part-time unpaid placement with a community agency, government body, educational or social change organization.

Prerequisites: WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5
Exclusions: WGS470Y1 or WSTC23H3
Recommended Preparation: 1.0 WGS 300+ level credits

Course Experience: Partnership-Based Experience
Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24S
Mode of Delivery: In Class

WGS455H5 • Queer Theory

This course examines the theories, histories and experiences of 'queer' in Canada and transnationally. It incorporates the diversity of emergent cultural expressions of LGBTQ sexuality understood beyond definitions of social identities.

Prerequisites: WGS200Y5 or WGS201H5 and 1.0 WGS 300+ level credits.
Exclusions: WGS376H1
Recommended Preparation: WGS202H5 or WGS370H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24S
Mode of Delivery: In Class, Online (Summer only)

WGS470H5 • Politicizing Culture: Pop Feminism and Representation

This course examines the intricate relationships among feminism, culture, power and representation. Major themes include: the construction of gendered, sexualized, and racialized subjectivities; ideologies and the media; bio-and communication technologies; neoliberalism and neocolonialism; and counter interpretations, reclamations, and remixes of hegemonic cultural forms.

Prerequisites: WGS200H5 or WGS200Y5 and 1.5 WGS 300+ level credits.
Recommended Preparation: WGS101H5 or WGS202H5 or WGS205H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Total Instructional Hours: 24S
Mode of Delivery: Online, In Class

WGS497Y5 • Independent Reading

Student-initiated project of reading and research, supervised by a member of the Department. Primarily intended for students in a Major program. After obtaining a supervisor, a student must apply to the Department of Historical Studies. A maximum of 1.0 credit in a reading course is permitted.


Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Mode of Delivery: In Class

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