Willamette University

Women's and Gender Studies

What to Expect from Women's and Gender Studies

Willamette University's Women's and Gender Studies classes are both engaging and challenging. Students can take classes which focus on a variety of topics, such as Feminist Theory, Gender and Sexuality in Greek Society, Psychology of Women and Gender and many others. Each class will provide different expectations and experiences. This page will show you a glance of what you could expect from WGS.

We encourage and support WGS student involvement in national women's and gender studies communities and organizations. Please consider becoming a member of NWSA or NWWSA and/or attending their annual conferences.

For Senior Majors:

Feminist Theory

One component of Dr. Hobgood’s “Feminist Theory” course is to create a syllabus of one’s own design for a course that emphasizes feminist theory. Some students choose to draw heavily from our course reading list, while some find entirely different sources and topics that engage the central concepts, questions, and architecture of “feminism” more broadly.

Syllabi address courses of study at various levels, and are highly interdisciplinary. Topics have ranged from “Modified Bodies,” a course examining forms of bodily modifications (e.g., cosmetic surgery, eating disorders, body-building, “reconstructive” genital surgeries, tattooing, and piercing), to a feminist-religious studies course entitled “Early Patriarchal Developments” that explored ancient Israel and Mesopotamia as sources for our “modern,” Western patriarchal system, to a course on “Rape Culture and the Media” that used print and visual media to analyze how contemporary media framing contributes to rape culture.

Examples from 2009, as well as six syllabi produced out of “Feminist Theory” in spring 2011.

Student Syllabi