Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Women's Studies at other local colleges/universities

G&C: guided by what's best for the students?

     Recently (see), I described the remarkable hostility with which faculty in the School of Guidance and Counseling recently responded to a proposal, by an instructor (a historian) in the School of Humanities and Languages, to develop a more comprehensive Women’s Studies (type) program, to be located in H&L.

     Oddly, at IVC, the Women’s Studies program is housed in the School of Guidance and Counseling*, which lists three WS courses:
• Women's Studies 10: INTRODUCTION TO WOMEN'S STUDIES
• Women's Studies 100: AWARENESS OF THE FEMALE EXPERIENCE
• Women's Studies 120: WOMEN/CAREERS AND LIFESTYLE
     In my previous post (see), I found elements of the course descriptions of G&C's WS courses to be worrisome (poorly written, etc.). I questioned locating WS in Guidance and Counseling when it can be housed instead in an academic area (e.g., Humanities or the Social Sciences) that routinely produces scholars with the background and expertise to approach something like WS. Finally, I condemned G&C’s unprofessional treatment of an instructor—a new hire with a very strong background in WS (and related studies)—who sought to develop and improve WS instruction at this college and in a manner that posed no threat to G&S’s existing WS courses.

     Eventually, Humanities faculty will revisit this matter using the college's program realignment policy. Hence, we'll leave the question of what's best for WS instruction at IVC in the hands of college faculty.

     I thought it might be useful to compare IVC's current WS program with WS programs (or related programs) in some local colleges or universities, namely:
  • CSU Fullerton
  • UC Irvine
  • Saddleback College
[See also Women's Studies at Santa Monica College]

California State University, Fullerton
Women and Gender Studies Program

Located in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Description of program:
Department of Women and Gender Studies
Women and Gender Studies explores power as it relates to gender and other forms of identity, including sexuality, race, class and nation. Courses emphasize critical thinking and analysis and social justice activism. We also offer a minor in Queer Studies for students interested in more in-depth analysis of sexualities and theory.
Courses:
Women & Gender Studies Course Descriptions

WMST 100 Introduction to Gender Studies and the Humanities
WMST 101 Introduction to Ethnic Studies 

WMST 205 Women's World Movements 

WMST 302 Introduction to Intercultural Women's Studies
WMST 308 Asian American Women 

WMST 310 Black Women in America 

WMST 312 Multicultural Identities and Women's Experience 

WMST 313 La Chicana 

WMST 316 Anthropology of Sex and Gender 

WMST 320 Gendered Techno-Culture 

WMST 343 Philosophy of Feminism 

WMST 350 Research, Methodology, and Writing 

ECON 355 Economics of Gender and Work 

WMST 360 Politics of Sexuality 

WMST 410 Women, Health, and Aging 

WMST 450 Theory, Practice, Internship, and Community Service 

WMST 480 Feminist Theories 

WMST 485 Women and Politics 

WMST 499 Independent Study 


Faculty:
Six full-time faculty are listed.

UC Irvine
Women’s Studies Program

Located in the School of Humanities

Description:
Department of Women’s Studies (overview)
UCI’s Department of Women’s Studies is dedicated to the study of women, gender, and sexuality in their complex articulation with race, ethnicity, class, religion, and nationality. The Department’s goal is to foster critical and creative analysis of the various disciplinary perspectives—historical, political, economic, representational, technological, and scientific—that have constituted women, gender, and sexuality as objects of study. By emphasizing a rigorous interdisciplinary perspective in their teaching and research, the Women’s Studies faculty seek to produce new knowledge about the social meanings of gender, race, class, and sexuality, and to equip students with a range of analytical and methodological skills.
Courses (undergraduate only)

WOMN ST 20. Queer Studies. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 50A. Gender and Feminism in Everyday Life. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 50B. Gender and Power. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 50C. Gender and Popular Culture. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 60A. Gender and Science. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 60B. Gender and Law. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 60C. Gender and Religion. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 70. Special Topics in Gender. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 100A. Knowledge and Social Change. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 100B. Feminist Theory. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 100C. Feminist Cultural Studies. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 110A. Gender, State, and Nation. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 110B. Money, Sex, and Power. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 110C. Producing Gender Transnationally. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 120A. Modern Pleasures. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 120B. Image Problems. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 120C. Practices of Embodiment. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 139. Topics in Gender Studies. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 139W. Topics in Gender Studies. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 155. Topics in Women's Studies. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 157A. Topics in Queer Studies. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 157B. Queer Lives and Knowledge. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 165B. Sexuality, Health and Medicine. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 165F. Gender and Technology. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 167A. Militarism and Gender. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 168B. The Politics of Style. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 170. Gender, Feminism, Literature, and Language. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 171. Gender, Feminism, and History. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 172. Gender, Race, and Nation in Latin America. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 173. Gender, Feminism, and Philosophy. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 174. Gender, Feminism, and the Arts. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 175. Gender, Feminism, and the Media. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 176. Race and Empire in Colonial Latin America . 4 Units.
WOMN ST 180. Gender, Feminism, and Anthropology. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 181. Gender, Feminism, and Cognitive Psychology. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 182. Gender, Feminism and Economics. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 183. Gender, Feminism, and Sociology. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 184. Gender, Feminism, and Political Science. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 185. Gender, Feminism, and Social Sciences. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 187. Gender, Feminism, and Social Ecology. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 188. Gender, Feminism, and Science. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 189. Gender, Feminism, and Interdisciplinary Studies. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 190. Topics in Sexualities Studies. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 197. Senior Seminar in Women's Studies. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 198. Directed Group Study. 4 Units.
WOMN ST 199. Independent Study . 1-4 Units.

Four Core Faculty are listed:
  • Laura H. Y. Kang, Ph.D. University of California, Santa Cruz, Associate Professor of Women’s Studies, Comparative Literature, and English….
  • Lilith Mahmud, Ph.D. Harvard University, Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies and Anthropology….
  • Jeanne Scheper, Ph.D. University of California, Santa Barbara, Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies….
  • Jennifer Terry, Ph.D. University of California, Santa Cruz, Associate Professor of Women’s Studies and Comparative Literature….

Saddleback College
Women's and Gender Studies

Located in the Division of Social and Behavioral Science

Description:
Women's and Gender Studies
The Women's and Gender Studies program at Saddleback College explores how women's and men's lives are affected by; society's values and traditions and institutions. The curriculum examines how belief structures, historical events, political systems and economic institutions shape the status of women and men in a domestic and global perspective, as well as how these experiences differ by race, class, ethnicity, nationality, religiion, ability and sexual orientation. The Women's and Gender Studies curriculum is interdisciplinary in scope and teaching, with faculty members from across a range of disciplines teaching within the major and courses count as general edeucation [sic] requirements for the Associate in Arts degree and for university transfer programs....
Courses:
Women’s and Gender Studies (pdf; see p. 242)
WS 10
INTRODUCTION TO WOMEN’S STUDIES …
An exploration of the impact of social insti¬tutions and cultural practices on the lives of women in the contemporary United States. Focuses on the ways in which differences of race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, and age define women’s experiences and identities.

WS 31
GENDER AND POPULAR CULTURE …
Examines how forms of popular culture such as advertising, film, television and music construct gender and how those construc¬tions become cultural norms. Explores how popular culture defines and shapes ideas of women, men, race, class and sexuality.

WS 120
WOMEN AND CAREERS …
Complete process of self-evaluation, decision-making, and goal setting. Offers the opportunity to reassess career aspirations, to explore the current job market, and to become acquainted with successful job-hunting and career-planning techniques.

WS 189
SPECIAL TOPICS …
The Special Topics course is a grouping of short seminars designed to provide students with the latest ideas in a field of study. The course content is thematic in nature and each seminar within the course differs from other offerings in the same course.

WS 289
SPECIAL TOPICS …
The Special Topics course is a grouping of short seminars designed to provide students with the latest ideas in a field of study. The course content is thematic in nature and each seminar within the course differs from other offerings in the same course.
     *The historical explanation for this was touched upon in my previous post.
     The program realignment policy can be found here.

17 comments:

Ms. Bea said...

The Women and Careers class is so, so 70s. Do any of these courses transfer?

Roy Bauer said...

Think so.

Anonymous said...

At Santa Monica College, the Women's Studies programs is housed in the School of Philosophy and Social Sciences. This is their description:

"Women’s Studies is an interdisciplinary field of inquiry analyzing structures of power, especially as they are grounded in gender, race, sexuality, ethnicity, nationality, ability, and other inequalities, and as they configure historical and contemporary struggles for social change. The women and men who enroll in our classes each semester gain the opportunity to understand how social, historical, and psychological forces, organized by the central concept of gender, shape them as individuals; attain a fuller understanding of human behavior, culture, and society made possible by investigating women's lives; acquaint themselves with the experience of women of different economic classes, sexual orientations, and cultural and racial backgrounds; and transfer the critical and analytical skills they acquire in the study of gender and society to other classes, beyond the campus to other activities, and eventually to their professional careers.

There is no limit to what can be done with a degree in Women’s Studies. The A.A. in Women’s Studies prepares students for positions in a wide range of fields, for example, in government and in policy, research and service organizations that focus on women’s issues. Majors learn writing, critical thinking, research, public presentation and leadership skills that are valued by many employers. Employers today are increasingly aware of gender and diversity issues and recognize that Women’s Studies majors are trained to deal with them. Many graduates work in social change and nonprofit helping organizations, where they apply what they have learned to real-life problems. The Women’s Studies major also provides excellent preparation for transfer into a variety of programs in such areas as Women’s Studies, history, sociology, anthropology, psychology and English, as well as professional training in law, medicine and social work."

Anonymous said...

The above clearly demonstrates the value of having discipline experts control the program. This is embarrassing for IVC. And G&C should be ashamed for trying to stop the kind of growth that would benefit our students and campus. Shame!!

Anonymous said...

Women's Studies at Glendale Community College:

Women’s Studies is an interdisciplinary major founded on the promise that gender is a historically variable construction that centrally shapes the historical experience and every day lives of women and men. It also assumes that gender, race, class, and sexual and national identities are constructed in relation to each other. Content areas include concepts of self and family, theories of sex differences, history, cultural contributions, and the study of society’s institutions. The emphasis is on increasing the awareness of objective conditions in women’s lives throughout the world, and on developing critical analytical skills. A degree in women’s studies may be used as preparation for a wide range of careers. Professional opportunities exist in political and social agencies working with women and developing public policy on women’s issues such as health care, employment, family violence, and education. Women’s studies students prepare for careers in such fields as law, journalism, public administration, social services, personnel, and psychology. A women’s studies major may also go on to advanced academic work preparing for a career as a women’s studies scholar.

Their courses transfer to the UCs and Cal Poly Pomona.

link:
http://www.glendale.edu/index.aspx?page=836

Anonymous said...

It seems to me that Women's Studies probably started out in G& C for good reasons but the discipline has obviously outgrown those origins. Doesn't your college have some mechanism or process that addresses what, I agree, is a real issue that threatens the integrity of the courses? I would think WASC would find this highly problematic. Don't they review the catalog? I believe this was one of the issues that really proved dicey for some colleges that were put on probation...their excuses that this is way it's always been taught or this is who has always taught it proved flimsy when placed against state standards. In one case someone had been teaching a course for years in which they had not done any graduate work at all in...The knee-jerk defense of such practices doesn't do anyone any good. Who does your articulation? Who is your VPI?

Anonymous said...

The articulation officer is a counselor.

Anonymous said...

This whole womens studies thing is a bunch of nonsense. Can't believe they actually made it into a curriculum in the first place. Really? If this nonsense is allowed to continue, how about having a men's studies program? How about a program designed to help men protect themselves against sinister females who use the law to take our kids away and squeeze every dime out of us? It seems to be a growing problem worthy of a new program. How about a special testicles studies forum and lecture series?

Anonymous said...

How about having a penis monologues?

Anonymous said...

12:49's comments are EXACTLY the reason we need to update our studies programs. The whole reason that it is so problematic that WS is in counseling is that is has always been criticized by the right as an unworthy discipline. Placing it as an isolated discipline in a student service school and allowing people without training to teach it is exactly the reason why it should be realigned. The fact the Counselors don't know this history and the devaluing of women's studies is evidence they shouldn't have it!!

Anonymous said...

Having read the entire course outline, I can say it is so 70s in its entirity.

Anonymous said...

What role does the Curriculum Committee play at your school? Or is it just a rubber stamp process?

Anonymous said...

IVC could use a Testicular Studies Program (TSP). It can be housed in A100 and Mr. Balls could be its mascot greeting students in the traffic circle...

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/senior-testicle-bat-cancer-research-article-1.1367516

Anonymous said...

The presence of instructors teaching courses outside their disciplines is a major Accreditation no-no - especially if this practice has been brought the the attention of the administration and it persists anyway. I know of what I speak. Equivalency can be only given by those who are discipline experts - not by desperate colleagues or administrators. They should know that. Again, I speak from experience. I notice that one of your Women's Studies courses in the spring is using a textbook titled "How to Flunk Out of College: 101 Surefire Strategies That Guarantee Failure" which hardly seems appropriate for a course titled "Intro to Women's Studies." Good luck. It seems you have a hard row to hoe.

Anonymous said...

"How to Flunk Out of College: 101 Surefire Strategies That Guarantee Failure" ? How can that be? What IS the curriculum like?

Anonymous said...

You're not kidding, are you? Dang.

Anonymous said...

5:41 is right - equivalency can only be granted by discipline experts. the idea is that only discipline experts can recognize true equivalency. This prevent the embarrassment of giving the class to someone who has to read the materials for the first time, just like the students. You wouldn't want that, would you? And yes, this can be a big issue in Accreditation as you might imagine.

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