ARCC SUBMISSION LEARNING OUTCOMES
GENDER EQUALITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
CORE COURSES
GEND 1025 INTRODUCTION TO GENDER EQUALITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
FacultySal Renshaw, Wendy Peters, Renée Valiquette
Calendar Course Description:
This course will introduce students to some of the central themes, debates and issues that shape and inform the program in Gender Equality and Social Justice. In particular this course will foreground the intersections of race, class, sexuality, ability as well as the effects of colonization in order to examine popular issues and controversial debates that have been central to the development of women’s studies, gender studies, and equality rights movements. Through an interdisciplinary examination of our systems of knowledge and social institutions, the course will reflect on the way our public and private relationships as well as the quality of our lives continue to be shaped in relation to these systems and institutions. The course offers a range of perspectives on the work, status, and the lives of women and men in our local, national and global communities. It also provides an overview of the history of gender through the various contributions of women and men to changing the social, economic and legal status of disadvantaged persons and groups.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
- Demonstrate understanding of the key social justice and equality movements in the West, particularly over the 20th century
- Demonstrate understanding of and use an intersectional approach/methodology in written and oral analyses of injustice and inequality
- Clearly articulate to a lay person how the central identity categories of sex, gender, race, class and sexuality continue to operate to mediate power and privilege across global and local contexts
- Begin to apply the conceptual and theoretical lexicon of the discipline to ‘real world’ examples of injustice and inequality.
- Write an argument based research essay on a theme in the course which demonstrates acquired knowledge rather than either so called common sense or received ‘wisdom’
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
- Confidence in asserting scholarly research based knowledge, rather than opinion, of key social justice issues, both historical and contemporary.
- A developing ability in appropriately use the conceptual and theoretical language that characterizes the discipline.
- A modest understanding of the way power informs privilege and opportunity
- A promising ability to engage in reasoned, informed debate and analysis of what are often highly emotive and contentious issues.
GEND 3306 THEORIES OF POWER AND EQUALITY
Facultyvarious
Calendar Course Description:
This course provides a broad historical examination of theories and perspectives of power, sexual difference, and gender equality. We will trace the relationship between the history of ideas and significant social events and revolutionary political activism that have taken place over the centuries. Our overview will include consideration of mainstream theoretical traditions, such as humanism, liberalism, socialism, and psychoanalysis, and their implications in the theory and development of race, class and gender analysis, feminist theories and perspectives, and social justice.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
- Clearly identify through written assignments, in-class dialogue and oral presentations the key theorists, debates and questions central to the study of power and inequality
- Critically assess the ways in which theories of power, justice and equality have changed over time and in relation to cultural contexts
- Demonstrate understanding of and explain the central place of power within social institutions, discourses, bodies, desires, subjectivities, and agencies within hegemonic systems
- Demonstrate understanding of, explain and assess a range of theories—for example: feminist anti-racism, post structural and post colonialism, as well as legal rights based theories of equality—regarding how power is embodied as always raced, gendered, classed, etc. and how it is differentially experienced by differently sexed subjects.
- Explain and investigate how power relations are also spatially and geographically organized and produced within local, regional, national, international, transnational contexts
- Construct and sustain well reasoned analytical arguments in consistent, coherent and grammatical prose and express these analyses across a range of formats from verbal debate/exchange in class to submitted research essays
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
- Depth of knowledge and familiarity with the key issues, methodologies and theoretical concerns critical to studies of power
- An enhanced ability to apply theory such as, feminist anti-racist interlocking oppressions theory, to the research and examination of the effects of power on everyday life in local, national and global contexts.
- A developed ability to assess, critically reflect upon, and critically engage complex theory and arguments both individually and collaboratively with others.
GEND 4205 HONOURS SEMINAR
FacultyVarious
Calendar Course Description:
Studies in Gender Equality and Social Justice is an interdisciplinary program that examines the social and cultural construction of gender, and its role and impact on social relations, institutions, and related systems of knowledge. It offers students a range of interdisciplinary perspectives on the work, status, and lives of women in our local, national, and global communities, and the contributions of men and women to changing our social, political, economic, and legal status. This seminar will offer students advanced studies in topics related to these themes. The topics will change from year to year
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
- Demonstrate a considerable familiarity with the key theories and methodologies informing social justice and equality analyses particularly in the West, and particularly over the 20th century
- Demonstrate understanding of and use an intersectional approach/methodology in written and oral analyses of injustice and inequality
- Clearly articulate to a lay person how the central identity categories of sex, gender, race, class and sexuality continue to operate to mediate power and privilege across global and local contexts and in relation to the specific theme of the chosen topic
- Demonstrate a sophisticated ability to apply the conceptual and theoretical lexicon of the discipline to ‘real world’ examples of injustice and inequality.
- Develop a clear, coherent thesis proposal and abstract.
- Construct and sustain well reasoned analytical arguments in consistent, coherent and grammatical prose and express these analyses both in a substantial written project/essay and in verbal analyses
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
- Significant depth of knowledge and familiarity with the key issues, methodologies and theoretical concerns critical to developing a sophisticated understanding of the social and political production of inequality and injustice
- An significantly enhanced ability to apply complex theory such as, feminist anti-racism interlocking oppressions theory, to the research and examination of the effects of power on everyday life in local, national and global contexts.
- A comprehensive ability to assess, critically reflect upon, and critically engage complex theory and arguments both individually and collaboratively with others.
GROUP 1 – CULTURE AND CRITICISM
GEND 2026 MAKEOVER CULTURE
FacultyBeth Pentney
Calendar Course Description:
Whether we choose to undergo elective cosmetic surgery, revamp our houses or transform ourselves with diet and exercise we are all a part of a makeover culture. From a variety of theoretical perspectives, students will study film, print, and online texts to analyze the ways that gender, race, class, sexuality, ability, agency, and authenticity are figured in makeover culture. Themes of transformation, good citizenship, self-discipline, beauty, freakishness and consumerism will be explored.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
- Apply a critical understanding of key concepts and theoretical approaches to makeover culture in writing and orally.
- Analyze themes within makeover culture from a feminist cultural studies perspective and evaluate the arguments of scholars in the field.
- Critique mainstream media texts such as print ads, TV series, and magazines for their reproduction of hegemonic representations of gender, race, class and sexuality.
- Investigate the power dynamics at work in media texts using feminist cultural studies theories and methods and analyze their political implications.
- Develop original research on an aspect of makeover culture using primary texts and feminist cultural studies theories and methods.
- Debate the impact(s) of makeover culture from a feminist cultural studies perspective.
- Demonstrate enhanced skills using online learning tools such as blackboard.
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
- A developed knowledge of feminist and communications scholarship in the area of makeover culture, particularly with regard to themes of power, agency, embodiment, discipline, and consumption.
- The ability to support rigorous, original, and critically engaged positions on aspects of makeover culture using academic sources and media texts both orally and in written work.
- The capacity to work collaboratively in a group and present research findings to the class on a topic related to makeover culture.
- The ability to investigate and evaluate the intersectional gendered, racialized, classed and sexed power dynamics at work in media texts, medical discourses, advertising campaigns, and resistance movements related to makeover culture.
GEND 2045WOMEN AND ART HISTORY
FacultyN/A
Calendar Course Description:
This course examines the ideologies that have shaped women as producers of art and as representations in art. It considers the structures of power that enable or legitimize certain artists and art practices while simultaneously excluding others across diverse social, historical, and cultural contexts. Central themes include sexuality and cultural difference, and topics may include feminist re-readings of male-produced art, gender analyses of the notion of genius, representations of the female body, and critical evaluations of the historical canon of art. This course may be credited towards a Major in Fine Arts (Art History and Visual Studies stream).
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
- Articulate a general understanding of different methodological, theoretical, and
conceptual approaches relevant to the fields of Art History and Visual Studies;
- Assess and evaluate different approaches to the fields of Art History and
Visual Studies as they pertain particularly to women in art
- Identify and articulate the contributions of some of the key women artists whose work has been suppressed and/or underemphasized over the history of Western art.
- Demonstrate a general understanding of some of the key contributions of feminist art historians to recovering the history of women in art
- Apply methods from a variety of academic disciplines to the analysis of Western
art and cultural objects
- Demonstrate an understanding of the contingency of creating history and knowledge, and be open to critical self-reflection
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
- A general understanding of how the categories of woman and the feminine have been positioned in Western art and culture from classical antiquity to the 21st century
- Construct and sustain well reasoned analytical arguments concerning the place of gender in Western art history in consistent, coherent and grammatical prose and express these analyses across a range of formats from verbal debate/exchange in class to submitted research essays
- A developing ability to articulate the specific ways in which gender analyses reveal the cultural, historical and political limitations of the concepts of “Western,” “art,” “history,” and “canon.”
GEND 2047 GENDER AND SOCIAL MEDIA
FacultyBeth Pentney
Calendar Course Description:
In this course students explore the role of social media in shaping, reflecting, and re-negotiating dominant ideas of gender, using a feminist cultural studies approach. Issues for consideration may include citizen journalism, virtual realities, e-commerce, gaming, cybersex, access and participation (or lack thereof), modes of production, surveillance, (dis)embodiment, media convergence, and the “digital divide.”
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
- Apply a critical understanding of key concepts and theoretical approaches to social media in writing and orally.
- Analyze trends within social media from feminist cultural studies and communications perspectives, and evaluate the arguments of scholars in the field.
- Critique social media events and spaces for their political and ideological meanings and the representations of gender, race, class and sexuality among them.
- Investigate the power dynamics at work in the production of social media using feminist cultural studies and communications theories and methods, and analyze their political implications.
- Develop original research on an area of social media using primary data and scholarly research.
- Debate the impact(s) of social media on the news media, global economies, literacy, privacy, and labour.
- Design and launch a social media /campaign that reflects on and critiques the gendered, raced, classed and sexed dimensions built into social media.
- Demonstrate enhanced skills using social media.
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
- A developed knowledge of feminist and communications scholarship in the area of social media, particularly with regard to themes of power, education, labour, and consumption.
- The ability to support rigorous, original, and critically engaged positions on social media texts and spaces, using academic sources and media texts both orally and in written work.
- The ability to think critically about one’s personal use of and investment in social media and to reflect on that experience in writing.
- The ability to investigate and evaluate the intersectional gendered, racialized, classed and sexed power dynamics at work in media texts, advertising campaigns, and resistance movements related to and engaged in social media.
GEND 2056SELECTED TOPICS IN CULTURE AND CRITICISM
FacultyN/A
Calendar Course Description:
While remaining substantively focused on culture the specific content of this course will change. The content of this course will vary according to the specialization of the instructor teaching the course.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
- Demonstrate pre-class preparation (reading and reflection) and comprehension of key concepts and ideas during class discussions
- Identify and explain the core issues relating to the specific topic in the culture and criticism stream for that year
- Demonstrate an understanding of the various methodological approaches to research/scholarship in the topic area
- Select, evaluateand integrate information from various sources, including electronic and print resources, for a written response/research paper
- Construct and sustain well reasoned analytical arguments in consistent, coherent and grammatical prose and express these analyses across a range of formats from verbal debate/exchange in class to submitted research essays
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
- An enriched understanding of the critical role of culture in the production of racialized, gendered and classed identities as they relate to the specific theme of the course.
- An understanding of the importance of approaches to knowledge that embrace an intersectional analysis
- An ability to develop a clear thesis, relevant to the course topics, and apply appropriate research methods to support and defend the thesis.
GEND 2166WOMEN, MEDIA AND REPRESENTATION
FacultyWendy Peters
Calendar Course Description:
The body has always occupied a central place in the Western imagination and images of women, in particular, have long been a part of our everyday world. In this course, we will consider the different ways in which women have been represented through various media including popular novels, film, television and magazines. In studying popular representations of women we will pay close attention to the ways in which women are differentially represented along lines of race, class, sexuality and ability. We will review contemporary cultural theories of representation, tools for creating critical cultural analysis, as well as recent debates in feminist media studies. The course will focus not only on how women have been represented by others, but also on how women, in more recent years, have been choosing to influence the means of representation. This course may be credited towards Film and English Studies.
EXPECTATIONS
By the end of the course students will be able to:
- Analyze and evaluate theoretical perspectives in feminist and critical cultural studies.
- Demonstrate through writing and orally an understanding of the notion that “woman” is not an essential and unproblematic category, but a category with discursive force that can be seen in and is produced by media representations.
- Recognize and evaluate how power operates through media representations to value and discipline women differentially along the lines of sex (trans/cis), gender (masculine/feminine), sexuality, race, class, and ability.
- Orally analyze and interpret media representations of women through the application of major theoretical perspectives in feminist and critical cultural studies.
- Develop evidence based arguments to support claims regarding women, power, and media representation.
- Write an essay engaging with scholarly literature in feminist and critical cultural studies in order to create a well-supported analysis of an aspect of the media representation of women.
OUTCOMES
Successful graduates of this course will demonstrate:
- A developed knowledge and critical understanding of how power operates through media representations of women.
- The ability to develop evidence-based and original arguments regarding, and utilizing, the major perspectives of feminist and critical cultural studies.
- The ability to interpret and analyze media texts representing women as they relate to questions of power, gender equality, and social justice.
GEND 2217 GENDER AND THE MEDIA: THEMES AND CONTROVERSIES
FacultyWendy Peters
Calendar Course Description:
This course examines the media's role in the representation of gender through a close examination of various themes and issues. While the issues will vary from year to year, they may include topics such as reality television, objectification, questions of cultural appropriation, power and politics, and media ownership. Students will be encouraged to develop critical reading and analytic skills, and to apply them to analyze a range of different media, including film, television, magazines and children’s toys. This course may be credited towards English Studies.