Gender & Women’s Studies First Year Course

3 minutes 16 seconds

[Video begins with “WMST 1000Y Introduction to Gender & Women’s Studies” on the screen]

[Mallory Leger stands in a hallway speaking to the camera]

> MALLORY LEGER: I really enjoy Gender & Women’s Studies; it’s generally,kindof an analysis of oppression in a general way that we look at at a global level locally but also on a personal level which was really great.

[Photo appears of a group of students talking to each other on the Faryon Bridge]

We we look at gender but also race and class ability and sexuality and and how all those things intersect together.

[Dr. Collen O’Manique is sitting at her desk wearing a blue plaid shirt and speaking to the camera]

> COLLEEN O’MANIQUE:It's an interdisciplinary course that is called, “Introduction to Gender & Women's Studies.”That’s essentially is looking at how gender relations historically have essentially shaped human societies from our intimate relationships: relationships within families; to other institutions and organizations in society; from very local level: our schools;our religious institutions our civil society organizations even what goes on in the schoolyard the media but looking at looking also how general relations shape economies how they shape our political institutions even how they shape processes of globalization.

[Switches back to Mallory Leger standing in the hallway]

MALLORY LEGER:A lot of the questions themselves are designed as seminars so instead of having lectures all the time you also have a couple of seminars a week where the lecture and an opportunity to have conversation all happen at the same time so even you think last year talking to your professors and other peers all the time is always a conversation which is really great way to learn and I've really benefited from it I think.

[Images of students listening to a professor in a lecture hall appear on the screen]

COLLEEN O’MANIQUE:We also do really emphasizecritical reading and critical writing skills in the course. At first year I think that it's really important that students gain the skills. Often when they come in from high school they don't really have those skills.Students might have great ideas they have to know how to express those ideas they have to know how to think critically and analytically.

[Video goes back to Colleen O’Manique sitting at her desk]

We want them to be able to come up with arguments that they can back up with empirical evidence with examples and we also want to toreally peak their curiosity.We want to show them something that they haven't seen before.

[Video goes back to Mallory Leger in the hallway]

MALLORY LEGER: Um a lot of the reading that we do in Women’s Studies is storytelling and as people's experiences and people are really talking from a place that they're talking from their own narratives and their own life stories we do get inspired and empowered by how people have battled a lot of barriers in their lives.

[Video goes back to Colleen O’Manique at her desk]

COLLEEN O’MANIQUE: Gender and women's studies gives students a real critical edge over a lot of other disciplines that essentially normalizes and naturalizesgender relations in society. I thinkright now I mean look at what's happening in the world we just have to read read the papers we have to look at what's going on in the media and gender is everywhere one can’t really understand the world without having a full understanding of gender relations.

[Trent University Logo and trentu.ca/womensstudies appears on the screen]