WMST 250: Introduction to Womens Studies Women, Art & Culture

Instructor: Laura K. Brunner Email: lbrunner@umd.edu Office: Taliaferro 0115 Office Hours: Wednesdays, 9:30 AM 11:30 AM, or by appointment in person or via Web Conferencing on ELMS

Course Description:
This course seeks to acquaint students with a variety of womens artistic and cultural achievements. The goal is to both introduce Womens Studies as a field and to develop students ability to critically analyze culture in all its forms. You are asked to approach this course with the following set of questions in mind: What is the range of possible representational options for women? How are women from different locations (racial, ethnic, class, age and ability) represented differently? How can art reproduce or alternatively re-imagine power relations in our society (think in terms of gender, race, class, sexuality, and more)? How does the social location of these artists inform their artistic production?

About Womens Studies at the University of Maryland:

Women's Studies at the University of Maryland offers a B.A. degree for undergraduate students that prepares them 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. Womens Studies also provides excellent preparation for a variety of humanities and social science graduate programs, as well as professional schools. Some students may choose to double major in women studies with another discipline. Another option for students who wish to undertake an interdisciplinary program of study on women to complement and supplement another degree program is our undergraduate certificate. I am happy to speak to anyone who wants to discuss these options. You might also wish to talk with the Womens Studies Academic Advisor, Laura Nichols (lnichols@umd.edu).

Core Requirement:
This course fulfils a CORE distributive requirement in the Humanities and Arts, and satisfies the Human Cultural Diversity requirement. CORE courses are designed to expose students to the ideas and methods of different academic disciplines and fields, and the ways in which they produce and analyze knowledge. Analytic reading and writing and collaborative learning are central the course. Accordingly, its success and the success of your learning experience in it

depend on your informed and thoughtful preparation for class and your participation in class and small group discussions and in writing and group project activities.

Required Books:
Ms. Magazine, to register go to www.msintheclassroom.com and click on Students Grace Metalious, Peyton Place Alison Bechdel, Fun Home The Guerilla Girls, Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art Riverbend, Bagdad Burning Other readings will be available through ELMS *Please be aware that you are also required to purchase tickets to your live performance and admission to the National Museum of Women in the Arts ($8).

Course Structure:
This course is designed to provide a hybrid experience, including both face-to-face discussion and online lectures and activities. Contact time will be divided as follows: 50% face-to-face (75 minutes/week) 50% online (75 minutes/week) Face-to-face sessions will be held Thursdays, 12:30am 1:45pm in Benjamin 3315 (for students registered for section 0601) OR Thursdays, 2:00pm 3:15pm in Benjamin 0206 (for students registered for section 1101). Online sessions will be a blend of self-paced activities including lecture presentations, web-based learning activities and films. Unless otherwise noted, lectures, films and other materials will be available through elms.

ELMS:
All reading materials, films, lectures, and short responses will be available through ELMS, unless otherwise noted in the syllabus. It is your responsibility to make sure that the email address you use is the one listed with ELMS. For technical assistance email the student help desk at itsc@umd.edu or call 301-405-1400.

Expectations:
In class sessions, students learn not just from me, but from each other. Your success in this course and your class participation grade will depend on doing the following: Listen actively to your fellow students in discussion sections. Carefully read your classmates blog posts. Complete the online lectures and readings and come to our sessions ready to discuss both sets of materials. Be on time to discussions and give our sessions your full attention.

If you must miss a session due to illness or other circumstances beyond your control, you are required to email me in advance of any absence. Written work includes lecture responses, activities, and the essays. In every piece of writing you do for this course: Use 12pt Times New Roman, Arial or other reasonable font, double-spaced with standard 1 margins. All written work should be submitted though ELMS, unless the student makes prior arrangements with me. Include your name, my name and the name of the course at the top of all written work and number your pages. For most assignments you are not required to reference outside material. If you choose to do so, academic citations (any style, but be consistent) are required. Submitting work after the due date will result in a deduction from your grade.

Components:
This course has 5 components: 1) Class participation (30%) 2) Blog posts (25%) 3) Written essay (20%) 4) Final exam (25%)

1) Class Participation (30%):

Your class participation grade will assess your participation in online and face-to-face sessions. For online sessions: Short response questions to the lectures, films and activities will substitute for faceto-face class participation n. They will also inform the issues for discussion in our face-to-face sessions. Responses are due Tuesdays by noon. For face-to-face sessions: Attendance will be taken in each face-to-face class and your grade will be affected by unexcused absences. It is not enough to merely complete the reading, bring it with you and have good attendance; full class participation means that you demonstrate that you have both read and thought about the course materials for the week before coming to class. Each student is expected to enhance class discussion with thoughtful comments about the weeks readings, lecture materials and/or themes of the class. Having access to the assigned reading materials including Ms. Magazine (on any device you prefer) is mandatory in every class session, and failure to do so will affect your participation grade. For all types: if you need to miss a session due to a short-term illness, please email me before the session you need to miss. In the case of illnesses that may affect your attendance long term please see me in my office hours with a doctors note.

2) Blog Posts (25%):

Over the course of the semester, students will build their own blog reflecting what they learned from the readings and course materials. Each week, you are asked engage in a combination of group reflection and critical engagement with the course materials. You are also required to comment on a classmates blog each week. A total of 11 blog posts and 11 comments will count toward your final grade. You may either choose to skip one of each, or allow me to drop your lowest grade. Blog posts are due Wednesday by noon and responses should be completed by Friday at noon.

3) Midterm Essay (20%):

The essay will ask you to draw from multiple works to draw comparisons and find common themes. Excellent essays will use appropriate supporting details to craft original analysis.

4) Final Exam (25%):

The final exam is a take-home test due at the scheduled exam time for the course. The test will have four components: identifications, short answers, an essay, and a learning assessment.

Illness & Disability:

If you are sick and need to miss class, send me an email to notify me in advance of your absence. Please do not come to class sick. In the case of longer term illness that could affect your attendance and work over the course of the semester, see me in my office hours, with a note from a doctor, so that we can negotiate any accommodation you might need. Students with long or short term disabilities are invited to contact me at the beginning of the semester to discuss any accommodations for this course.

Religious Observance:
Please inform me in advance of any absences for religious observance.

Academic Integrity:
Please refer to the Universitys Code of academic honor (http://www.shc.umd.edu/code.html) which prohibits students from cheating on exams, plagiarizing papers, submitting the same paper for credit in two courses without authorization, buying papers, facilitating academic dishonesty, submitting fraudulent documents, and forging signatures. All quotations taken from other authors, including from the Internet, must be indicated by quotation marks and referenced. Unintentional plagiarism is still plagiarism. Although we will discuss good writing practices in class, it is up to you to develop research and note taking habits that make a clear distinction between direct quotations, ideas from other authors and your own ideas.

WMST250 Course Outline

Unit 1: Representing Experiences
The course begins by asking you to consider how women have traditionally been represented and why they are represented in particular ways. We will consider the power structures, such as corporations, publishers, networks, and governments that control their representation, as well as discuss alternative approaches. Week 1: Introduction to Women, Art & Culture (Jan 24) Vocab words: feminism, sexism, racism Week 2: Controlling Images (week of Jan 28) Readings: Gloria Steinem, Sex, Lies and Advertising (Ms., Best of 30 Years); Minh-Ha T. Pham, If the Clothes Fit (Ms., Fall 2011); Tamara Winfrey Harris, Why is the Media Obsessed with the Marriage Rate of Black Women? (Ms., Winter 2012); Michael Messner, No Hype for Womens Hoops (Ms. Winter 2011); Janelle Hobson, Django Unchained (msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2013/01/10/djangounchained-unspeakable-things-unseen) Online Session: Still Killing Us Softly 4 (film) Vocab words: controlling images, the male gaze, Madonna/whore, mammy/jezebel Week 3: Are We Equal? (week of Feb 4) Readings: Laura Brunner, How Big is Big Enough?; Soraya Chemaly, Why Wont We Talk About Violence and Masculinity in America? (msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2012/12/17/why-wont-we-talkabout-violence-and-masculinity-in-america); Julianne Hing, After Newton, School Communities Brace for Another Influx of Police (http://colorlines.com/archives/2013/01/militarized_post-newtownschools.html); Monica Novoa, Latino Stereotypes Thrive in the Media (http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/09/study_latino_stereotypes_thrive_in_the_media_negative_attitude s_dominate.html) Online Session: Gender and Race in Popular Culture (lecture) Vocab words: masculinity, femininity, whiteness, privilege, oppression Week 4: Women Speaking Out (week of Feb 11) Readings: Karlyn Kohrs Campbell, The Struggle for the Right to Speak; Betty Friedan, The Problem That Has No Name (excerpt); bell hooks, Black Women: Shaping Feminist Theory Online Session: Feminism and US Social Movements (lecture) Vocab words: 1st wave, 2nd wave, abolition, lynching, temperance Week 5: A Classed Society (week of Feb 18) Reading: Grace Metalious, Peyton Place Online Session: Poverty in the United States (lecture) Vocab words: class, capitalism, income inequality

Unit 2: Genres of Artistic Expression

In this unit, you will be introduced to a sampling of womens accomplishments in a variety of genres including quilts, film, graphic novels and autobiography. You will be asked to think about the way that the modes of artistic expression differ from and are similar to one another. You will be expected to think about your reading practices as a student across multiple genres in preparation for the remainder of the course. Week 6: The Ability/Disability System (week of Feb 25) Reading: Rosemary Garland-Thompson, Why Do We Stare? Laura Mulvey, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema Online Session: Frida (film) Vocab words: ability/disability system, staring, voyeurism Week 7: Folk Art & Quilts (week of March 4) Readings: Alice Walker, Everyday Use & In Search of Our Mothers Gardens ( Ms., Best of 30 Years); Patricia Zavella, Anas Choice (Ms., Winter 2009) Online Session: Guided activity, Los Hilos de la Vida (www.hilosquilts.com) Vocab words: quilting, undocumented, genre Week 8: Coming of Age (week of March 11) Reading: Alison Bechdel, Fun Home Online Session: From Gay Liberation to Marriage Equality (lecture) Vocab words: panel, strip, heterosexism, heteronormativity, Stonewall Riot, AIDS crisis Spring Break (week of March 18) Week 9: Imagining a Better Planet (week of March 25) Reading: Lindsy Van Gelder, Its Not Nice to Mess With Mother Nature ( Ms., Best of 30 Years); Patricia Marina Traujillo, An Acequia Runs Through It ( Ms., Winter 2010); Catharine Traywick, Preserving the Future (Ms., Spring 2011); Anna Badhken, The Woman with the Broken Jug (Ms., Spring 2010) Online Session: Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai (film) Vocab words: ecofeminism

**Midterm Essay due April 1**

Unit 3: The Politics of Production

In this unit, we return to considerations of representation and power, this time with a focus on the interaction between politics and the art world. Week 10: The Visual Arts & Judy Chicagos Dinner Party (week of April 1) no blog posts Online Session: Guided activity, Judy Chicagos Dinner Party (https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/dinner_party/) Vocab words: collaboration, social protest Week 11: The National Museum of Women in the Arts (week of April 8) Reading: The Guerrilla Girls Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art Alternative Session: Visit the National Museum of Women in the Arts Vocab words: curator, exhibit, donor Week 12: NEA Four (week of April 15) Reading: N.C. Patten, The Politics of Art and the Irony of Politics http://www.heinonline.org.proxyum.researchport.umd.edu/HOL/Page? public=false&handle=hein.journals/hulr37&men_hide=false&men_tab=citnav&collection=journals&id= 571 (requires UMD login) Online Session: The NEA Four Controversy (lecture) Vocab words: censorship, culture wars, politically correct Week 13: Performing Arts (week of April 22) Reading: Angela Davis, Racism, Birth Conrol and Reproductive Rights; 10 things to know about Ntozake Shange and For Colored Girls (msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2010/10/28/10-things-to-knowabout-ntozake-shange-and-for-colored-girls) Online Session: For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf , directed by Oz Scott (film) Vocab words: adaptation, rape, reproductive rights, abortion Week 14: A Blog Becomes a Book (week of April 29) Reading: Riverbend, Bagdad Burning Online Session: War and Peace as Womens Issues (lecture) Vocab words: militarism, military-industrial complex, peace movements Week 15: Review, Wrap Up & Reflection (Week of May 6) Reading: Michelle Tracy Berger, So You Want to Change the World? ( Ms., Fall 2012); Sara Seltzer, We are the Many, Not the Few (Ms., Winter 2012) Online Session: Student Blog Showcase

Final Exam