The Women's Studies program at Rosemont is an interdisciplinary field of study focused on women's historical, cultural, and social experiences. Women's Studies fosters independent thinking, critical and analytical skill, oral and written expression, and the ability to reason and argue competently about gender roles in society. It challenges stereotypes and examines ways in which societies shape the lives and relationships of women. It explores the ways in which gender and other principles such as race and class affect access to opportunity and power. Students work with feminist scholarship and focus on the role of gender as a critical factor for understanding our society and the world.
Women's Studies explores such topics as women's health and education, workforce issues, law and politics, the family, and issues related to violence and discrimination against women.
Women's Studies utilizes collaborative techniques of learning and scholarship. Emphasis on interdisciplinary approaches is a cornerstone of the Women's Studies program. Course offerings are both theoretical and concrete, providing students with the opportunity to learn, evaluate and integrate an array of multidisciplinary perspectives on societal attitudes toward women, and women's relationships and contributions to society.
The Program builds a strong foundation for careers or postgraduate study in a wide array of academic and professional disciplines. For example, Women's Studies provides grounding for students with aspirations in law, health, public administration, and social services. Graduates with Women's Studies degrees are hired as consultants in business, higher education, and human resource companies. Students considering advanced degrees will find that the interdisciplinary approach of Women's Studies will give them the theoretical and methodological tools for further advanced academic study.
Sampling of Courses:
WST-0100 Introduction to Women's Studies
This course is an introduction to critical thinking about the construction of gender and the intersections of gender with race, ethnicity, class and sexual orientation. Drawing on material from a wide range of fields and media, the students examine the ways in which these constructions and intersections shape women's lives. This interdisciplinary course will highlight multicultural perspectives in U.S. society and will also examine what it means to be a woman in a global context.
Topics include: a history of women and feminism in the US, women's bodies and media representation, sexuality, families, violence against women, women in prison, work and welfare, women's health, global feminism, and women and the environment.
WST-0200 Women's Studies: Theories and Pedagogies
An introduction to a range of feminist theories including: liberal feminism, socialist feminism, Black feminism, radical feminism, postmodern feminism, multi-cultural feminism, eco feminism and Third Wave feminism. Special attention will be given to issues raised by multiculturalism, women of color, class concerns and international feminist movements. The course will introduce students to a variety of theories to enable them to recognize and use those theories in their research and life experiences.
WST-0240 Women and Violence
A discussion of common forms of violence against women in the United States and abroad, emphasizing how race, class, ethnicity and sexual and religious identifications dramatically figure into gendered violence.
Descriptions of cross-listed Women's Studies courses are available in the catalogue under the corresponding department. Such courses include, but are not limited to:
- Goddesses, Eve and Mary
- Sleeping Beauty: The Nude in 19th and 20th Century Art
- Sisters: Representation VS Reality
- Daughters of the Goddess: African American Women and Art
- Women and Psychology
- Women and Philosophy
Women's Studies senior majors may elect to take a course from among the following listings in the Master of Art in Counseling Psychology graduate program:
- Feminist Therapeutic Strategies
- Gender and Counseling
- Gender Issues in Education