This course explores the power dynamics embedded in “how we know what we know”. Using a feminist and intersectional lens, we will critically analyze dominant and alternative paradigms of knowledge production, and will examine how knowledge is created and reproduced. Concepts such as bias, objectivity, and research ethics will be explored. There is an experiential learning component.

Because of gendered responsibilities for creating homes, migrant women create and experience diasporic relations (to family and friends elsewhere) in distinctive ways. This course uses methods and materials from literature, history and the social sciences to understand the meaning of home for migrant women from many different cultural origins.

This course is an introduction to how the history of colonialism and the power relations of the colonial world have shaped the historical and social constructions of race and gender. The course considers political, legal, economic, and cultural realms through which colonialism produced new gendered and racial social relationships across different societies and communities. The ways in which colonial power was challenged and resisted will also be explored.

An examination of local and global movements for change, past and current, which address issues concerning women.
This course will survey initiatives from the individual and community to the national and international levels to bring about change for women in a variety of spheres.

An overview of the complex interactions among race, class, gender and sexuality in traditional and modern societies. Drawing on both historical and contemporary patterns in diverse societies, the course offers feminist perspectives on the ways in which race, class, gender, and sexual orientation have shaped the lives of women and men.

This course offers an analysis of violence against women and gender-based violence, including acts of resistance against violence. Applying a historical, cultural, and structural approach, family, state, economic and ideological aspects will be addressed. Initiatives toward making communities safer, including strategies for violence prevention and education will be explored.

An interdisciplinary approach to feminist critiques of the media. Gendered representation will be examined in media such as film, television, video, newspapers, magazines and on-line technologies. Students will also develop a perspective on women's participation in, and contributions toward, the various media industries.

This course will take a feminist approach to exploring the links between women, gender and the environment. We will examine how racism, sexism, heterosexism and other forms of oppression have shaped environmental discourses. Topics include: social, historical and cultural roots of the environmental crisis, women’s roles in sustainable development, ecofeminism, planning for safer spaces, and activism for change.

This introductory survey course connects the rich histories of Black radical women’s acts, deeds, and words in Canada. It traces the lives and political thought of Black women and gender-non-conforming people who refused and fled enslavement, took part in individual and collective struggles against segregated labour, education, and immigration practices; providing a historical context for the emergence of the contemporary queer-led #BlackLivesMatter movement. Students will be introduced, through histories of activism, resistance, and refusal, to multiple concepts and currents in Black feminist studies. This includes, for example, theories of power, race, and gender, transnational/diasporic Black feminisms, Black-Indigenous solidarities, abolition and decolonization. Students will participate in experiential learning and engage an interdisciplinary array of key texts and readings including primary and secondary sources, oral histories, and online archives.

Same as HISB22H3

This course introduces students to current discussions, debates and theories in LGBT and queer studies and activism. It will critically examine terms such as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, heterosexual, and ally, and explore how class, race, culture, ability, and history of colonization impact the experience of LGBTQ-identified people.

Students will design and conduct a qualitative research project in the community on an issue related to women and/or gender. The course will also include an overview of the various phases of carrying out research: planning the research project, choosing appropriate methods for data collection, analyzing the data and reporting the results. Students should expect to spend approximately 10 hours conducting their research in the community over the course of the semester.

How development affects, and is affected by, women around the world. Topics may include labour and economic issues, food production, the effects of technological change, women organizing for change, and feminist critiques of traditional development models.

Same as AFSC53H3

An exploration of the ways in which women from different countries construct the gendered subject in their representations of childhood, sexuality, work, maternity and illness. Texts will be read in English and an emphasis will be placed on the cultural contexts of gender, ethnicity, sexuality and class.

Explores historical and contemporary debates regarding the construction of gender in Islam. Topics include the historical representations of Muslim woman, veiling, sexuality, Islamic law and Islamic feminism. This course situates Muslim women as multidimensional actors as opposed to the static, Orientalist images that have gained currency in the post 9/11 era.

An examination of the impact of social policy on women's lives, from a historical perspective. The course will survey discriminatory practices in social policy as they affect women and immigration, health care, welfare, and the workplace. Topics may include maternity leave, sexual harassment, family benefits, divorce, and human rights policies.

Examining popular media and history students will investigate themes of criminality, gender and violence in relation to the social construction of justice. Some criminal cases involving female defendants will also be analyzed to examine historical issues and social contexts. Debates in feminist theory, criminology and the law will be discussed.

This course examines the representations of gender in narrative, documentary and experimental films by a selection of global directors from a social, critical and historical perspective. We will analyse and engage with the filmic representations of race, class and sexual orientation, and explore how traditional and non-traditional cinema can challenge or perpetuate normative notions of gender.

An opportunity for students in the Major and Minor programs in Women’s and Gender Studies to apply theoretical knowledge related to women and gender to practical community experience through experiential learning within a community, educational or social setting.

Across cultures, women are the main preparers and servers of food in domestic settings; in commercial food production and in restaurants, and especially in elite dining establishments, males dominate. Using agricultural histories, recipes, cookbooks, memoirs, and restaurant reviews and through the exploration of students’ own domestic culinary knowledge, students will analyze the origins, practices, and consequences of such deeply gendered patterns of food labour and consumption.

Same as FSTC24H3

This course examines how sexuality and gender are shaped and redefined by cultural, economic, and political globalization. We will examine concepts of identity, sexual practices and queerness, as well as sexuality/gender inequality in relation to formulations of the local-global, nations, the transnational, family, homeland, diaspora, community, borders, margins, and urban-rural.

This course focuses on the theoretical approaches of critical race theory and black feminist thought this course examines how race and racism are represented and enacted across dominant cultural modes of expression and the ideas, actions, and resistances produced by Black women. The course will analyze intersections of gender subordination, homophobia, systems and institutions of colonialism, slavery and capitalism historically and in the contemporary period.

An introduction to the research on differences between women and men in how they use language and how they behave in conversational interaction, together with an examination of the role of language in reflecting and perpetuating cultural attitudes towards gender.
Same as LINC28H3

An examination of a current topic relevant to women and gender studies. Students will have the opportunity to explore recent scholarship in a specific content area which will vary from year to year. Participation in a related project/practicum in the community may be incorporated into the course.

An examination of a current topic relevant to women's and gender studies.
Students will have the opportunity to explore recent scholarship in a specific content area which will vary from year to year. Participation in a related project/practicum in the community may be incorporated into the course.

This course introduces debates and approaches to the intersection of disability with social determinants of gender, sexuality, class, race and ethnicity. Students will examine international human rights for persons with disabilities, images and representations of gender and the body, research questions for political activism, and social injustice.

This course tracks the evolving histories of gender and sexuality in diverse Muslim societies. We will examine how gendered norms and sexual mores were negotiated through law, ethics, and custom. We will compare and contrast these themes in diverse societies, from the Prophet Muhammad’s community in 7th century Arabia to North American and West African Muslim communities in the 21st century.

Same as HISC66H3

An opportunity to undertake an in-depth research topic under the supervision of a Women's and Gender Studies faculty member. Students will work with their supervisor to finalize the course content and methods of approach; assessment will be based on an advanced essay/project on the approved topic, which will be evaluated by the supervising faculty member and program coordinator. The material studied will differ significantly in content and/or concentration from topics offered in regular courses.

An advanced and in-depth examination of selected topics related to health, sexualities, the gendered body, and the representations and constructions of women and gender. The course will be in a seminar format with student participation expected. It is writing intensive and involves a major research project.

An in-depth examination of selected topics related to women, gender, equality, and human rights in the context of local and global communities, and diaspora. Student participation and engagement is expected. There will be a major research project.

During the historic protests of 2020, “Abolition Now” was a central demand forwarded by Black and queer-led social movements. But what is abolition? What is its significance as a theory of change, a body of scholarship, and as a practice? This course explores how leading abolitionist and feminist thinkers theorize the state, punishment, criminalization, the root causes of violence, and the meaning of safety. It explores the historical genealogies of abolitionist thought and practice in relation to shifting forms of racial, gendered and economic violence. Students will analyze the works of formerly enslaved and free Black abolitionists, prison writings during the Black Power Era as well as canonical scholarly texts in the field. A central focus of the course is contemporary abolitionist feminist thought. The course is conceptually grounded in Black and queer feminisms, and features works by Indigenous, South Asian women and other women of colour.