Gender studies sheds fresh light on traditional subjects

Updated 4:00 PM February 8, 2006

Gender studies sheds fresh light on traditional subjects

By Kevin Brown

An inaugural Gender across the Disciplines class breaks new ground at U-M as it highlights the way that the study of gender has affected a range of traditional subjects, from history to medicine, organizers say.

The class coincides with a semester-long lecture series. The 4 p.m. Tuesday lectures in Room 2239 of Lane Hall are open to the public, including the next lecture by Elizabeth Cole, associate professor of women's studies, Afroamerican and African studies, and adjunct associate professor of psychology. This Feb. 7 lecture, "Intersectionality: From Practice to Theory," will explore how people simultaneously experience racial, class and gender identities.

The course and accompanying lectures are presented in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG).

"This is a new opportunity for experts across campus to talk about the way gender scholarship is affecting their disciplines," says Terri Torkko, IRWG event coordinator.

"In the range of topics covered, the course helps students to see that gender studies is having an impact on almost all the disciplines on this campus," says Valerie Traub, professor of English and professor and director of women's studies. Traub teaches the class along with Carol Boyd, IRWG director and nursing professor.

"Even within interdisciplinary fields, students are rarely exposed to multiple disciplinary perspectives," Boyd explains. "Gender across the Disciplines offers a unique opportunity for students to examine 12 different disciplines within a single course."

Boyd says she believes this is the first time that an interdisciplinary research unit (IRWG) has collaborated with an academic unit (Women's Studies) to produce such a course. The disciplines represented include: Afroamerican and African studies, English, history, philosophy, political science, psychology, sociology, health, medicine, music and law.

Each week, a different U-M professor lectures on how gender scholarship has transformed her discipline and her area of specialization has, in turn, shaped scholarship on women and gender.

The course, Women's Studies 483, intentionally is small, with 13 students. Also helping to instruct students in the upper-level writing course is Michele Morales, a clinical social worker completing her doctorate, with experience teaching for the Sweetland Writing Center. "The instructors represent a variety of disciplines, as do the guest lecturers," Boyd says.

Issues explored so far in the class include how the rise of Nazism affected women prior to and during WWII, including how the Nazi's manipulated Aryan women's needs for child care and reproductive health to create fissures across ethnic identities. Boyd says students logging onto a course-related chat room last week addressed the question, "To what extent were German, Aryan women complicit in the rise of Nazism, and to what extent were they resistant to it?"

Upcoming lectures include "Gender in the Study of Law and Society" Feb. 14 by Anna Kirkland, assistant professor of political science and women's studies, and "How Well Does Psychology Do Gender?" March 21 by Rosario Ceballo, associate professor of psychology and women's studies.

The full schedule is available at: www.umich.edu/~irwg/events/calendar/GenderAcrossDisc.html.

Gender studies sheds fresh light on traditional subjects

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