LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO

2024-2025 CATALOG

The Academic Catalog is the official listing of courses, programs of study, academic policies and degree requirements for Loyola University Chicago. It is published every year in advance of the next academic year.

Women & Gender Studies (WSGS)

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WSGS 101  Introduction to WSGS from a Global Perspective  (3 Credit Hours)  
This is an introduction to the interdisciplinary fields of both Women's Studies and Gender Studies which explore the ways that sex and gender manifest themselves in social, cultural, and political arenas. It draws upon scholarship in women's studies, masculinities studies, and queer studies which themselves draw upon a variety of intellectual perspectives, including historical, psychological, rhetorical, sociological, literary, and biological.
Knowledge Area: Foundational Societal Knowledge  
Interdisciplinary Option: Women & Gender Studies  
students will demonstrate understanding of historical developments, key concepts, theories and themes in women's studies and gender studies, the impact that gender can have on social, cultural, political and economic material conditions

Outcomes

students will demonstrate understanding of historical developments, key concepts, theories and themes in women's studies and gender studies, the impact that gender can have on social, cultural, political and economic material conditions
WSGS 201  Contemporary Issues in WSGS  (3 Credit Hours)  
Pre-requisites: ANTH 100, PLSC 102, PSYC 100, SOCL 101, WSGS 101, or equivalent; please check requirements for declared majors/minors for exceptions  
This course explores issues in women's studies, feminism, and gender studies from the perspective of a particular discipline, depending on the faculty member teaching the course. This may, for example, include Communication, English, History, Sociology, or Theology.
Knowledge Area: Tier 2 Societal Knowledge  
Interdisciplinary Option: Women & Gender Studies  
Course equivalencies: WOST201/WSGS201  
Students will examine the subjects of women and gender, as well as the challenges of conducting feminist or gender scholarship, within the discipline and how new research changes or transforms that scholarship

Outcomes

Students will examine the subjects of women and gender, as well as the challenges of conducting feminist or gender scholarship, within the discipline and how new research changes or transforms that scholarship
WSGS 297  Topics in WSGS  (3 Credit Hours)  
This course allows students to explore intermediate courses or seminars focused on the intersection of gender, sexuality, race, class, and other categories of power, privilege, and oppression.
Interdisciplinary Option: Women & Gender Studies  
WSGS 330  History of Feminist Thought and Social Action  (3 Credit Hours)  
This course focuses on the history and development of feminist thought and activism since the late eighteenth century. Attention goes beyond just U.S. and European feminist history, exploring Indigenous, Black, and postcolonial feminism to investigate their unique feminist ideas and the challenges they pose to "traditional" feminist thought and action.
Interdisciplinary Option: Women & Gender Studies  
Course equivalencies: X - WSGS 330 / HIST 339F  
Students will learn to identify key concepts, thinkers, activists; analyze and critique some of the major works; and develop an integrated understanding of the history of feminist thought, broadly conceived

Outcomes

Students will learn to identify key concepts, thinkers, activists; analyze and critique some of the major works; and develop an integrated understanding of the history of feminist thought, broadly conceived
WSGS 350  Global Feminisms  (3 Credit Hours)  
Pre-requisites: WSGS 101 or WSGS 201  
This course offers critical and theoretical tools to evaluate feminist theories by women of color in the global South. Adopting a decolonial, anti-racist approach, the course evaluates how women and gender relations are affected by economic, cultural, and political changes related to the racial regimes of globalization and migratory movements.
Interdisciplinary Option: Women & Gender Studies  
Students will acquire and utilize key theoretical concepts in the study of feminisms, race theory, border studies, postcolonial studies, transnationalism, and migration studies

Outcomes

Students will acquire and utilize key theoretical concepts in the study of feminisms, race theory, border studies, postcolonial studies, transnationalism, and migration studies
WSGS 360  Migration, Identity, Sexuality  (3 Credit Hours)  
Pre-requisites: WSGS 101 or WSGS 201  
In this seminar WSGS course we will explore how crossing borders, identity politics, and sexuality intersect to produce a rich and necessary conversation on contemporary global immigration issues. We will explore the gendered dynamics and experiences of recent immigrants.
Interdisciplinary Option: Women & Gender Studies  
Acquire and utilize key theoretical concepts in the study of borders, identity politics, transnationalism, and sexuality from an intersectional lens

Outcomes

Acquire and utilize key theoretical concepts in the study of borders, identity politics, transnationalism, and sexuality from an intersectional lens
WSGS 370  Sexual Assault Advocacy  (3 Credit Hours)  
Pre-requisites: WSGS 101 or WSGS 201  
This course provides specific skills of support and advocacy services to sexual assault survivors. Students will gain an understanding of the impact of sexual assault on victims, the social and cultural context in which sexual assault occurs, and the roles systems play to both support and inhibit survivors recovery.
Interdisciplinary Option: Women & Gender Studies  
Students who successfully complete the course may be eligible to serve as Loyola University Chicago sexual assault advocates

Outcomes

Students who successfully complete the course may be eligible to serve as Loyola University Chicago sexual assault advocates
WSGS 375  Masculinity Studies: Equity, Race, Transformation  (3 Credit Hours)  
Pre-requisites: WSGS 101  
This course highlights the intersectional exploration of how masculinity is embodied, experienced, and replicated in the United States and globally. With this transnational lens, students gain a better understanding of contemporary global masculinity sociocultural issues and concerns which include race/racism, "angry white men," and the "crisis of masculinity."
Interdisciplinary Option: Women & Gender Studies  
Course equivalencies: WSGS 375/WSGS 475  
Students will acquire and utilize key theoretical concepts in Masculinity studies from an international lens; Students will apply a wide critical terminology to literary texts and visual/cultural phenomena globally

Outcomes

Students will acquire and utilize key theoretical concepts in Masculinity studies from an international lens; Students will apply a wide critical terminology to literary texts and visual/cultural phenomena globally
WSGS 380  Queer Theory: Beyond the Binary  (3 Credit Hours)  
Pre-requisites: WSGS 101 or 201  
This course maps the field of Queer Theory from an interdisciplinary, global perspective in order to cover a wide range of theoretical and disciplinary approaches (race theory, transnational theory, postmodernism, Latinx-American Studies, among others) and interpretative applications (film, literature).
Interdisciplinary Option: Women & Gender Studies  
Students will be able to identify key concepts and thinkers of this influential field of study; they will develop an intersectional, global understanding of this field of critical theory

Outcomes

Students will be able to identify key concepts and thinkers of this influential field of study; they will develop an intersectional, global understanding of this field of critical theory
WSGS 388  Women's Studies Practicum  (3 Credit Hours)  
This supervised field experience uses experiential learning at a wide variety uses experiential learning at a variety of women's political, cultural or educational organization as the basis for learning and refining skills which cab benefit gender equity.
Interdisciplinary Option: Women & Gender Studies  
This course satisfies the Engaged Learning requirement.  
Course equivalencies: WOST388/WSGS388  
Students demonstrate skill proficiency, professional conduct, and systematic reflection on their experience; Students learn about public and private sector responses to women's issues and concerns

Outcomes

Students demonstrate skill proficiency, professional conduct, and systematic reflection on their experience; Students learn about public and private sector responses to women's issues and concerns
WSGS 389  Independent Study  (1-3 Credit Hours)  
This course consists of independent research or engaged learning in a specific area of WSGS; work must be completed under the supervision of a WSGS faculty member.
Interdisciplinary Option: Women & Gender Studies  
Students will gain a deeper understanding of a specific WSGS topic through research, service, reading, or other mode of learning; The product of this work will vary depending on the interests of the student

Outcomes

Students will gain a deeper understanding of a specific WSGS topic through research, service, reading, or other mode of learning; The product of this work will vary depending on the interests of the student
WSGS 390  Directed Readings Women Studies  (3 Credit Hours)  
An independent program of reading and research arranged between the student and the supervising faculty member in the student's major department. Students will complete a final research project integrating their major fields with women's studies. Permission of women's studies director is required.
Interdisciplinary Option: Women & Gender Studies  
Course equivalencies: WOST390/WSGS390  
WSGS 391  WSGS Methodologies  (3 Credit Hours)  
Pre-requisites: WSGS 101 or WSGS 201, and WSGS 330  
This course is part of a two-semester sequence for the final year of the WSGS major and minor. In this course we review several approaches to feminist research methods and consider ways to put them into practice, individually or combined with other methods. Enrollment by permission.
Interdisciplinary Option: Women & Gender Studies  
Students will produce a project proposal that (1) demonstrates an interdisciplinary approach; (2) draws on theory and scholarship in WSGS; and (3) reflects the use of feminist methodologies in practice

Outcomes

Students will produce a project proposal that (1) demonstrates an interdisciplinary approach; (2) draws on theory and scholarship in WSGS; and (3) reflects the use of feminist methodologies in practice
WSGS 397  Special Topics in WSGS  (3 Credit Hours)  
This course allows students to explore advanced courses or seminars focused on the intersection of gender, sexuality, race, class, and other categories of power, privilege, and oppression.
Interdisciplinary Option: Women & Gender Studies  
Course equivalencies: WOST397/WSGS397  
Students demonstrate an understanding of a unique topic in women's studies

Outcomes

Students demonstrate an understanding of a unique topic in women's studies
WSGS 398  Women's Studies Internship  (3 Credit Hours)  
This course uses supervised project-based experiential learning to allow students the opportunity to apply feminist analysis and practical skills to a student-designed project that will be completed within the timeframe of a course term.
Interdisciplinary Option: Women & Gender Studies  
This course satisfies the Engaged Learning requirement.  
Course equivalencies: WOST398/WSGS398  
Students learn application of feminist concepts and principles to pragmatic outcomes; leadership, planning, time management, and assessment skills

Outcomes

Students learn application of feminist concepts and principles to pragmatic outcomes; leadership, planning, time management, and assessment skills
WSGS 399  WSGS Capstone  (3 Credit Hours)  
Pre-requisites: WSGS 330 and WSGS 391; Enrollment by permission  
This is a project-oriented course that represents the culmination of the WSGS major. Students build on their work in WSGS 391/WSGS Methodologies to complete a project under the direction of a faculty or community organization mentor, either individually or as a group.
Interdisciplinary Option: Women & Gender Studies  
This course satisfies the Engaged Learning requirement.  
Course equivalencies: WOST399/WSGS399  
Students will complete a project that (1) demonstrates an interdisciplinary approach; (2) draws on theory and scholarship in WSGS; and (3) reflects the intentional use of feminist methodologies in practice

Outcomes

Students will complete a project that (1) demonstrates an interdisciplinary approach; (2) draws on theory and scholarship in WSGS; and (3) reflects the intentional use of feminist methodologies in practice
WSGS 401  History of Feminist Thought  (3 Credit Hours)  
This course surveys the historical development of feminist thought from Mary Wollstonecraft to second wave feminism and beyond and analyzes the impact of feminism on the general culture.
Course equivalencies: WOST401/WSGS401  
WSGS 402  Foundations of Women's Studies  (3 Credit Hours)  
This course investigates how gender has become a critical category in education and knowledge and traces the institutional and intellectual development of women's and gender studies as a field, focusing on the evolution of WGS in the academy (here and in other countries) and on the changes in concepts of knowledge, in methodologies, and in pedagogy that women's studies scholarship has produced in various fields.
Interdisciplinary Option: Women & Gender Studies  
Course equivalencies: WOST402/WSGS402  
WSGS 450  Global Feminisms  (3 Credit Hours)  
This course is a course that explores feminism and the study of gender in a global dimension. Chosen texts privilege the study of women, gender, and sexuality from an international perspective. The course highlights the intimate relationship between the study of feminism, (post/de)colonialism, and racism.
Course equivalencies: WOST450/WSGS450  
WSGS 455  Feminist Pedagogy  (3 Credit Hours)  
Pre-requisites: Graduate Status  
This course will focus on distinctly feminist ways of learning and teaching. As with feminist theory and research methods, feminist pedagogy has been understood to include characteristics like self-reflexivity, de-centered authority, standpoint epistemologies, examinations of power dynamics, and attention to embodied ways of learning and knowing.
Understand the foundational principles of feminist pedagogy and related approaches to teaching; Develop skills to analyze and produce sound teaching practices within a feminist intersectional framework

Outcomes

Understand the foundational principles of feminist pedagogy and related approaches to teaching; Develop skills to analyze and produce sound teaching practices within a feminist intersectional framework
WSGS 460  Migration, Identity, Sexuality  (3 Credit Hours)  
Pre-requisites: Graduate Status  
We will explore how crossing borders, identity politics, gender, and sexuality intersect to produce a conversation on contemporary global immigration issues. Focus is on movement from three geographic locations from/to the Global South and North: Latin America to the US and Europe; Africa to Europe; Europe to Latin America and back.
WSGS 470  Sexual Assault Advocacy  (3 Credit Hours)  
Pre-requisites: Graduate Status  
This course provides specific skills of support and advocacy services to sexual assault survivors. Students will gain an understanding of the impact of sexual assault on victims, the social and cultural context in which sexual assault occurs, and the roles systems play to both support and inhibit survivors recovery.
Course equivalencies: WOST370/WSGS370/WGSG470  
Students who successfully complete the course may be eligible to serve as Loyola University Chicago sexual assault advocates

Outcomes

Students who successfully complete the course may be eligible to serve as Loyola University Chicago sexual assault advocates
WSGS 475  Masculinity Studies: Equity, Race, Transformation  (3 Credit Hours)  
Pre-requisites: Graduate Status  
This course highlights the intersectional exploration of how masculinity is embodied, experienced, and replicated in the United States and globally. With this transnational lens, students gain a better understanding of contemporary global masculinity sociocultural issues and concerns which include race/racism, "angry white men," and the "crisis of masculinity."
Course equivalencies: WSGS 375/WSGS 475  
Students will acquire and utilize key theoretical concepts in Masculinity studies from an international lens; Students will apply a wide critical terminology to literary texts and visual/cultural phenomena globally

Outcomes

Students will acquire and utilize key theoretical concepts in Masculinity studies from an international lens; Students will apply a wide critical terminology to literary texts and visual/cultural phenomena globally
WSGS 480  Queer Theory  (3 Credit Hours)  
Pre-requisites: Graduate status  
This graduate level course maps the field of queer theory from an interdisciplinary perspective in order to cover a wide range of theoretical and disciplinary approaches and interpretive applications. Outcome: Students will acquire and utilize theoretical concepts in queer studies, develop cultural competency in queer studies and present information about the field orally and in writing.
Interdisciplinary Option: Women & Gender Studies  
WSGS 497  Topics in Women's Studies and Gender Studies  (3 Credit Hours)  
This topics course may originate in Women's Studies and Gender Studies or as a cross-listed course and deals with women's and gender topics including identity, sexuality, diversity, relationships of power in national, transnational and international contexts. The ethical and social justice implications of topics include feminist perspectives.
Course equivalencies: WOST497/WSGS497  
Students understand feminist perspectives on gender in literature; Students connect theory and practice in writing, performance, action or in combined formats

Outcomes

Students understand feminist perspectives on gender in literature; Students connect theory and practice in writing, performance, action or in combined formats
WSGS 498  Practicum  (1-3 Credit Hours)  
WSGS Practicum gives students the option of doing a teaching or research assistantship under the supervision of a faculty member. This practicum counts as an elective credit towards the student's MA degree.
Interdisciplinary Option: Women & Gender Studies  
Course equivalencies: WOST498/WSGS498  
WSGS 499  Independent Study  (1-3 Credit Hours)  
An independent study provides students with the opportunity to work closely and one-on-one with a faculty member. The student can choose her/their/his topic or creative project. The independent study should be comparable to a graduate-level course.
Interdisciplinary Option: Women & Gender Studies  
Course equivalencies: WOST499/WSGS499  
WSGS 500  Thesis Research  (3 Credit Hours)  
A Thesis Research course allows graduate students to fine tune their research skills, academic writing, and independent thought while they are preparing their thesis proposal and/or writing their thesis.
Interdisciplinary Option: Women & Gender Studies  
Course equivalencies: WOST500/WSGS500  
WSGS 595  Thesis Supervision  (0 Credit Hours)  
The focus of a Thesis Supervision is to help students better strategize, structure, and organize themselves as they write their thesis. Students will also be advised about how to prepare for a successful oral defense.
Interdisciplinary Option: Women & Gender Studies  
Course equivalencies: WOST595/WSGS595  
WSGS 599  Capstone Presentation  (0 Credit Hours)  
Pre-requisites: Successful completion of 12 hours in the MA program in WSGS  
WSGS 599 is the culmination of the Master's program in Women's Studies and Gender Studies. Requirements include a 10 page synthesis paper or detailed outline, annotated bibliography, and public presentation at our biannual capstone ceremony.
Synthesis of the students' graduate coursework; performance of the diversity of outcomes in WSGS; celebration of students' achievements; networking

Outcomes

Synthesis of the students' graduate coursework; performance of the diversity of outcomes in WSGS; celebration of students' achievements; networking
WSGS 605  Master's Study  (0 Credit Hours)  
Continuing work on completion of the Master's Degree in Women's Studies and Gender Studies.
Interdisciplinary Option: Women & Gender Studies