Majors: Design Your Own Focus

Students majoring or minoring in Feminist Studies organize their interdisciplinary efforts by developing a focus that provides greater coherence for their coursework. While there are some foci that have been popular among students over the years, we encourage each student to design a focus to suit his or her interests, and to develop this focus in consultation with his or her advisors. At least three of the focus courses should be Feminist Studies courses, or selected from the list of affiliated courses in other departments and programs. And at least one of the courses should be a major survey, methodology or theory course offered by a department or interdepartmental program as an initiation into the practice of study in that field. Below is a sample of foci that have been popular in the past. These are listed only to give an idea of the kinds of foci people have developed they are not the full list of possibilities, but a starting point for you to think about your own focus:

Feminist perspectives on science, technology and health

       Gender and education     Gender and popular culture

Lesbian, gay, bisexual studies     Women and health

       Women and religion     Women and work

Gender in language and symbol     Medieval Gender Studies

       Cross-cultural perspectives on gender

Race, Class, and Gender     Gender Rights and Human Rights

          Gender in Literature and Language     Women and Modernity



Ideas for Thematic Foci (from 2001-2002)
Suggested thematic foci for majors and minors include, but are not limited to, the sets of courses listed below. Course listings are subject to change. Check the Stanford Bulletin and current Time Schedule to confirm course offerings. Choose at least four courses within a theme, from at least two disciplines. One of the four courses must be cross-cultural or multi-cultural. 

FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES ON SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND HEALTH
FS132/CASA132 (Science, Technology, and Gender);  FS162 (Psychology of Gender); FS174 (African American Psychology); FS260/360 (Women & Disabilities); Philosophy 193J (Feminist Bioethics); HumBio141 (Race, Poverty, and the Environment); HumBio132 (Seminar on Problem Behavior in Adolescence);  HumBio/FS128 (The Human Gamete and Pre-Embryo); HumBio 150/FS145 (Gender Specific Perspectives on Birth Control); HumBio142A  (Impact of AIDS); STS226 (Women and Medicine in the United States); Biology 19N (Sex and Gender--An Evolutionary Perspective); Anthropological Sciences105 (Race, Gender, and Biology)

WOMEN AND HEALTH
Health Researcy &Policy 85Q (Current Issues in Women's Health); HumBio126 (Adolescent Development); HumBio123 (Sexuality in Adolescence); FS140R (Health Issues in Young Women); HumBio169 (Critical Issues in International Women's Health); HumBio103 (Women, Fertility, Work); HumBio150/FS145 (Gender Specific Perspectives on Birth Control); HumBio142A(Impact of AIDS)

LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDERED STUDIES
FS120 Introduction to Queer Studies; FS140S (Sex and Gender in Classical Hollywood Cinema: Making Woman Asian); CASA 259 (Approaches to the Body); History 36N (Gay Autobiography),  HumBio 10 (Human Sexuality); History 265A(The History of Sexuality in the U.S.); History 173B(U.S. Women's History, 1820-1980)

GENDER AND POPULAR CULTURE
 Dance/FS 160A(Dance, Gender, and History); Dance/FS 160B (Dance and Live Art in the 20th Century); Drama/FS 65 (American Musical Theater:  Broadway/Hollywood); English/FS 150 (Poetry and Poetics);  English/FS 187 (Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes); French & Italian/FS 192E (Images of Women in French Cinema:  1930-1990); CASA/FS 13 (Critical Perspectives on Popular Culture)

CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER
Classics 23N (Cross Cultural Perspectives on Love); Classics 119 (Gender and Power in Ancient Rome); Span & Portuguese 141 (Contemporary Spanish Women Writers:  Voices of Their Own); History 36N (Gay Autobiography); History 96S (Searching for Self-Biographies and Autobiographies in China); History/FS 205 (Private Lives, Public Stories--Autobiography in Women's Studies); Span. and Portuguese 180E (Chicana Cultural Studies); Lit, Cult. and Lang. 125C (Contemporary Arab Women Writers and Issues); History 187C(Women in the Modern Middle East)

PERFORMANCE OF GENDER
CompLit 22N (Shakespeare and Performance); CompLit84Q (Shakespeare, Playing, Gender); Dance 160 (Dance, Gender, History); Dance 161 (Dance and Live Art in the 20th Century); English 60K(Gender and American Cinema, 1930-1950); English 164 (Orientations: Self, Sex, Subterfuge); Art 176/376(The Feminist Legacy in Contemporary Art)

GENDER RIGHTS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
PoliSci 104 (Urban Policy); PoliSci/FS 117K (The Global Politics of Human Rights); PoliSci/FS 151A (History of Political Thought I); PoliSci/FS 151B (History of Political Thought II); PoliSci/FS 267 (Gender, Development, and Women's Human Rights in International Perspective); Sociology 134/FS139A(Education and the Status of Women); Sociology 223/FS 179 (Gender, Interaction, and Inequality in the U.S.); PoliSci 266 (Gender and Western Political Theory); Economics 145 (Economics of Labor)

GENDER IN LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE
Ling.146 (Language and Gender); Asian Lang/FS 71N (Language and Gender in Japan-Myths and Reality); Asian Lang 181 (Japanese Women Writers); Asian Lang 187/287 ( Romance, Desire, and Sexuality in Modern Japanese Literature); (English/FS 131 (The 18th Century British Novel); English/FS 150B (Poetry and Poetics); English/FS 170 (The 19th Century English Novel); English/FS 185A (The Brontes and Elizabeth Gaskell); English/FS 185G (Jane Austen); Span & Portuguese/FS 11F(Intermediate Spanish Conversation:  Feminist Studies Emphasis); Span & Portuguese 141 (Contemporary Spanish Women Writers); History 36N (Gay Autobiography); History 96S(Searching for Self--Biographies and Autobiographies in China); History/FS 205 (Private Lives, Public Stories--Autobiography in Women's History); Lit, Cult. and Lang. 125C (Contemporary Arab Women Writers and Issues)

WOMEN AND RELIGION
Rel Studies/FS 163 (Religion and Ethnicity); Rel Studies 121 (People's of the Book:  Mates, Mothers, and Daughters); Classics 117 (Gender, Violence, and the Body in Ancient Religion); Rel Studies 109 (God and Gender); Rel Studies 172(Sex, Body, and Gender in Medieval Religion); Rel Studies 112 (Women and Islam); Rel Studies 110A (Updating Tradition); Rel Studies 156 (Religious Lives of South Asian Women