Professors: Elizabeth Castelli (Religion), Janet Jakobsen, Natalie B. Kampen ( Barbara Novak '50 Professor of Art History), Laura Kay (Physics and Astronomy), Dorothy Ko (History), Neferti Xina Tadiar (Chair), Lisa Tiersten (History), Deborah Valenze (History)
Associate Professors: Jonathan Beller (English), Paula Ettelbrick (Adjunct), Irena Klepfisz (Adjunct), Anupama Rao (History)
Assistant Professors: Elizabeth Bernstein (Sociology), Rebecca Young
Senior Lecturer: Timea Szell (English)
Associate: Maxine Weisgrau
Term Assistant Professor: Christina Cynn
For a complete list of
faculty on leave see:
http://www.barnard.edu/provost/facleavelist.html
Women's Studies is an interdisciplinary department for students who wish to explore the basic questions raised by recent scholarship on gender and its relation to other systems of cultural/political difference: race, class, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. This scholarship covers a complex variety of theoretical and empirical studies both within traditional disciplines and in interdisciplinary frames. Such areas include gender theory (in the humanities, in the social sciences, and in the natural sciences, as well as frequent combinations of the three); and work in interdisciplinary areas such Asia-Pacific cultural studies, critical race and ethnic studies, post-colonial studies, gender and health, and sexuality studies.
Early in their sophomore year, students interested in the major should consult the department to plan their major. Students also have the option of electing a joint or double major and have access to Columbia graduate courses, since some cover special areas not otherwise available at Barnard. A minor in Women's Studies is also offered.
Complementing the Women's Studies Department, the Barnard Center for Research on Women maintains an extensive and expanding resource collection on women's issues. The center also sponsors a variety of lectures and discussions that are invaluable to students interested in Women's Studies.
Majors in the department are trained in interdisciplinary research skills and will focus their studies around a thematic or discipline-based concentration. The requirements for the major are the following 13 courses:
| 1. | WMST V 3111 Feminist Texts I |
| 2. | WMST V 3112 Feminist Texts II |
| 3-4. | Two semesters of a junior-level course to be chosen from among: |
| WMST V 3311 Colloquium in Feminist Theory | |
| WMST V 3312 Theorizing Women's Activism | |
| WMST V 3313 Colloquium on Feminist Inquiry | |
| 5-6. | Two semesters of Senior Thesis Seminar, WMST V 3521-3522 |
| 7. | One course in Women's History (from a list specified by the department) |
| 8. | One course with a focus on comparative studies of women and gender (from a list specified by the department) |
| 9-13. | Five other courses devoting at least half of their content to issues of gender. At least three of these courses will have either a disciplinary focus or a thematic focus. Selection of these courses will be with the guidance and approval of student's adviser in the department. |
Three thematic clusters are currently offered in the department: Gender and Representation; Gender, Science, and Health; Gender and Sexualities. Students can develop other thematic concentrations with the department's approval.
The thesis, Women's Studies V 3521-3522, provides an opportunity for senior majors to engage in original interdisciplinary research and to bring to bear the theoretical emphasis of feminist scholarship on a particular area of investigation. Further, in the senior seminar, majors have the opportunity to discuss methodological issues and problems of research in a directed and supportive environment.
Special projects using the city's resources may be developed into term papers or incorporated into the senior essay. An extensive project under the sponsorship of a faculty member may be offered for course credits as Women's Studies BC 3599 Independent Research.
The requirements for the combined major are as follows:
| 1. | WMST V 3111 Feminist Texts I |
| 2. | WMST V 3112 Feminist Texts II |
| 3-4. | Two semesters of a junior-level course to be chosen from among: |
| WMST V 3311 Colloquium in Feminist Theory | |
| WMST V 3312 Theorizing Women's Activism | |
| WMST V 3313 Colloquium on Feminist Inquiry | |
| 5-7. | Three other courses devoting at least half of their content to issues of gender, one of which should be in a distribution field other than that of the combining major. |
Two semesters of Senior Thesis Seminar to be taken either through Women's Studies or the other department or program. The senior essay shall integrate the two fields of inquiry.
The requisite number of courses in the combining field, to be determined by the chair of the department or program.
A minor in Women's Studies consists of the following five courses:
| 1. | WMST V 3111 Feminist Texts I |
| 2. | WMST V 3112 Feminist Texts II |
| 3. | One of the three junior-level courses to be chosen from: |
| WMST V 3311 Colloquium in Feminist Theory | |
| WMST V 3312 Theorizing Women's Activism | |
| WMST V 3313 Colloquium on Feminist Inquiry | |
| 4-5. | Two other women’s studies courses. |