Apr 20, 2024  
2020-2021 Academic Catalog 
    
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2020-2021 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Course Descriptions

Course Numbering System

The following lists include all courses normally offered at Albion College. However, not all courses are offered every year. When possible, courses offered in alternate years are designated. For details, students should consult the Class Schedule for each semester, available online at: www.albion.edu/registrar. The College reserves the right to add or withdraw courses without prior announcement, as conditions may require.

Unless otherwise stated, 100 level courses are intended for freshmen, 200 level for sophomores, 300 and 400 level for juniors and seniors.

A list of courses which meet the core and category requirements, organized by departments, is available online at www.albion.edu/registrar.

Further information may be obtained at the Registrar’s Office in the Ferguson Student, Technology, and Administrative Services Building.
 

Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
  

  • WGS 111: Introduction to Women, Gender and Sexuality

    (1 Unit)
    The goal of this interdisciplinary course is to introduce students to the fields of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies. Students will learn core concepts and historical and current theories that analyze women’s positions, gender realities and sexual identities and cultures. This course also has a particular focus on social construction of differences and how these central issues interact with race, class, ethnicity, culture, age and abilities. Each semester students will explore four topics in depth: intersectional identities, violence, public policy and economics/work. They will also apply WGS analyses to current events and the media. Franzen.
  

  • WGS 187: Selected Topics

    (1/4 Unit)
    An examination of subjects or areas not included in other courses. Staff.
  

  • WGS 188: Selected Topics

    (1/2 Unit)
    An examination of subjects or areas not included in other courses. Staff.
  

  • WGS 189: Selected Topics

    (1 Unit)
    An examination of subjects or areas not included in other courses. Staff.
  

  • WGS 240: Sexualities, Histories and Culture

    (1 Unit)
    Examines how sexuality has emerged as the basis for academic inquiry and numerous identities in the late twentieth century. Part I examines the historical research on sexuality across various cultures, considering what changes, from economic through technological, have fostered the development of sexuality-related laws, restrictions, identities and opportunities. Part II traces the theories about contemporary identities that emerged from women’s and gender studies research, assessing medical, academic, religious and legal institutions as well as the grassroots resistance and alternative naming presented by individuals and communities. In Part III, students in each class have the opportunity to determine some of the topics covered. Franzen.
  

  • WGS 250: Gender and the Global Garden

    Which environmentalists have won the Nobel Peace Prize? Who are the writers and scholars shaping our analyses of our food systems? Who are the global farmers? Where do gender and other identity issues fit into our responses to these questions? This class is situated at the junction of gender, environmental and food studies. Using interdisciplinary and intersectional approaches, this course examines how gender shapes our views of the environment, agriculture and food. We consider the leaders, scholars, innovators, and activists of these movements; what brought them to their commitments; and how their identities might have shaped their interests, activities and goals. The course asks how we come to see and hear certain individuals and groups while others remain hidden and how these issues of visibility and invisibility influence public opinions and public activism. We will take our own gender analysis skills into our local garden, farm and food systems. We will study relevant Michigan programs and work with the Wildcat Garden. Franzen.
  

  • WGS 287: Selected Topics

    (1/4 Unit)
    An examination of subjects or areas not included in other courses. Staff.
  

  • WGS 288: Selected Topics

    (1/2 Unit)
    An examination of subjects or areas not included in other courses. Staff.
  

  • WGS 289: Selected Topics

    (1 Unit)
    An examination of subjects or areas not included in other courses. Staff.
  

  • WGS 360: Feminist Theory

    (1 Unit)
    Prerequisite: WGS 106 or WGS 116 or permission of instructor.
    Explores twentieth-century feminist thought from the United States and Great Britain with some attention to other influences. Grounds feminist theory within the grassroots women’s movement, a social, cultural and political movement for change. Tracing the influence of feminism in the academy, the course surveys not only the critical and analytical foundations of the field of women’s studies but also the impact of women and gender-centered scholarship on the traditional disciplines. The challenges to feminist theory raised by U.S. women of color, working-class women, lesbians and other women who have experienced multiple oppressions are explored along with the women’s examinations of the intersections of sexism and racism, classism, homophobia and other systems of power. Franzen, Collar.
  

  • WGS 387: Selected Topics

    (1/4 Unit)
    An examination of subjects or areas not included in other courses. Staff.
  

  • WGS 388: Selected Topics

    (1/2 Unit)
    An examination of subjects or areas not included in other courses. Staff.
  

  • WGS 389: Selected Topics

    (1 Unit)
    An examination of subjects or areas not included in other courses. Staff.
  

  • WGS 391: Internship

    (1/2 Unit)
    Offered on a credit/no credit basis. Staff.
  

  • WGS 392: Internship

    (1 Unit)
    Offered on a credit/no credit basis. Staff.
  

  • WGS 398: Practicum

    (1/2 Unit)
    Offered on a credit/no credit basis. Staff.
  

  • WGS 401: Seminar

    (1/2 Unit)
    Staff.
  

  • WGS 402: Seminar

    (1 Unit)
    Staff.
  

  • WGS 411: Directed Study

    (1/2 Unit)
    Directed studies generally are reserved for those students who have schedule conflicts between two majors. They are also available for students pursuing honors theses. In specific cases, students may request directed studies that cover topics beyond the scope of the current curriculum. These students are expected to present their proposed plan of study to the instructor for approval well in advance of registration. Staff
  

  • WGS 412: Directed Study

    (1 Unit)
    Directed studies generally are reserved for those students who have schedule conflicts between two majors. They are also available for students pursuing honors theses. In specific cases, students may request directed studies that cover topics beyond the scope of the current curriculum. These students are expected to present their proposed plan of study to the instructor for approval well in advance of registration. Staff