Women's Studies

Women's Studies is a flexible, versatile field of study that can be used in many careers. Women's Studies provides students a strong education in writing, critical thinking, research, public presentation, and leadership skills that are valuable in many fields. In addition, many employers are increasingly aware that they need to deal with gender and diversity issues in the workplace.

Women's Studies Minor Graduation Application(35K word doc)

Contact: Dr. Wendy Burns-Ardolino

Women's Studies Courses

Required Courses:   6 hours                                    

WST 2500 Introduction to Women’s Studies

Description: In this course we will examine women and gender from an interdisciplinary perspective, borrowing from Humanities and Social Science fields such as English, psychology, philosophy, art, history, sociology, film studies, women’s health, and cultural studies. At the same time, we will consider the ways that gender roles vary across time and in different cultural contexts, paying particular attention to analysis of interrelated gender, race, sexuality, and class oppressions.

WST 3500 Feminist Theory

Description: This course is designed to provide students with an overview of western and non-western feminist thinkers from a variety of different disciplines. Students will be trained to use theory as a tool of analysis. Through the lens of interdisciplinary feminist theory students will     critically examine and explore global social and cultural issues.

WOMEN’S STUDIES ELECTIVES  12 Hours

WST/CMS 3020 Research and Methods

Description: This course provides CMS majors with the necessary skills to conduct independent, primary, interdisciplinary research in Media Studies and Cultural Studies. Students learn a variety of humanistic and social-scientific methodologies, which may include some or all of the following: in-depth interviewing, focus groups, archival research, content analysis, semiotics and textual analysis. Students choose an appropriate media topic to study through a variety of research modes and methods over the length of the semester.  

 ENGL 3300 Women and Literature

Description:  Texts by women and/or works that treat issues of gender and sexuality. Primary texts are supplemented by additional readings designed to enhance students’ abilities to think and write critically about women writers and motifs of gender and sexuality.

POLS 3382 Women and Politics

Description:  Women and Politics examines the social status and political activities of women in America and other societies, exploring the causes, methods, and results of political involvement by women.

HLTH 3401 Contemporary Women's Health

Description:  The promotion and maintenance of women’s health is stressed in this course. Historical influences, as well as social, sexual, medical, political, religious, and cultural factors that impact the contemporary woman's health are included as topics for discussion. Knowledge of women’s roles in complex societies helps individuals to become aware of self and facilitate competency as consumers and providers in the health care delivery system.

HLTH 3501 Aids Epidemic

Description: This survey course is designed to provide an overview of the AIDS epidemic, including specific at-risk populations, changes in the patterns of occurrence, signs and symptoms, classification of disease, recognition of the course of the disease, and strategies for prevention.

CMS 3810 Women and Popular Culture 

Description: This course explores how women are represented in American popular culture, and how popular culture shapes our common sense notions regarding women, men, and our gender-specific roles in society. We will consider what types of images we see and hear in various forms of popular culture, including Hollywood movies, fashion magazines, television, advertising, music and popular health. We will then question how we learn to respond to and interpret these messages. Throughout our course we will study how pop cultural texts work to create meanings and how we can become critical consumers of those messages.

HIST 4003 Women in U.S. History

Description:  This course explores the history of women's work, family, and political lives in industrial and modern America . The readings draw on both secondary and primary sources to examine women's experiences within the context of larger historical changes in the United States (including the economy, race relations, social and political movements, etc.). A major goal of the course is to present women's history both as an integral part of American social history and as a unique subject of historical investigation. We will pay close attention to the class, race, ethnic, and regional differences among women. Students will learn to think and write critically about historical arguments, as well as to understand the difference that gender makes in history and the differences among women's historical experiences.

PSYC 4110 Psychology of Gender

Description:  As an introduction to human sexuality and related counseling issues, this course focuses on the psychosexual aspects of human sexuality and covers a broad variety of historical and contemporary issues. This course is taught in the "hybrid" course format.

CMS 4320 Women and Film

Description:  This course explores the role of women in the cinema as on-screen representations, as spectators, and as filmmakers. We will study selected films and readings particularly in light of women's gender, class, race, and sexuality. Our course will approach these various filmic representations of/by women in three interrelated phases: 1) a brief, introductory phase will explore depictions of women and gender norms in mainstream films from the "Golden Age" of Hollywood Cinema (1930's-1950's), such as those directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Dorothy Arzner, and Howard Hawks; 2) The course content will then shift to study representations of women as re-considered by feminist filmmakers, including Chantal Akerman, Su Friedrich, and Sally Potter. These films will be more recent (1970's-1990's), and will draw from more independent, experimental works; 3) We will then view and discuss popular contemporary films (1980's-2000) by directors—both mainstream and independent—as diverse as Jane Campion, Peter Jackson, and Julie Dash.

 MGMT 4800 Women in Leadership

Description:  This course is a survey of women in leadership from an historical and strategic perspective. Focus is on identification of useful theories and the application of appropriate strategies to promote the development of women.

WST 4800 Special Topics in Women’s Studies

Description:  This seminar studies in various topics in Women’s Studies that revolve by semester. Depending on the semester topics may range across disciplines, including the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Health Sciences. The course may be repeated when topics vary.

ENGL 4810 Special Topics in Women and Literature

Description:  Advanced study of topics in women and literature along with applicable feminist theories. May repeat when topics vary.

CMS 4810 Women and the Arts  

Description:  Women and the Arts explores the role of women as artists, spectators, and representations in the visual, literary, and performing arts. Our primary category of analysis in Women & the Arts is gender, the socially constructed and historically variable understanding of what it means to be a woman or a man. Likewise, a central idea in our class is that knowledge and images conveyed through artistic texts are not neutral; rather, the arts socialize and discipline us even as they entertain and enlighten us. Thus, our course will closely analyze artworks both by women and about women.

Women's Studies Affiliated Faculty:

Dr. Virginia Bonner , Assistant Professor of Film & Media Studies (Ph.D. Women’s Studies and Film Studies, Emory University 2003, M.A. in Art History, University of Florida 1993, B.S. in Psychology, University of Florida 1991) Dr. Bonner is Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies, with training and teaching experience in Art History and Women’s Studies as well. She regularly presents papers on these areas at national professional conferences (SCMS, NWSA, MLA, etc.), and she is presently writing a book manuscript on the experimental documentary cinema of the Left Bank ( Paris ). She has published a book review in Film Quarterly and has submitted multiple chapters to peer-reviewed anthologies. Dr. Bonner will teach core courses (WST 2500 and WST 3500) and upper division electives in Film and the Arts for the Women’s Studies minor.

Dr. Wendy Burns-Ardolino, Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Integrative Studies (Ph.D. Cultural Studies, George Mason University 2004, M.A. in English, GMU 1998, B.S./B.A. International Politics and Philosophy, University of Hull , UK 1990) Dr. Burns-Ardolino teaches WST and CMS courses for the Department of Communicative Arts and Integrative Studies. Dr. Burns-Ardolino’s publications focus on feminist theory, body studies, globalization, and popular culture. She has published articles in Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, Cultural Matters: A Journal of Cultural Studies and The Women’s Movement Today: An Encyclopedia of Third Wave Feminism. Her manuscript, Jiggle: (Re)Shaping American Women, is under contract for publication in 2007 with Lexington Books in Lanham , Maryland . She coordinates the Integrative Studies Major and teaches interdisciplinary courses which cut across the fields of cultural studies, women’s studies and media studies. Dr. Burns-Ardolino will teach core courses (WST 2500 and WST 3500) and upper division electives for the Women’s Studies minor.

Dr. Gwendolyn Jones, Associate Professor of English (Ph.D. in English, Florida State University , M.A. University of South Alabama , B.S. Troy State University ) Dr. Gwendolyn Jones, holds a Ph.D. in American literature from Florida State University (1995), and has taught Women & Literature, Special Topics in Women & Literature, Introduction to Women’s Studies, Special Topics in Women’s Studies, and Feminist Theory. She regularly publishes articles on 19^th and 20^th Century American women writers, including Ellen Glasgow, Mary Johnston, and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, and is currently working on a book-length manuscript on Southern women writers. She is active in several professional organizations:  American Literature Association, Ellen Glasgow Society, Modern Language Association, and the South Atlantic Modern Language Association. She will teach core courses and electives for the Women’s Studies minor.

Debra Cody, Assistant Professor of Healthcare Management R.N.( M.S. Georgia State University 1985, B.S. Mississippi University for Women1976, A.S.N. Northeast Mississippi Junior College 1971) Ms. Cody is an active participant in both scholarly and professional activities. Her scholarly activities include research in undergraduate internship programs in health care management and she has also done work on strategic planning in health care, nominal group process, complementary alternative medicine, nursing, and communication that also produced peer-reviewed journal and proceedings publications. She continues to write for publication in areas related to health care management. Professional activities that are ongoing for Ms. Cody include consulting work as a clinical examiner for baccalaureate nursing education. She is a professional registered nurse and serves on health care related committees in the community. She is also a member of the Association of University Programs in Health Administration, Business and Health Administration Association, the American/Georgia Nurses Association, and Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. She has published articles in the following journals: The Journal of Legal Nurse Consulting, Clinical Research and Regulatory Affairs, Image Journal of Nursing Scholarship, Journal of Nursing Administration. Ms. Cody will teach Contemporary Women’s Health for the Women’s Studies minor.

Dr. Catherine G. Deering, Professor of Psychology ( Ph.D. University of Rhode Island 1991, M.S.N. Yale University 1980, B.S.N. Duke University 1978) In addition to her position at Clayton State University Dr. Deering is also Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Emory University School of Medicine. She is a licensed psychologist with 30 years of clinical experience in women’s issues including eating disorders, domestic violence, women’s health, and in gender role. She has published numerous articles and book chapters on these topics. Dr. Deering teaches courses in Health Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, Developmental Psychology, and Crisis Intervention. She recently chaired a Women’s Studies conference in Ulhasnagar , India as part of a faculty exchange program. Dr. Deering will teach special topics courses and upper division electives for the Women’s Studies minor.

Dr. J. Celeste Walley-Jean, Assistant Professor of Psychology (Ph.D., M.A., University of Southern Mississippi , B.A., Spelman College ). Dr. Walley-Jean has clinical experience working with women who have experienced violence in their relationships. In addition her area of research investigates women’s use and experience of violence in their relationships, and she is currently working on a manuscript of African-American college women’s interpersonal aggression. Dr. Walley-Jean teaches courses in Social Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, and Introduction to Psychology. She also has previously worked to develop an interdisciplinary course on women’s agency and aggression that focuses on the contextualization of women’s use of aggression and their exertion of agency. Dr. Walley-Jean will teach the Psychology of Gender and Sexuality and other upper division electives for the Women’s Studies minor.

Dr. Margaret Thompson, Assistant Professor Management ( Ph.D. , Georgia State University , M.A., University of Georgia , B.S., Mississippi State University ).She has 20 years academic research and experience in adult training and development. Her background is in human resource development, organizational behavior, career assessment and development, human resources, organizational theory and practice, organizational and team communication, and public speaking. She has also provided Successful corporate analysis in the development, implementation, and evaluation of organizational human resource interventions. She has published articles in the following journals: Academy of Educational Leadership Journal, Human Resource Development Quarterly, and Journal of Business and Psychology. Dr. Thompson will teach Women and Leadership for the Women’s Studies minor.  

Ms. Deborah Gritzmacher, Assistant Professor of Health Care Management (University of Georgia, ABD, Pursuing a Ph.D. in Adult Education, Dissertation research HIV/AIDS Prevention Education, M.S. Georgia State University, B.S. Georgia State University). She has published articles in the following journals: The Journal of Legal Nurse Consulting, Clinical Research and Regulatory Affairs, Image Journal of Nursing Scholarship, Journal of Nursing Administration. Ms. Gritzmacher will teach the Aids Epidemic course for the Women’s Studies minor.