Courses
Summer 2025 WGSS Graduate Certificate Courses
Radhika Gajjala | 6W1 5/19/2025 - 6/27/20245 | ONLINE
Description: This class will center the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools for crafting narrative, argument and storytelling as well as meaning making/producing through digital text and image production. We will read theoretical texts relevant to critical cultural studies and digital humanities while doing hands on exercises with Large Language Model (LLM) that generates text on the one hand (such as Deepseek and Claude) and images on the other (such as Midjourney). This will be a reading and writing intensive class with weekly hands-on exercises.
Piya Lapinski | 6W1 5/19/2025 - 6/27/20245 | ONLINE
Description: This summer 6 -week course will focus on the films of Alfred Hitchcock, with a special focus on women in these works. As Tania Modleski has said, “his films are always in danger of being subverted by females whose power is both fascinating and seemingly limitless.” These films were extremely influential in creating representations of women that are culturally and historically significant because they embody a complex relationship between gender and power, and explore issues of the gaze, criminality, class relations, terrorism, domestic/public spaces, sexual violence, glamor and fashion, among others. Hitchcock also drew consistently from literary texts by writers like Daphne Du Maurier, Boileau and Narcejac, and Winston Graham –we will examine the “literary” aspects of the films as well. We’ll look at Hitchcock as a British director who transformed Hollywood, by bringing the literary tradition of the British "female gothic" to his conception of gender, in the process also exploring how he contributed to the construction of iconic actresses in Hollywood such as Grace Kelly, Ingrid Bergman, Kim Novak and Tippi Hedren. Films will include lesser- known films such as The Paradine Case (1947), and Marnie, (1964) as well as more well-known ones such as Rebecca (1940), Vertigo (1958), To Catch a Thief (1955) Notorious (1946), North by Northwest (1959), and The Birds (1963). There will be opportunities to work on your favorite Hitchcock film if I don't include it.)
Texts:
Hitchcock's Blondes, Laurence Leamer
Vertigo, by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac
Rebecca, and "The Birds" by Daphne Du Maurier
Tom Edge | 6W2 6/30/2025 - 8/08/2025 | ONLINE
Description: This course will highlight different historiographical and cultural approaches to the study of the Black Freedom Struggle of the mid-twentieth century. Our focus will include a strong emphasis on historical memory of the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power eras, grassroots activism beyond the South, intersectional analysis of movement history, the impact of the urban rebellions, cultural depictions of activism, and the role of culture within social movements.
Heidi Nees-Carver | MoTuWeTh 1:00-4:20PM | 3W 05/19/2025 - 06/06/2025 | Wolfe Center 203
Description: This course examines representational politics and practices in American Musical Theatre, across multiple dimensions of identity including but not limited to race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, and religion. We will engage with musicals as they appear in text through scripts and scores, as well as the production practices and artistic choices involved in staging these works. We will also explore critical and theoretical scholarship on American Musical Theatre as a form.
Sarah Rainey-Smithback | 6W1 5/19/2025 - 6/27/20245 | ONLINE
Description: This graduate level seminar will glance back briefly at second-wave feminism and then move forward to more recent feminist theory and its applications in fields ranging from, but not necessarily limited to, language, literature, film, religion, philosophy, history, psychoanalysis, psychology, health, and politics. We will work to establish a clear understanding of contemporary feminist methodologies and theoretical approaches, and we will pay close attention to the ways in which feminist thinkers have critiqued and changed traditional academic disciplines, as well as the new bodies of thought (e.g., queer theory, feminist disability studies, affect studies, etc.) that have emerged from these critiques. Our primary focus will be on feminist thought since the 1990s, with a particular emphasis on work published in the last decade. Required for the Women’s Studies Graduate Certificate.
Fall 2025 WGSS Graduate Certificate Courses
Information Coming Soon!
There may be other classes offered within your current grad program or others that could be relevant to the certificate provided that a course project or other work for the class will focus on gender. Please email ccs@bgsu.edu if there is a course you want considered.
Previous WGSS Graduate Certificate Course Offerings
Spring 2025
ACS 6820/WS 6820 - Feminism and War (Coates)
ENG 6800 - James Baldwin adn the Black Queer Tradition (Walsh)
MUCT 6290 - Seminar in Ethnomusicology: Music & Disability (Meizel)
POLS 5800 Nonprofit Mgmt. and Leadership (Bhati)
POPC 6800/WS 6800 - Hollywood Sex Symbols (Brown)
SOC 5500 - Gender in Families (Nomaguchi)
THFM 6700 - African American Theatre (Forbes-Erickson)
WS 5800 - Marginalized Sexualities (Rainey-Smithback)
WS 6200 - Feminist Theory (Gajjala)
Fall 2024
WS 6100 - Foundations of Feminist Thought (Cragin)
WS 6410 - Gender, Sexuality, and Sport (Krane)
WS 6800 - Gender, Race, and Class on TV (Cragin)
ACS 7700 - Media and Cultural Studies (Gajjala)
MC 6400 - Humanistic Research Methods (Faulkner)
MUCT 5320 - Proseminar in Ethnomusicology: Voice and Identity(Meizel)
THFM 7670 - Native American Theatre & Performance (Nees-Carver)
Summer 2024
WS 6200 501W – Feminist Theory (Rainey-Smithback)
ENG 6800 502W – Re-visioning Ibsen’s Doll House (Diehl)
ETHN 6820 501W – Teaching Hard History (Edge)
Spring 2024
WS 6800 5001/ETHN 6800 5001 – Black Resistance & Black Women (Stanley)
ACS 6750 5002/ENG 6750 5001 – Sexuality Before Stonewall (Albertini)
ENG 6800 501W – Transatlantic Vampires (Lapinski)
ENG 6800 503W – Disability Studies (Wells-Jensen)
POLS 5420 – Women in American Politics (Miller)
Fall 2023
ACS 7800/MC 7270- Enviornment Rhetoric & Rhetorix of Sustainable (Gorsevski)
ARTH 5760- Critical Issues in World Art- Women and Art in Africa (Green)
MC 5670- Gender, Media, and Culture
POLS 5330- Nonprofit Administration (Bhati)
WS 6100- Foundations of Feminist Theory (Cragin)
WS 6830/THFM 6820- Labor and Performance (Ahlgren)
Summer 2023
ACS 6820- Affect, Labor and the Computational Turn in Media and Cultural Studies (Gajjala)
ETHN 6820- Applied Ethnic & Gender Studies (Edge)
WS 6200- Contemporary Feminist Theory (Rainey-Smithback)
MC 5670- Gender, Media & Culture (Lengel)
HIST 6320- Topics in World History (Schumann)
ENG 6230- Theory and Methods of Literary Criticism (Diehl)
ENG 6800- From James Baldwin to Black Lives Matter (Walsh)
THFM 7660- Marlow in Performance (Ahlgren)
Spring 2023 Courses
WS 6200- Feminist Theory (Coates)
WS 6820/SPAN 6800- Translinguistics: Living and Speaking Outside the Lines (Attig)
WS 7800/MC 7800- Critical Ethnographies (Gajjala)
ACS 6730/ETHN 6730- CRT: Myth and Reality (Messer-Kruse)
ACS 6820- Digital Media Activism (Gajjala)
ENG 6800- Trespassing Boarders: Archives of Resistance and Implication in Contemporary Literature (Walsh)
ETHN 6500/WS 6800- Sexuality, Race, and Nation (Peña)
HIST 5820- Problems in History: Witchcraft and Magic in Europe (Stark)
POLS 5800- Topics in Political Science- Nonprofit Mgmt and Leadership (Bhati)
MUCT 6290- Seminar in Ethnomusicology: Music and Disability (Meizel)
Fall 2022 Courses
WS 6410/HMSL 6410 Gender, Sexuality & Sport (Krane)
WS 6800/POPC 6800 Gender, Race, & Class on TV (Cragin)
ETHN 6820/WS6820 Gender & Transnational Migration (Bhalla)
HIST 6320 Women in Early Modern Europe (Barr)
POLS 5330 Nonprofit Administration (Orr)
MC 5670 Gender, Media & Culture (Lengel)
MC 6400 Humanistic Research Methods (Faulkner)
THFM 6620 Black Feminism & Performance (Forbes-Erickson)
Summer 2022 Courses
WS 6820 Representing Love, Sex, and Disability (Rainey-Smithback)
WS 6200 Feminist Theory (Rainey-Smithback)
MC 5670 Gender, Media and Culture (Gajjala)
ACS 6820 Critical Digital Humanities (Gajjala)
THFM 6680 Performance Studies: Queer Performance and Theory (Ahlgren)
HIED 7330 Women in Higher Education (Snyder)
Spring 2022 Courses
ENG 6800 Convincing Women: 19th Century Rhetoric
ENG 6750/WS 6800 Raging Women
WS 6100 Foundations of Feminist Theory
ACS 6820/POPC 6820/WS 6820 Female Body and Feminist Film Theory
CSP 6500 Social Justice Education & Training
THFM 7680 Dance, Movement, and Politics
THFM 6700 Contemporary Black Theatre and Performance
MC 7610/WS 7800 Race and Communication
MC 7630 Global Development and Social Change
Fall 2021 Courses
POPC 6800/WS 6800 TV Comedy & Gender
MC 6400 Humanistic Research Methods
Summer 2021 Courses
WS 6200 Feminist Theory
ENG 6800 – Hitchcock’s Heroines
MC 5670 Gender, Media, & Culture
ENG 6070 – Theory and Methods of Literary Criticism
ACS 6820 – Digital Humanities: Intersections and Praxis
THFM 6700 Performance and Theatre in the Americas: Asian American Theatre and Performance
Spring 2021 Courses
WS 6200 Feminist Theory (Sarah Rainey-Smithback)
WS 6820/ENG 6800 Convincing Women: 19th Century Rhetoric (Sue Carter Wood)
WS 6800/ETHN 6800/POPC 6800 Black Women, POPC, & Respectability (Angela Nelson)
MC 7000 Relational Communication (Sandra Faulkner)
THFM 6680 -Performance & Mourning (Angela Ahlgren)
MUCT 6290 Seminar in Ethnomusicology: Music and Disability (Katherine Meizel)
Fall 2020 Courses
ACS 7700 Media and Cultural Studies (Gajjala)
MC 6400 Humanistic Research Methods (Atkinson)
MC 7630 Global Development and Social Change (Gajjala)
POLS 5800 Non-Profit Administration
WS 6410/HMSLS 6410 Gender, Sexuality, and Sport (Krane)
Spring 2020 Courses
WS 6200 Feminist Theory (Faulkner)
WS 5800 Marginalized Sexualities (Rainey-Smithback)
WS 6800/ENG 6800 Raging Women (Coates)
WS 6800/POPC 6800 TV Comedy & Gender (Cragin)
Fall 2019 Courses
WS 6800/POPC 6620 Women in Bollywood (Rudisill)
WS 6100 Foundations of Feminist Theory (Cragin)
WS 6800/MC 6530 Interpersonal Communication
ACS 6820/MC 7150 Communications and Social Movements
ACS 7700 Media and Cultural Studies
MC 6400 Humanistic Research Methods
POLS 5800 Non-Profit Administration
Spring 2019 Courses
WS 6200 5001 Feminist Theory (Faulkner)
POPC 6800/WS 6800 5001 Female Body & Film Theory (Brown)
WS 6800 5002 Queer Performance & Theory (Ahlgren)
MC 7000/WS 6800 5003 Relational Communication (Faulkner)
ENG 6820 Topics in English Studies: Queer Before Stonewall (Albertini)
THFM 6820 Performance Theory and Practice: Using Theatrical Tools for Social Change (Ellison)
Fall 2018 Courses
WS 6410/HMSL 6410 Gender, Sexuality, & Sport
WS 6800/POPC 6800 Seminar in Women’s Studies: TV Comedy & Gender
MC 5670 Gender, Media & Culture
POLS 6540 Foundations of the Non-Profit Sector
THFM 6700 Performance and Theatre in the Americas: Women and Performance
Spring 2018 Courses
WS 6200 Feminist Theory
WS 6800/POPC 6800 Seminar: Romance Novels
WS 6800/ARTH Seminar: Performatie Viewer
Updated: 03/05/2025 12:07PM