Student Learning Goals

Below are the departmental learning goals mapped to College-wide goals for student learning.

• Critically examine the dominant paradigms of sex and gender at different points across time and space. (Ia, Ib)
• Center knowledges that emerge from the lived experiences of women and
• Non-binary peoples. (Ia, Ib, IId)
• Critically examine cultural assumptions about the gender binary and how it intersects with race, ethnicity, nationality, social class, sexual orientation, ability, and other vectors of power to construct identity. (IId, IIIa, IIIb, IIIc, Iva, IVb)
• Identify how feminist theories and analyses contribute to the understanding of women and gender to challenge the boundaries and concepts of traditional disciplines. (IIa, IIb, Iva, IVb)
• Gain an appreciation for the diversity of feminist theories and perspectives and how these have evolved over time. (Ia, Ib, Ic, IIa, IIb, IId, IVa)
• Understand the historical background of the academic discipline of Gender Studies, including the development of Women’s Studies and its relationship to social justice and liberation. (Ia, Ib, Ic, IId, IIIa, IIb, IIId)
• Understand different types of information and be able to distinguish amongst them: scholarly sources (primary and secondary; historical and contemporary), mass media, opinion pieces, etc. (IIb, IIe, IIIc, IVa, IVb, IVc)
• Have a good sense of how to judge the veracity and reliability of different forms of information. (IIb, IIe, IIIc, IVa, IVb, IVc)
• Be able to locate and to appropriately utilize different types of information for academic projects and assignments. (Also overlaps with Technological Literacy). (IIb, IIe, IIIc, IVa, IVb, IVc)
• Understand the specific context of information literacy within gender studies, namely that gender gtudies has a particular history of accepting as legitimate some sources of information that other academic disciplines consider “non-academic” — personal testimonies and lived experiences of women, people of color, non-binary people; critical readings of various types of texts; activist materials, songs/quilts, creative products, etc.). (IIa, IIb, IIc, IIIb, IVa)

Oral Communication

• Be confident and skilled in various forms of oral communication, including:
• Asking questions and participating in respectful and productive classroom discussions. (IIa, IIc, IId, IIe, IIIc, IIId, IVb, IVc)
• Presenting in front of an audience of one’s peers and faculty. (IIa, IIc, IId, IIe, IIIc, IIId, IVb, IVc)

Technological Literacy

• Related to Information Literacy, be able to locate easily the multiple sources of digital information utilized in the discipline of gender studies. (IIa, IIb, IIe, IIIc)
• Be able to present information through a variety of technological means, including the creation of research papers, ‘zines, tables / graphs, and presentations using PowerPoint and other slideware. (IIb, IIc, IIe, IIIc, IIId, IVc)

Visual Literacy

• Learn to interpret critically a plethora of visual data — advertising, political propaganda, media images, graphs and tables — with a particular focus on the gendered messages conveyed by those images. (IIa, IIb, IIIa, IIIb, IIIc, IVc)

Writing in the Major

• Develop the capacity to write clearly and persuasively in a variety of “academic” modes:
• Research papers of various lengths and degrees of sophistication, which conform to disciplinary guidelines regarding composition, argumentation, citation and formatting. (Ic, IIa, IIb, IIc, IIId, IVc)
• Academic essays of various types: analytical, critical, personal. (Ic, IIa, IIb, IIc, IIId, IVc)