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Learn more about these FGSS Fall 2021 gateway courses that are available to first-year and sophomore class students:

• FGSS 200F Sex/Gender Critical Perspective (FYS): MW 8:20am-9:40am
• FGSS 200 Sex/Gender Critical Perspective: MW 4:40-pm-6:00pm

Course Description
Feminist, gender and sexuality studies is an exciting interdisciplinary field that addresses gender, sex, and sexuality as well as related issues of race, class, nation, and citizenship across multiple disciplines, epistemologies, methods, and vantage points. At its most fundamental, the field addresses how persons are identified and identify themselves as similar to and different from each other and the relation of these categories of difference to power relations. The study of feminist and queer thought on sex/gender and sexuality offers a critical lens through which to examine social structures and social problems, inequality, difference and diversity, identity and the self, belonging and community, and the possibility of social change, among other topics. This course will offer a broad introduction to the field and provide a foundation for further study of specific areas of interest. The primary goals are to (1) explore the multiple ways feminist and queer scholars have understood sex, gender, and sexuality; (2) explore different methods and styles of feminist thought and expression; (3) situate these in time and place, with attention to historical and cultural contexts; and (4) explore the intersections of sex, gender, and sexuality with race, nation, and other categories of difference. The course will cover aspects of first-wave feminism (e.g., suffrage and the abolitionist movement); second-wave feminism and critical theories of sex/gender; and contemporary feminism, including queer theory, intersectionality and race, and transnational and postcolonial feminism.

Rising sophomores are especially sought for a new course on one of the greatest thinkers and writers in history, Dante Alighieri. On the 700^th anniversary of his death, this course in history, medieval studies, and World Literatures in translation is open to all class years.

HIST 236: Dante in His World: Politics, Poetry, Religion
Instructor: Gary Shaw
T.R.. 02:50PM-04:10PM

Dante has been famous since his life, especially for his poem “The Divine Comedy,” including its depictions of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. The book reveals his massive knowledge and his deep and complex commitments to love, hope, and the good. It might be less well known that he was also an active politician and a political theorist, as well as a student of literature and style.

This course will examine the body of his work and use it to outline some of the great political, moral, and religious crises of Europe around the year 1300, many issues that continue to today, such as the importance of ethical and political commitment and courage in public life, but also the dangers of false hierarchies and one’s own ego. Readings will focus on Dante’s own writings, including “The Divine Comedy,” “The New Life” and “On Monarchy.”