Please consult the New School Course Catalog for a full list of current courses. Fall 2020 and spring 2021 courses that count for the Gender and Sexuality Studies Graduate Certificate are listed below; view an archive of past courses.
Fall 2020 Courses
Trans Theory as Gender Theory, GLIB 5150
McKenzie Wark, Professor of Culture and Media
Trans people have a unique relation to gender in that they have experienced being two (or more) genders, whereas most cis people have only ever been one. So what if we took the accounts and theories about gender created by trans people as central to thinking about the concept of gender in general, rather than as a subtopic of feminist or queer theory? We build on pioneering work in trans studies (Susan Stryker, Sandy Stone, Leslie Feinberg) as well as recent contributions (Paul Preciado, C. Riley Snorton) as a way of constructing alternative pathways into the research on gender and sexuality of more standard accounts (Eve Sedgwick, Judith Butler). It may turn out that some aspects of transgender experience and thought do not fit neatly in accepted conceptual frameworks. Besides examining theoretical texts, we look at examples of trans literature, art, and media that may transcend existing theoretical categories and call for novel concepts.
Political Economics of Development, NINT 5251
Sakiko Fududa-Parr, Professor of International Affairs
The defining challenges of our times — extreme inequality within and between countries, environmental destruction, pervasive poverty, threats to democracy — do not fall from the sky. They result from public policies and social institutions that in turn are shaped by theories about the process of development. This course offers a critical introduction to the central ideas and theories that have shaped these policy choices. The course addresses questions such as: Is inequality necessary for economic growth? Should understanding of the economy be limited to market interactions? How can developing countries grow in an environmentally sustainable way? Is spending on health and education a luxury or an investment? Do international trade agreements create a level playing field for countries? Is a flexible labor market the most effective way to promote employment and wage growth? What is the role of the state in transforming economies? How should the governance of global international economic institutions be reformed to give more voice to the Global South? The course emphasizes the importance of ethical foundations and the historical inequities of North-South relations. It introduces theories from mainstream and heterodox approaches including structuralism, feminism, capabilities and human rights, and sustainability. The aim is to prepare students to engage critically and creatively in contemporary debates about what works and what does not work to promote sustainable and equitable development.
Global Pandemics in an Unequal World: Learning from COVID-19, NINT 5465
Sakiko Fududa-Parr, Professor of International Affairs
COVID-19 is a pandemic whose spread and consequences on human lives will be uneven, shaped by the social, economic, and political contexts of 21st-century globalization. The variable experience of the pandemic in different countries has thrown a spotlight on implicit and explicit social contracts, uneven geographies of rights and freedoms, divergent conceptions of individual and collective welfare, and asymmetries of resources and power within and between countries. It also underlines the consequences of 21st-century capitalism, even as nations vary in their economic policies, health systems, and infrastructures. This course uses COVID-19 as a lens through which to understand underlying structures, norms, and values in societies around the world and to understand the nature of global capitalism in the 21st century. The course is organized as a series of lectures by faculty from across The New School and by guest speakers. Specific themes covered in the course include the politics of data, digital cultures, borders and the mobility of microbes and migrants, economic inequalities and access to healthcare, and global flows of technologies and scientific knowledge. Open to undergraduate juniors and seniors only by permission of the instructor.
Design and Gender and the Gender of Design, PGHT 5727
Sarah Lichtman, Assistant Professor of Design History
How does gender affect design? Does it? This course, using what art historian Griselda Pollock has labeled “feminist interventions,” addresses these and other questions as it examines the relationship between gender and design. Through a focus on interiors, fashion, products, environments, textiles, furniture, and architecture, the course reexamines the role of women in design and challenges assumptions about culture and creativity. It places design within a broader feminist framework by addressing such issues as creative partnerships, the gendered nature of objects, anonymity and recognition, patronage, and production and consumption. It also highlights the lives and careers of women designers, some known and others not so well known, while always placing their work within the broader context of race, ethnicity, and class. Readings come from both primary and secondary sources situated within a variety of frameworks, including Marxism, capitalism, modernism, and postmodernism.
Gender, Politics, and History, GHIS 5233
Elaine Abelson, Associate Professor of History
This seminar explores various aspects of women's history and the history of gender in the United States over the past two centuries. The course stresses the themes of difference among women and between women and men as a means of examining the social construction of gender and the logic of feminist analysis and activity. Students discuss the major themes of gender history, build critical and analytical skills, and develop an appreciation of current and ongoing theoretical debates. The course analyzes such key conceptual and methodological frameworks as gender, class, sexuality, power, and race. Thematically organized, readings include both primary and secondary material. Students complete two papers and participate in student-led discussions. Cross-listed with Lang; open to juniors and seniors only.
Fashion, Identity, and the Body, APFS 5019
Fashion is a phenomenon that has always defined the body and the way it is understood in society. Sizing, pattern making, and representation of bodies in fashion media are only few of the fashion industry’s practices that have informed the creation of our identities. While the perception of our bodies is affected by the construction of beauty ideals and the discipline of bodies, "dressed bodies" are also tools affecting the ways in which the social world and power relations are organized and structured. In this course, we explore these cultural relationships from different theoretical perspectives, from gender and queer studies to postcolonial and affect theory. We examine the way bodies are constructed in fashion, studying different representations and ideals of beauty, design practices, and forms of discrimination and empowerment of bodies in image making during the 20th and 21st centuries. We also look at different fashion media, exploring the way ideals of body (normative and non-normative) and body practices (dieting and plastic surgery, for example) are culturally constructed, specifically investigating how fashion images have informed ideals of beauty, gender, race, and size in our society.
Global Critical Theory, GPHI 6766/GSOC 6228
Chiara Bottici, Associate Professor of Philosophy, and Benoit Challand, Associate Professor of Sociology
Critical theory is often presented as a tradition rooted in the Western philosophical canon, which cannot but reflect its inbuilt androcentrism and Eurocentrism. Some strands of postcolonial theories are presented as an opposition to that tradition, while revived interests in theories from the “Global South” or in Third Worldism provide yet another angle to the objectives of emancipation and liberation. This course provides an introduction to global critical theory, that is, to a body of thought produced by thinkers from all around the globe that starts with epistemological questions around conceptions of geographical space (what does it mean to speak about north and south, and east and west? can there be a center in a globe?) and time (what does it mean to divide it into categories such as ancient, modern or contemporary?). Thinkers in the European tradition of critical theory will be discussed and put in conversation with ideas raised by thinkers from or of the Global South and with intellectuals who have worked to span these artificial geographical divides.
Spring 2021 Courses
Urban Poverty and Inequality, NINT 5078
Alberto Minujin, Part-Time Assistant Professor
One of the 21st century's biggest challenges is, and will continue to be, urban expansion and growing intra-urban inequalities. Fifty percent of the world's population currently lives in urban areas, and by 2050, that number is projected to rise to 66 percent. Many inhabitants, including millions of children, live in precarious and temporary shelter in slums, where inequities are part of daily life. Some key questions raised by this situation are still unanswered. For example, how many poor people live in urban areas? How should urban poverty be measured, and how reliable are current estimations of poverty? How do inequities affect different social groups in cities? What is the situation in cities of groups such as children, women, and minorities? How are urban policies addressing the multiple challenges that cities increasingly face? Students in this course investigate these questions through practical experience based on a theoretical framework. Students have a unique opportunity to engage in a field experience with one of two organizations: REES, an office of the New York City Housing Authority, and a local NGO, LSA Family Health Services. Through the practical part of the course, students acquire knowledge and understanding that can be applied globally. The course consists of two parallel tracks: 1) analyzing conceptual frameworks and methodological approaches to measure poverty and inequality and relevant social policies to alleviate them; and 2) designing and carrying out a practical project designed to confront poverty in New York City. Using the city as a case study, students explore how different organizations implement policies and programs to address poverty and marginalization among several social and demographic groups. By the end of the course, students will have gained practical knowledge about and tools for measuring poverty and inequality in urban environments and learned to critically assess the policies developed by city government and civil society organizations on behalf of citizens.
Human Rights in Global Fashion, NINT 5112
Sakiko Fududa-Parr, Professor of International Affairs, and Mary Watson, Executive Dean, Schools of Public Engagement
Linking consumers and workers in distant places, fashion has long been home to some of the most glaring inequalities and injustices on an increasingly globalized scale, linking consumers and workers in distant places. Since the 19th century, the clothing sector has also been a site of social contestation that has been marked by struggles for worker rights, the rise of social movements, the exercise of corporate power, and the fallibility of national governments. It has also been a source of innovation in public policy, corporate accountability, and monitoring — processes that have shaped 21st-century design of the industry itself. This course provides an introductory overview of the key obstacles, actors, rules, and methods involved in developing innovative solutions in social mobilization, legal intervention, and design, with the aim of creating more socially sustainable and economically inclusive fashion — fashion that respects the human rights of workers in the supply chain. The course achieves this aim by analyzing 1) actors, power, and finance in the global value chain in the fashion industry; 2) international and local standards and institutions, including workers’ human rights and corporate obligations and accountability; 3) social movements and international networks mobilizing worker power; 4) monitoring and labeling schemes mobilizing consumer power; 5) and design solutions and technological systems that fulfill worker rights amid new conceptions of industry design. The course includes lectures by faculty from the Schools of Public Engagement's Studley Graduate Programs in International Affairs, Parsons' fashion programs, and The New School for Social Research as well as invited speakers.
Queering Space, UTNS 5129
William Fryer and Lena Kouvela, Part-Time Lecturer
Queer space is antinormative. It is ephemeral, ambiguous, and theatrical. Any space can become a queer space through performance. What happens to normative space once it has been queered? In this course, students gain a better understanding of what it means to queer space. We examine the way the status quo is enforced in our environment through the suppression of antinormative behavior, in which all design disciplines play a role. The built spaces we inhabit, the products we use, and the clothes we wear are both tools we use to act out identity and performers in their own right, ones that act upon us, often putting us in a role we did not choose. How can we disrupt conformance? The course includes theoretical and contextual readings and films. Students create, perform, and document a series of "disruptions" both in and outside of the university. Additionally, the class participates in and documents an event such as a symposium or another public program at The New School on the theme of queering space.
Gender and Its Discontents, GLIB 5406
McKenzie Wark, Professor of Culture and Media
This is the required core course for the university-wide graduate certificate in Gender and Sexuality Studies, and it is open to all graduate students who are interested in sexuality and gender studies. Our starting point is the acknowledgment that sex- and gender-based modes of social organization are pervasive and, further, that their prominence and persistence are reflected in sex- and gender-conscious research in the humanities, the arts, the social sciences, design, and studies dedicated to social policies and innovative strategies for social intervention. We will expand on this starting point through an in-depth survey of influential theoretical approaches to sex and gender, such as Marxist feminism, theories of sexual difference, queer studies, and postcolonial and decolonial feminism, and through attention to the significance of different approaches. Topics to be explored include but are not limited to equality and rights, exploitation and division of labor, the construction of gender, performativity, gender images, narrative, and identity.
Gender, Civilians, Combatants: A Critical Approach to War, NINT 5445
Anna DiLellio, Part-Time Assistant Professor
This course explores the gendered dimensions of security, with a focus on contemporary armed conflicts. Using theoretical material from multiple disciplines and case studies from a variety of geographical contexts, it assumes a gendered lens in order to investigate themes such as discourses of nationalism and aggression; the protection of civilians in conflicts and peacekeeping; and the diverse natures of combatants, whether army soldiers, insurgents, or terrorists. In our readings and discussions, we challenge the official gender-neutral perspective on conflict and security and examine the key role that gender plays in justifying or inciting wars and violence, targeting the enemy, and dealing with the legacy of war (ad bellum, in bello, and post bellum). We also question received ideas about gender and violence, such as a too-hasty attribution of gender to victims and perpetrators of sexual violence or to the active combatants.
Experimental Fashion and Performance, PGHT 5550
Francesca Granata, Associate Professor of Fashion Studies
This graduate seminar examines visual and material culture at the turn of the millennium, with a focus on work at the juncture between experimental fashion and performance art. It explores the ever-increasing challenge posed by practitioners in the art and fashion fields to the “classical” concept of the body and of beauty, which found one of its most successful articulations in the images surrounding 20th-century high fashion. Examining the way designers and artists problematize easy demarcations between the inside and outside of the body, the course questions why this period saw an explosion of grotesque imagery — imagery articulating unsettling ruptures of borders — which had been lurking just beneath the surface throughout the 20th century. Among the questions we ask are: Why is the sealed and “perfect” body, which developed in the Western vocabulary as early as the Renaissance, so forcefully challenged by contemporary designers and artists? How can we read the proliferation of the grotesque in relation to changes in gender roles and normative sexuality and to the AIDS crisis? We look at media ranging from the video and performance work of Leigh Bowery in collaboration with Charles Atlas and Michael Clark to the dance performances of Merce Cunningham in collaboration with Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons, from the experimental fashion shows staged by Alexander McQueen and Hussein Chalayan to the more recent phenomenon of Lady Gaga. We also examine textiles' relation to the body as a second skin, a surface on which bodily borders are negotiated. The seminar combines theories and methodologies from fashion theory, gender studies, art history, performance studies, science studies, and medical anthropology in its exploration of the topic. Among the authors read are Judith Butler, Julia Kristeva, Lynda Nead, Frances Connelly, Emily Martin, Mikhail Bakhtin, and Caroline Evans.
Knowing Women: Exploring New Forms of Knowledge Through Historiography and Design, UTNS 5700
Gina Walker, Professor of Women's Studies, and Lisa Strausfeld, Part-Time Faculty Member
This course provides students with an opportunity to explore the ways in which we build new knowledge-ordering systems through the integration of critical thinking, historical research, and design. Building on Knowing Women, a collaborative platform that historian Gina Luria Walker and information architect Lisa Strausfeld have been developing, students working in small teams collaboratively investigate, develop, sketch, and propose new knowledge systems aimed at representing women’s missing place in history. In this experimental course, students combine readings in critical history; visual analysis of timelines, encyclopedias, and other knowledge-ordering systems; and spatial design practices to ask a simple but fundamental question: By what means do we represent “missing” women when the systems we have in place have been built to represent the lives of men? This course in collaborative co-production and cross-disciplinary research is not simply an opportunity to translate historical research into a visual medium. Instead, we use design and critical reflection to challenge the norms and forms of historical research — even the making of history itself — to foreground “female biography” as a vehicle through which to interrogate what it means to explore and represent the past. The course does not presuppose knowledge of women’s history or data visualization, but instead assumes that students from a variety of disciplines and practices want to roll up their sleeves and work through the complex challenges of visualizing women’s history differently from conventional history, which is mainly by, for, and about men.
Women's Studies in French, NFRN 5725
Marie-Christine Masse, Assistant Professor of French
The Body: Aesthetics, Culture, and Politics in the 20th Century, GLIB 5841
Terri Gordon, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature
“You do not realize how the headlines that make daily history affect the muscles of the human body,” the dancer Martha Graham once noted. This course examines the relationship between politics, social tensions, and cultural values and muscles, movement, and skin, a relationship that has made the body one of the most visible signs of 20th-century culture. We study deployments of the body in Europe and the United States, covering the historical and contemporary avant-garde, body culture and life reform movements, war and propaganda, and cabaret, dance, and performance art. How can we “read” the body? How do representations of the body reflect and support prevalent notions of race, gender, and nation? In what ways do images of the body critique and subvert cultural norms? We study literature, history, art, and cultural documents, including articles in the press and political manifestoes; fictional works by Hawthorne, Kafka, and Audre Lorde; artworks by Frida Kahlo, Cindy Sherman, and Orlan; and theoretical texts by Butler, Freud, Foucault, Sontag, and others. We also spend class time viewing painting, photography, and performance art.
Ecofeminism, NEPS 6003
Abigail Perez Aguilera, Part-Time Faculty Member
Aspects of the Female Experience in Music, CBMH 6100
Amanda Gookin
Focusing on pervasive historical and current social issues of music and gender, this course examines the contributions of women as composers, performers, musicologists, and activists from the 17th century to the present, including Clara Schumann, Kaija Saariaho, Billie Holiday, Esperanza Spalding, Susan McClary, and others. This course fulfills the requirement for Graduate Seminar for Mannes MM students.
Labor Economics I: Labor, Development, and Gender, GECO 6270
William Rodgers, Senior Fellow at the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis
Labor Economics I is a graduate survey course in labor economics. The course surveys the classic topics in labor economics to prepare students to engage in original research and teach labor economics in several economic traditions. The successful student will be able to distinguish between several schools of thought in labor economics: neoclassical, institutionalism, and radical political economy. Specific objectives include understanding modern research methods in labor economics and the dominant and heterodox models of labor markets. Students will be able to explain the most important labor market outcomes using different analytical frameworks, including ones that assume varying degrees of market power, full employment, and constraints on choice. Some labor union history and regulatory issues will also be covered. Modern capitalism distributes resources in such a way that living standards, not only in terms of material wellbeing, but also in terms of security, dignity, safety, and longevity, have never been more unequal. We examine the way markets, institutions, and rules affect the power balances between capital and labor, employers and workers, and determine the value of people’s time and lives as well as working conditions and wages and salaries.
Feminist Economics, NINT 6297
Sheba Tejani, Assistant Professor of International Affairs
Feminist economics can be viewed as a way of radically reconceptualizing and reorienting the study of economics rather than just an approach designed to make gender inequalities visible. Taking such a position, this course surveys foundational and contemporary feminist scholarship on epistemology, methodology, and economic theory in order to trace their evolution over time and explore their transformative potential. The course begins with an introduction to feminist epistemology and its insistence on the constitutive role of power relations in knowledge production. This grounds our discussion on economic methodology and feminist proposals to produce a more critical, reflexive, and engaged economics that brings together critiques of methodological individualism, deductivism, and mathematical formalism. We survey important theoretical interventions made by feminists on the gendered nature of standard microfoundational assumptions such as free choice and rationality and new ways of conceptualizing discrimination and expanding the boundaries of the discipline to include sociocultural norms and non-market spheres in the analysis. We revisit historical debates on “the unhappy marriage of Marxism and feminism” and household economics and engage with contemporary discussions on social reproduction, the care economy, the gender wage gap, occupational segregation, and gender and globalization, asking all the while: What makes this research feminist?
The Psychology of Gender, Sexuality, and Relationships, GPSY 6449
Pantea Farvid, Assistant Professor of Applied Psychology
In this advanced psychology course, we examine seminal as well as cutting-edge theory, research, and controversies related to the psychology of gender, sexuality, and intimate relationships. We draw on a range of approaches to understand the intersecting categories of sex, gender, identity, sexuality, and individual and collective psychologies. Using popular culture and empirical and clinical examples, we also take into consideration intersectionality of race and ethnicity, class, disability, geographical location, and immigration status. As we explore key themes and topics within critical and feminist psychological research in this field, we also focus on how this knowledge has encompassed and continues to encompass an "applied psychology," one with a social change orientation focused on social justice within and outside of the discipline. Topics covered include theories of gender and sexuality, asexuality, bisexuality, BDSM, gay men, lesbian psychology, heterosexuality, intersex, gender diversity, mobile dating, casual sex, sexual violence, the sex industry, monogamy, open relationships, and relationship anarchy. Applications of this knowledge to clinical practice are also addressed throughout the course.
Black Feminist Thought: Labor, Genealogy, Memory, GPHI 6774