Autumn 2025 undergraduate courses in feminist and queer studies!

Submitted by Stephen Dunne on
These days, gender and feminism are being discussed in relation to every aspect of public life: art and popular culture, queer and trans rights, international aid and activism. But how do scholars understand these topics? And how can you, as scholars yourselves, participate in the conversation?

If you'd like to learn more, check out these fantastic Autumn 2025 classes from the Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies! These classes have no prerequisites and are a great way of picking up Diversity, Social Science and Arts & Humanities credits.
 
T/Th 1:30-3:20 + F Quiz Section
Gowan Hall 301 
SLN: 16155
Instructor: Regina Y. Lee
Description: This course introduces major conversations in the field of gender, women and sexuality studies. It examines how difference and inequality are produced and enforced along lines of gender, sexuality, race, class, ability, citizenship status, and more; and explores how queer and feminist theories and practices have shaped conversations about identity and power in the United States and transnational contexts. DIV, SSc
 
GWSS 235: Global Feminist Art, cross-listed with ANTH 235 (5 credits)
M/W 1:30-3:20 + F Quiz Section
Condon Hall 109
SLN: 16164
Instructor: Sasha Su-Ling Welland
Description: Can art move you to understand the world in different terms? How have feminist artists and critics looked power in the eye? Feminist art challenges norms, embraces multiple media, and exposes inequities rooted in gender, sexuality, race, class and nationality. It proposes alternative ways of seeing the world. This course takes that premise to the global level, to explore how social categories are constructed across cultures and how the work of feminist art responds to these powerful formations. A&H, DIV, SSc
 
T/Th 10:30-1:20
Lowe 216
SLN: 16172
Instructor: Kemi Adeyemi
Description: This course introduces scholarly and political concepts that shape queer studies, from early contestations around LGBTQ identities and marriage rights to queer as a broad framework for non-normative modes of knowledge, cultural expression, and political activism. Focuses on the development of queer studies out of feminist, anti-racist, anticolonial, and transgender politics; and on building skills in critical analysis and for social change.
 

M/W 10:30-12:20

More Hall 234

SLN: 16174

Instructor: TBD

Description: Feminism has come to mean very different things for different people depending on geography, history, positionality, and culture. In this course, we will explore gender and feminisms across the world. We will map the ways in which gender and feminism have come to be shaped across spaces and scales of empire, race, migration, nation, home, city and more. We will unpack the ways in which feminist movements have emerged across different geographies. DIV, SSc

 

GWSS 374: Introduction to Transgender Studies (5 credits)

T/Th 1:30-3:20

Lowe 216

SLN: 16186

Instructor: TBD

Description: What does it mean to look beyond a simplistic binary of “man” and “woman”? With definitions of sex and gender as a starting point, we blur these contested categories, complicating them with sexuality, race, class, ability, history, and location. DIV, SSc

 

GWSS 445: Feminist Science (Fiction) Studies (5 credits) 

T/Th 10:30-12:20

Odegaard Library 141

SLN: 16190

Instructor: Regina Y. Lee

Description: This course addresses science fictional narratives to trouble and transform the human, the inhumane, the scientific apparatus, and the natural world. Students examine gender, race, sexuality, and ability, alongside relevant scientific documents and feminist theory, to better understand both science and fiction through feminist lenses. A&H, DIV, SSc

 

GWSS 448: Digital Capitalism and Data Colonialism (5 credits)

M/W 3:30-5:20

Miller Hall 316

SLN: 23210

Instructor: Kavita Dattani

Description: This course uncovers the ways in which global systems of capitalism and colonialism are implicated in digital technologies and data. We will draw on multiple global examples, including the digital gig economy, biometrics, artificial intelligence (AI) and digital dating apps. Div, SSc

 

GWSS 451: Latina Cultural Production (5 credits)

T/Th 3:30-5:20

Electrical and Computer Engineering 125

SLN: 16192

Instructor: TBD

Description: This course explores the expressive culture of Chicana/Mexican American/Latina women in the United States. It considers cultural and artistic practices in the context of home and in literary, music, film, spoken word, performing and visual arts. It focuses on how Chicana/Latina writers and artists re-envision traditional iconography. A&H, DIV

 

Questions about these courses? Get in touch with the GWSS undergraduate advisor at gwssadvs@uw.edu. 

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