Harvard finally gets its act together on gender studies

I was pleased to see that Harvard has updated its curriculum. Under former President Larry Summers, Harvard neglected feminist and women’s studies. Fortunately, under Drew Gilpin Faust, Harvard has added 30 new courses this year in these disciplines:

1. Modern Japanese Women Writers
2. Gender and Sexuality in Ancient Greece
3. Women’s Voices in Medieval and Early Modern Europe
4. Women, Gender and Sexuality: Theorizing Activism, Or How to Change the World
5. Race, Gender, Class and Ethnicity the Early Films of Spike Lee
6. Women, Gender and Sexuality in Modern Europe
7. Readings in Gender History
8. Women, Gender and Sexuality: Cinema and Alternative Sexualities
9. Great Women of Archaeology
10. Gender and Population Change in East Asia
11. Gender, Medicine and Care
12. English: Early Women Writers
13. Women, Gender and Sexuality: From Queer to Queer — History of Same Sex Love and Eroticism in the United States
14. Theories of Sexual Coercion
15. Women and Religion
16. The Female Body in Islam: Religious Doctrines in Changing Societies
17. African Women Storytellers
18. Women and Work in the US, 19th Century to Present
19. Food, Culture, and Gender
20. The Psychology of Girls and Women over the Life Span
21. Women, Gender and Sexuality: Intimacy and Violence
22. Our Mothers, Ourselves: A Brief History of Postwar American Feminist thought
23. Women, Gender and Sexuality: Queer Theory
24. Sex and Power in Modern Latin America and U.S. Latino Culture
25. Women, Gender and Sexuality: Cinema Alternative Sexualities
26. Postcolonial Women’s Writing
27. Women, Gender and Sexuality: Intersections of Identity in African American Communities
28. Myths of Motherhood
29. Transsexualtiy, Transgenderism, and the Rest
30. Women, Gender and Sexuality: Ethics and Social Policy

These courses are welcome and much needed additions. Under Summers, sometimes called a male chauvinist, students interested in feminist and women’s studies were limited to only 76 courses:

1. Gaelic Women’s Poetry
2. Slavic Women/Poets
3. Social Studies: Feminist Theories
4. Writing Women: Language, Culture, and Difference in 20th-Century Spanish Narrative
5. Introduction to Women’s Studies in Religion
6. Colloquium in Religion, Gender, and Culture
7. Themes in Feminism and Islam: A Historical Overview
8. Religion, Gender, Identity: Readings in Arab and Muslim Autobiography: Seminar
9. The Behavioral Biology of Women
10. Men and Women in Public and Private: the US in the 20th Century
11. Motherland: Gender, Indigeneity, and the American Environment
12. Family, Sex, and Marriage in Western Europe, East and West in the Medieval and Early Modern Period
13. Gendered Communities: Women, Islam, and Nationalism in the Middle East and North Africa
14. Caribbean Women Writers
15. Women, Work, and the Family: Present and Past
16. Representations of Women in Chinese Literature
17. Women Writers in Imperial China: How to Escape from the Feminine Voice
18. Sex and Gender in Victorian Literature
19. Warriors, Monks, and Courtesans: Class and Gender Perspectives on Premodern Japan
20. Rethinking Min-Qing Women’s Literature
21. Women in Late-Imperial Chinese Literature
22. Sex and Sensibility in the Enlightenment
23. Visual Culture of Latina and African-American Women
24. Women and Politics
25. Sex Differences in Humans
26. Evolution of Human Sex Differences
27. The Behavioral Biology of Women
28. Gender, Politics, and Markets
29. Sex, Gender, and Political Theory
30. Gender and Sexuality in Modern Europe
31. Men, Women, and Marriage in the 20th Century US
32. Gender and Japanese History
33. Body Sculpting in Modern America
34. Sex and Empire
35. Gendered Communities: Women, Islam, and Nationalism in the Middle East and North Africa
36. Feminist Theory and Historiography
37. Representing Women in History
38. Theories of Gender and Sexuality
39. The Spirit’s Voices: Holy Women in Medieval Christianity
40. Language and Gender
41. Psychology of Sex and Gender
42. Women, Religion, and Theory
43. Gospel Stories of Women
44. Feminist Biblical Interpretation
45. Feminist Theologies: Contexts and Methods
46. Black Women and Religious Narrative
47. The Religious History of American Women
48. Women and Religion in Contemporary America
49. Buddhist Women and Representations of the Female
50. Issues in Feminism and Islam: A Historical Overview
51. French Feminist Literary Criticisms
52. 20th Century Women Writing in French
53. Sex and Gender in Spanish America
54. Feminist Theory: Equality, Identity, Difference
55. Gender Stratification: Work, Power, and Gender in America
56. Gender and Social Policy: The US in Comparative Perspective
57. Gender Stratification: Career and Family in Women’s and Men’s Lives
58. Women and Science: Sociological Aspects
59. Gender, Colonialism, and Nationalism
60. Women’s Writing and Film in Latin America and the Caribbean
61. Women Writing the South Asian Diaspora
62. Feminism and Masculinity
63. Women’s Writing and Film in Latin America and the Caribbean
64. Feminist Theory: Conference Course
65. Dreams of a Common Language: Feminist Conversations Across Difference
66. The Gender Mystique: An Interdisciplinary Introduction to Fifty Years of Studies on Women, Gender, and Sexuality
67. I Like Ike, But I Love Lucy: Women, Popular Culture, and the 1950’s
68. Thinking Race and Gender: Black Women and Philosophy
69. Theories of Sexuality
70. Gender and Health
71. Making Sex, Bodies, and Seeds: Technologies of Reproduction in Bioscience, Medicine, and the Media
72. Liquid Assets and Water Wars: Gender and the Global Crisis
73. Tomboys, Angels, and Dolls: Girls in American Culture
74. Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality: Melodrama, Camp, and Beyond: Pedro Almodóvar in Cinematic Context
75. Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality: Bodies and Boundaries
76. Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality: Borders and Betrayals: Engendering Cultural Identities

• Steve Clifford writes humor for Crosscut. In his unhumorous life, he was CEO of King Broadcasting and once played a role in saving New York City from bankruptcy.