Gender History Concentration
This track enables students to construct a coherent program of study in the comparative history of women, gender and sexuality. Choosing from course offerings in different geographic regions, students can explore how gender varied over time and cross-culturally as a key component of politics, economics, social relations, and culture.
Course selection for this concentration should be reviewed carefully with a faculty advisor each semester. Students must also satisfy basic major requirements.
Requirements
These are the New Requirements for the Gender History Concentration and apply to students who officially declared their major after September 1, 2006.
(For the Old Requirements, click here.)
The concentration in gender requires a total of six courses that cover at least two different geographic regions (i.e. U.S. and Latin America; U.S. and Europe; Latin American and the Middle East). This comparative requirement may also be satisfied by taking two courses designated as trans-regional (i.e. "Feminism in the Americas").
1. To fulfill the concentration, students must take one seminar (200+), three additional upper-level (200+) courses, and two electives.
Many of the following faculty teach courses that fall within this concentration: Kathleen Brown, Ann Farnsworth-Alvear, Si-yen Fei,, Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet, Stephanie McCurry, Kathy Peiss, Eve Troutt Powell, Barbara Savage, Margo Todd, and Beth Wenger. Please check individual course offerings to be sure they meet the requirements of this concentration.
2. Students are encouraged to take up to two courses from outside the Department of History.
These courses must be above the introductory level and focus on the history of women, gender, or sexuality. The following departments (as well as many others at Penn) regularly offer courses on gender that may be eligible to fulfill the concentration requirements: African Studies (AFST), Africana Studies (AFRC), Anthropology (ANTH), Art History (ARTH), Asian American Studies (ASAM), Comparative Literature (COML), English (ENGL), Folklore (FOLK), Gender, Culture & Society (GSOC), Health & Societies (HSOC), History & Sociology of Science (HSSC), Jewish Studies (JWST), Latin American & Latino Studies (LALS), Law (LAW), Philosophy (PHIL), Political Science (PSCI), Religious Studies (RELS), Sociology (SOCI), Urban Studies (URBS).
Courses from other departments must be approved by the faculty advisor.
3. Students are strongly encouraged to take a course in feminist or gender theory as one of their required courses.
This can be a course offered outside the Department of History. Students should seek assistance from the faculty advisor to identify courses that satisfy this requirement.
Examples of courses that fulfill this requirement are:
- PHIL 028 / GSOC 028 Feminist Philosophy
- PSCI 280 / GSOC 280 Feminist Political Thought
- GSOC 320 Contemporary Feminist Thought
- SOCI 546 / GSOC 546 Feminist Theory
Spring 2012 Courses
Courses which fulfill the Gender History requirement:
Major Seminars
History 201-206 seminars are open to history majors only during pre-registration. If the course does not reach its enrollment maximum, it will be open to all students beginning with drop/add on a first-come first-serve basis.
HIST 206.301 Gender in Latin America
Farnsworth-Alvear
F 12-3PM
SEM
Upper Level Courses
300-400 level courses are on special topics and are more advanced. They often presuppose some basic knowledge in the field and should be more difficult courses than courses at the 1-199 levels. The department is trying to insure that some 400 level courses, although substantially more difficult, are also small in size; they thus may be suitable for graduate students.
HIST 231.402 African-American Women's History
Savage
W 2-5PM
SEM
HIST 346 Gender in Modern American History
Brown
TR 12-1:30PM
Old Requirements
The concentration in gender requires a total of seven courses that cover at least two different geographic regions (i.e. U.S. and Latin America; U.S. and Europe; Latin America and the Middle East).
1. At least three of the seven courses must be chosen from the department's gender course offerings.
2. Students are required to take a course in feminist or gender theory. This can be a course offered outside the Department of History.
3. Students are encouraged to take up to three courses from outside the Department of History. One of these could be the required course in feminist or gender theory described above. These courses must be above the introductory level and focus on the history of women, gender, or sexuality.
See also: Courses for this concentration
