WGS 2880 - Gender, Race, and War

Credits: 4

This course will look at war and its aftermath through the prism of gender, race, sexuality and nation. It will explore war and peace as gendered and racialized phenomena while examining the impact of war on individuals and groups in conflict zones, including within militaries and armed resistance. It will address both the construction of the enemy and the making of the soldier as gendered and racial projects. Using feminist inquiry, students will study processes of militarization to understand how officials deploy conceptions of gender, race, and sexuality to construct citizens, soldiers, and enemies as gendered and racialized subjects. The course will also explore the role of gender and race in processes on demilitarization, peacebuilding, and post-conflict reconstruction. Case studies will include both US wars and militarized political conflicts in other parts of the world. Organized thematically, course topics include constructions of violent and nonviolent masculinities and femininities; the history, roles, and treatment of women, people of color, and LGBTQ within militaries and as veterans; rape, sexual violence, and sexual slavery on battlefields and within militaries, including the treatment of women around military bases; the use of history and memory to maintain gendered and racial understandings of war through official commemorations and war memorials; the role of women and underrepresented groups in resistance to war and in peace movements; and the prospect of envisioning post-conflict societies based on justice and equality for all.

Fulfills: SOSC, D, and X in LS Core