Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies

Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Courses

+ Denotes General Education Course

+RGS 100 Cr.3   Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Class

This course provides an introduction to how race, gender, sexuality, and class have been intertwined and coexisted over time to produce and reproduce social inequalities in the US, in the context of a globally connected world. It explores the key concepts, theories, and historical experiences that form the basis of scholarly work in comparative race, gender, sexuality, and class studies. The creation, transmittal, interpretation and institutionalization of racial, gender, sexual, and class identities are examined through a human rights framework. Offered Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer.

RGS/SOC 105 Cr.3  Introduction to LGBT Studies
This course will examine the cultural, legal, and political dimensions of LGBT life in the U.S. It will begin by exploring the social invention of heterosexuality and how personal and institutional interpretations of sexuality have historically informed the lives of LGBT people. The course also addresses class, racial and gender biases that especially confront queer communities of color in the U.S. Finally, the course looks at continued instances of hate crimes and homophobia against the backdrop of rights-based activism and the role that art and politics play in this interplay.

RGS 300 Cr.1-3  Independent Study in Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Directed reading and research under the supervision of an instructor. Repeatable for credit - maximum six. Prerequisite: sophomore standing. Consent of instructor. Offered Occasionally.

+RGS 307 Cr.3  Ethnic, Racial, and Gender Stereotypes in the Media
This course will trace how popular entertainment mediums such as film, television, books, comics, "wild west shows," music and cartoons have impacted perceptions of ethnic and racial groups from the early seventeenth century to the present. Besides analyzing the persuasive power of these types of mediums, it will examine why such representations were created and why they still persist. Often these racialized images are equally rooted in gender, class, and sexualized identities and this will be explored as well. The mythopoeic image that surrounds Indigenous Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinx, and other minority groups will be juxtaposed against the historical reality that these groups have faced and the contemporary inequalities that we still must confront.

RGS 340 Cr.3  Objectively Biased: Knowledge Systems as Power Systems
This course explores the connection between race, gender, sexuality, class (RGSC), knowledge, and power. Students in this course learn to apply classic and critical race feminist epistemological theory to questions such as how knowledge is socially situated, what it means to explore knowledge through a critical race feminist lens, and how the production of knowledge is impacted by conceptions of RGSC. Students also learn about the scientific method and how critical race feminist epistemological theory can strengthen, not weaken, objectivity. Students work on a topic of their choosing to bring these theoretical frameworks to bear on a literature review that can be used as the basis for a research or advocacy proposal.

RGS 360 Cr.3  Hip Hop Culture, Race, and Gender
Since its birth in the South Bronx, Hip Hop has been a means for Black and Brown youth to build on deep-rooted traditions of expressive culture.  This course explores the origins, development, growth, and continued practice of Hip Hop and its emergence as a global phenomenon that simultaneously challenges and promotes the liberations and exploitations of the later stages of capitalism.  Through an examination of Hip Hop's four basic elements (break dancing, rap, DJing, and graffiti art) students interrogate the ways Hip Hop culture has influenced and been influenced by discussions and expressions of race, gender, sexuality, and class. Beginning with its history, students deconstruct how Hip Hop culture has wrestled with ideas of blackness, whiteness, civil rights and nationalism, feminism/womanism, and sexism, heterosexism and homophobia, wealth and poverty to hypothesize Hip Hop's current and future direction. Students also explore the influence of Hip Hop on the politics of musical sampling and copyright, representation in visual and performing arts, and discussion about free speech.  Students have the opportunity to analyze and deconstruct music lyrics, music videos and movies.

RGS 377 Cr.3  Critical Research and Advocacy Methods
This course focuses on helping students translate their race, gender, and sexuality studies (RGSS) education to address social problems connected to structural inequality, which impact workplaces, communities, and other institutions. The aim is to help students understand the utility of their skills in RGSS, to learn to apply their feminist, anti-racist, and social justice learning to real-world contexts, and to understand the connection between research and advocacy for social change. Students learn about processes behind social change: strategic analysis, organizing, action planning, research, evaluation, and advocacy.

RGS 450 Cr.1-9 Internship in Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

The internship is an academically relevant field experience for majors and minors in race, gender, and sexuality studies, which combines RGSS scholarship with practical experience. The field experience is supervised by the RGSS staff. A maximum of three credits will be counted toward the minor. Repeatable for credit - maximum nine. Prerequisite: six credits of any combination of RGS, ERS, and WGS courses; RGS major/minor or ERS minor or WS major/minor. Consent of department. Offered Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer.

RGS 490 Cr.3   RGSS Senior Capstone

This senior capstone course is designed as a culminating experience for students completing a major in race, gender, and sexuality studies or a Hmong and Hmong-American studies certificate. This course has three content foci: 1) Students apply what they have learned throughout their major in RGSS. Alone or in groups, students research, explain, and develop a means for addressing a social phenomenon through application of the material acquired in their courses - particularly those in RGSS. This culminates in a presentation and paper to be given before an audience that may include RGSS faculty, CASSH faculty, and UWL students. 2) Students analyze the ways race, ethnicity, gender, class, and sexuality have played and continued to play in liberating oppressive roles in social, political, or cultural institutions. 3) Students identify and learn about careers such as journalism, marketing, community and housing development, media, health and medicine, community and union organizing, social work, and a wide variety of positions in federal, state, county, and local governments. Prerequisite: ERS 100, RGS 100, or WGS 100; concurrent enrollment in one of the following: RGS 335, RGS 336, RGS 340, or RGS 377. Offered Spring.