Psychological Study of Sex and Gender (PSY2240.02)

Özge Savas
Why do people want to know about a baby’s sex? How are children socialized into gender/sex binaries? How are gender roles created? How is gender/sex related to sexuality? What is it that we are attracted to in another person? Body frames? Masculinity/femininity? Having a penis or a vagina/vulva? How does gender/sex depend on other categories such as race/ethnicity, nationality, class, religion, and ability? How do interlocking systems of oppression (e.g. sexism, racism, classism, xenophobia, ableism) influence people’s lives? In this class, you will learn feminist theory and its empirical applications to scholarship in psychology by situating lived experiences of women, and sexual minorities in context.  You will develop media literacy by examining examples of pop culture, gain fluency in identifying the role of heteropatriarchal and racist institutions in social inequity and learn to think and write critically about gender/sex in its social, cultural, historical and political context.
This course will follow a lecture and discussion format. Please note that you will meet together as a large group on Wednesdays for the lecture (max 45 people), and again as a smaller group (max 22 people) for extended discussion time with the instructor on Mondays (section 1) or on Thursdays (section 2). Adding this automatically signs you up for the Thursday discussion section.

Learning Outcomes:
-Explain how dominant social and cultural formations create gender roles
-Identify interlocking systems of oppression (i.e. heteropatriarchy, transphobia, racism, classism, xenophobia, ableism) and analyze the relationship of gender other categories (i.e. race, ethnicity, nationality, ability, class, sexuality).
-Evaluate the influence of structural inequalities on family, work, education, policy, health, law, culture, the media, and other key domains of experience
-Develop media literacy about issues related to sex and gender, and be able to evaluate elements of popular culture and news on the media from an intersectional feminist perspective
-Generate research questions to be answered through psychological empirical research using an intersectional lens.



Delivery Method: Remotely accessible
Course Level: 2000-level
Credits: 4
W 4:10PM - 6:00PM & Th 3:40PM - 5:30PM (Full-term)
Maximum Enrollment: 22
Course Frequency: Once a year

Categories: All courses , Psychology , Remotely Accessible
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