OSAKA UNIVERSITY SHORT-TERM STUDENT EXCHANGE PROGRAM _

Gender Studies

Beverley Anne YAMAMOTO (Graduate School of Human Sciences)

Cource Objective

Requirement / Prerequisite
   A hunger for learning and ability to approach ideas critically. In addition, sufficient English ability to understand, read, discuss and make sense of complex ideas, concepts, literature and theory that will form a part of the curriculum. The class involves discussion and student participation. Finally, students must be able to write an essay/report that is not only understandable, but also follows conventions appropriate to the academic genre.

Course Content
   In this course we will begin by taking a theoretical approach to gender as a relational category of analysis, drawing largely on sociology, anthropology and social policy. We will explore the relationship between gender, sex and sexuality. As a part of this, we will not only explore the catergoies 'male and 'female', but also transgender, as well a LGB and intersex identities. A key question early on in the course is how we learn to do gender and whether this is a fixed or flexible part of our being across our life course. The second part of the course moves on to focus on how gender operates in social institutions and human relationships. We will look at gender in the worklace, intimate relationships, the family and educational institutions. Finally, we will explore gender equality policy in a Japanese society within the wider context of transnational feminism and an expanding concept of human rights. A key question raised in the course is how has gender been constructed in modern/contemporary Japan.

Class Plan

  1. Orientation: What is gender and why does it matter?
  2. Exploring gender, sex, and sexuality I
  3. Exploring gender, sex, and sexuality II
  4. Theorizing the gendered person
  5. Theorizing gendered organizations and institutions
  6. Men's studies - exploring masculinities
  7. Women's studies issues raised by Japanese feminism
  8. Mid-term exam (Presentation may be an option is the class is small)
  9. Gendered families
  10. Gendered workplace I
  11. Gendered workplace II
  12. Gender issues in education
  13. Gender in the media
  14. Gender and violence
  15. Gender equality policies in Japan

Textbooks
   Required readings will include, but are not limited to, chapters from the following texts:

Grading Policy

OUSSEP _
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