Doing Gender Justice

a Discovery Core Experience

BCORE 115 (Social Sciences)

About This Course

This class looks at the way claims for gender justice are woven into every day life, like entertainment, sports, music, and comedy. We will ask questions like: What is gender injustice? Why do the people we “meet” articulate their grievances and visions in the forms they do? What happens when people don’t challenge gender injustice? We will attempt to answer these and other questions through studying a cross-section of Gender Justice projects that are not typically thought of as activism but, as we will see in this class, ultimately have the power to advance gender equity and feminist movements. A through line of this will be: How does a lack of gender justice projects ultimately result in events like the 2024 election? We will use an intersectional approach, always keeping race, nation, social class, gender presentation, and other forms of power, central to our conversations and the cases we discuss.

Why Should I Take This Course?

I have been teaching at UWB since 2007 and have taught a Discovery Core every year since then except for one. In other words, I am VERY committed to pre-major students and have a lot of experience. Students who anticipate going into Business or STEM fields should get out of your comfort zones and take a class that you won’t have the opportunity to take once you get locked on your major paths.

I have developed a very creative final project that will allow all students to explore potential majors – from Business to STEM to IAS while learning basic principles of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies (GWSS). As the co- founder and co-facilitator of GWSS I am very prepared to take you on an exciting journey! Curious if this class is right for you? Email me and we can set up a time to chat! jshayne@uw.edu.

Course Learning Goals

At the end of the course, students who put in the effort should be able to:

  1. Articulate the meanings of sexism, misogyny, patriarchy, and gender injustice. Your understanding will communicate that you grasp how these concepts function, not simply what the words mean.
  2. Articulate the meanings of feminism and gender justice. Your understanding will communicate that you grasp how these concepts function, not simply what the words mean.
  3. Identify creative ways to communicate with others about gender justice.
  4. Analyze and synthesize complex readings, with the skills to ask questions when material feels too challenging.
  5. Understand the place of misogyny in the 2024 US election.
  6. Write more clearly and analytically than you did prior to the beginning of the quarter.

Selected Texts

  • Required book: Stacey Speaks Up by Stacey Abrams, illustrated by Kitt Thomas. 2024. Harper Collins.
  • Required book: Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women by Kate Manne. 2020. Penguin Random House.
  • A cross section of readings available through canvas – from poetry, to journalism, to academic articles, and more.

Dr. Julie Shayne (she/her/hers)

School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences

About Dr. Shayne

  • Recipient of the University of Washington Bothell Distinguished Teaching Award, 2019
  • BA & MA Women’s Studies, San Francisco State University
  • PhD Sociology, UC Santa Barbara
  • Teaching Professor, School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences
  • Want to learn more about me? Visit my faculty bio here.

Contact

I consider myself an ally to marginalized students; ‘an unafraid educator with and for undocumented students and families.’

Dr. Shayne