SOC 251 Gender, Minority & Culture

Students analyze how gender, ethnicity, race, class and sexual orientation are shaped by cultural and societal influences. The focus is on the comparisons of East-Central European and US gender regimes and diversity differences, interpretation and evaluation of social actions by religious, gender, ethnic, racial, class, sexual orientation groups affecting equality and social justice in Europe and the U.S. Discussions within this framework include Communist concepts of gender equality, post-socialist transformation and globalization as well as of current cultural gender representations, beauty myth, advertising, etc.
Documentaries, other visual materials, visit to FORUM 2000 and the queer film festival field trips and a guest speaker lecture on critical examination of gender and minority related issues in a cross-cultural perspective are a part of this course.