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The Department of Women's and Gender Studies has a series of courses offered at the University of Saskatchewan which examines human behavior, institutions and culture in order to reveal and analyze the gender assumptions on which they are based. These courses examine the changing position of women and changing understanding of gender, and they utilize an interdisciplinary approach. Among the topics of these courses are the relation between biology and gender construction, patterns of language used by men and women in contemporary society, the role of gender in the processes of identity formation and socialization, the representation of gender in literature, art and religion, and women's changing economic and political roles. While developed within longer-established disciplines, Women's and Gender Studies has created distinctive conceptual frameworks and analytic methodologies which challenge and complement other academic disciplines.
For a listing of courses with gender content, visit this link. You will find Women's and Gender Studies courses, Special Topics courses in Women's and Gender Studies when these are developed and offered, and cognate courses from other departments which can be used towards your WGST degree.
All women and men who are registered at the University of Saskatchewan. Contact the registar's office for information on how to register. Students pursuing a degree in another discipline may take Women's and Gender Studies courses as electives, or pursue a Minor degree in WGSt. Note that WGSt now has, besides the Minor degree program, also a B.A. 3-year WGSt program, a B.A. 4-year WGSt program with a specialization in Art and Art History, Economics, Philosophy, English, History, Native Studies, and Sociology, a B.A. 4-year stand-alone WGSt program, and an Honours B.A. WGSt program.
The Department of Women's and Gender Studies initiated its Distinguished Speakers program in the Winter of 1993 by sponsoring a talk by JUDY REBICK, former President of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, which took place at the Frances Morrison Library.
Some of the other speakers and events which we have sponsored and co-sponsored are as follows. Also visit our page giving more information on current events.
Morny Joy, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Calgary, and Vice-President, Canadian Society for Hermeneutics and Postmodern Thought, gave two presentations: "Muted or Transmuted: Women's Bodies as Expressions in Medieval and Contemporary Societies," and "Sainthood or Heresy: Contemporary Options for Women." These talks were videotaped and are available in the WGSt office.
Barbara Gold Taylor is a senior lecturer, Department of Cultural Studies, University of East London. Dr. Taylor has written extensively in the area of women and historical feminism and other historical movements. She is a noted scholar on Mary Wollstonecraft.
Andrea Lebowitz, Associate Dean of Arts, Simon Fraser University, gave a presentation on the topic of theories of Women's Studies and their practical application.
Mary Field Belenky is one of the authors of Women's Ways of Knowing.
Molara Ogundipe-Leslie is the holder of the Laurie New Jersey Chair in Women's Studies at Rutgers University. She is an African feminist activist and author. Her presentation was on Writing Women's Lives in Africa.
Nayyar Javed participated in the United Nations Women's Conference in Beijing as an NGO delegate, and she also attended the forum. Nayyar Javed shared her impressions on the deliberations taken and on the progress made for women internationally.
Susan Prentice, Margaret Laurence Chair in Women's Studies, and Editor of Backtalk, Prairie Region Women's Studies Newsletter, gave the following presentations: "Resistance to the Inclusive University," and "Childcare in Canada." These talks were videotaped and are available at the WGSt office.
Yvonne Peters practises as an equality rights lawyer in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She provides legal consultation and advice to unions, community groups, human rights organizations, the corporate sector and government. Yvonne Peters received her LLB from the University of Saskatchewan. She was called to the Manitoba Bar in 1989. From 1989 to 1993 she served as the Executive Director and Litigation Director of the Canadian Disability Rights Council. Yvonne Peters is assisted in the preparation of two cases heard by the Supreme Court of Canada involving the equality rights of women; she is finalizing the legislation proposals to be incorporated into the Bill introducing the Midwifery Implementation Act; and she is conducting research on the impact of family mediation on women's equality rights. Yvonne Peters has worked as a human rights activist for the past twenty years. She has served on numerous boards at the national, provincial and local levels. Her current activities include: serving on the Board of Directors of the Community Legal Education Association; serving as a member of the Equality Rights Panel of the Court Challenges Program; serving as the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Women's Health Clinic; serving as a Board member of the Canadian Journal of Women and the Law; chairing the Manitoba Legislation Committee of the Midwifery Implementation Council. Yvonne Peters has authored numerous papers and reports on women's rights/disability rights for a variety of organizations.
Dr. Emma Donoghue, Irish novelist, readings entitled "Contemporary Lesbian Short Stories" from her latest work The Mammoth Book of Lesbian Short Stories. Dr. Emma Donoghue also described and speculated on the life of the Honourable Anne Seymour Conway Damer (1748-1828), one of the only women sculptors before the 19th century. Widowed scandalously at 27 when her husband shot himself in a tavern, Mrs. Damer was a noted English sculptor, traveller, writer, amateur actress, and friend and heir of Horace Walpole. In the 1790s she got accused in various media of being a "Sapphist" or "a lady much suspected for liking her own sex in a criminal way." But why did Mrs. Damer, of all her women peers, get dragged into the spotlight for her sexual identity, and what effects did this have on her life, and on how we read her today as a representative of her troubled times? Sponsored by the Eighteenth Century Studies Research Unit, Department of English and Department of Women's and Gender Studies.
Carol Rose conducted a Workshop for Women entitled "Walking the Motherpath" on 29 March 1998, at Lutheran Student Centre. Carol Rose is an educator and spiritual counsellor from Winnipeg. She has developed the Motherpath cards, depicting Biblical Matriarchs, as tools in her work. It is my belief that as we unravel the stories of Biblical women, we gain insight into our own life processes as well. Using the Biblical Mothers as mirrors of identity or doorways to a greater personal awareness, women of all spiritual paths explore their own realities in light of the gifts these Archetypes offer. Visualization exercises, mandalla drawing, mask making, personal ritual and movement will be used. Sponsored by: Lutheran Theological Seminary, Friends of Sophia, Lutheran Campus Ministry, Campus Ministry Office of St. Peter's College Muenster, USSU Women's Centre, UofS Department of Women's and Gender Studies, School Sisters of Notre Dame. Agudas Israel Synagogue, College of Emmanuel and St. Chad.
Senator Sharon Carstairs visited WGSt and the University community and gave a public lecture February 18, 2000. Her public lecture was on "Can We Find Solutions to Violence?"
Dr. Beatrice Medicine, acclaimed anthropologist and Professor Emeritus at the University of California (Davis) was the department's Visiting Speaker, October 1 and 2, 1998. Her Public Lectures were: "Indigenous Research and Gender Studies: A Lakota Case" and a Seminar/Video Showing entitled Seeking the Spirit: "Plains Indians" in Russia. Dr. Medicine's work focuses primarily on Native North American women and the relationship between gender and race. She has written extensively on the impact of colonialism on categories of gender and women's cultural positions throughout North American First Nations.
Tawnye Plewes, with the Policy Centre for Victim Issues, Department of Justice, Government of Canada, gave a publlic lecture on "Tough Questions: Restorative Justice and Victims". Ms. Plewes is an Aboriginal scholar and activist with a graduate degree in Legal Studies with a specialization in Women's Studies and Aboriginal issues. She has worked for the Assenbly of First Nations, Aboriginal Justice Strategy at Department of Justice and was the National Coordinator for the Aboriginal Justice Learning Network.
Gerhilde Scholz Williams, Visiting Lecturer to WGST, gave an open lecture on "Pursuing the Inside Other: Witch Hunting in the Basque Region of Early Modern France". Dr. Williams is Thomas Professor in the Humanities and Associate Vice-Chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. She is author of numerous books and articles in English and German in which she extends the insights of postmodern discourse analysis to German, French, and Latin literary texts, scientific douments, and medical treatises of late Medieval and early Renaissance Europe.
"From Bra Burners to Buffy: Conversations Among Generations of Feminists" was the Western Regional Women's Studies Conference, organized in celebration of the fifth Anniversary of Women's and Gender Studies having become a Department (1997-2002). WGSt graduate students played a key role, and the keynote speakers were Judy Rebick, Maria Campbell and Pat Atkinson. It was a time to reconnect with our friends from past years. Visit the original website for this conference and for the Information Technologies for High School Girls, below.
The Body Projects III: Imaging and (Re)Imaging Bodies in States of Health, Wellness, and Illness: international conference held in August 2000, with topics of Inaging Reproduction; Body and Spirit; Perspectives on (Dis)Abilties; Imaginative Reflections and Refractons; Envisaging Life Conditions; with plenary speakers Pat Kaufert on "A Menopause for the 21st Century: Cyborgs, Flower Women and the Problem of Time", and Jonathan Sawday on "Female Bodies: A Study in Disgust."
Information Technologies for High School Girls Seminars. WGSt, with the support of members from other campus units, plus SaskTel and the Public and Catholic School Boards, has organized a seminar for high school girls to inform them about and encourage them to enter the exciting field of Information Technologies. This seminar accommodated approximately 100 girls from the city of Saskatoon and from some rural areas, and a yearly seminar has been held since the first one in 1999. Visit the original website for this seminar and for the "From Bra Burners to Buffy" conference, see above.
International Women's Day Brunches (co-organized with the Women's Studies Research Unit) are held on a Sunday closest to March 8th -- International Women's Day. We celebrate the accomplishments of the past and also all those who continue to work for justice and equality for women everywhere.
From Aviator to Union Organizer - A Potpourri of Occupations:
Communications Consultant; Hospital Foundation Executive Director; Self-Employed Artist; Energy Conservation Manager; Self-Employed Musician/Teacher; Union Organizer; Minister; Cooperative-Grocery Manager; Public and Government Relations Manager; Writer/Homemaker; Yacht Broker; Export Business Owner; Flight Instructor; Writer; Secretary; Theater Worker; Baker; Film-Casting Assistant; Yeshiva Student; Graduate Student.
Psychotherapist; Advocate for Hate-Crime Victims; Medical Student; Director of Program for Inner-City Teenagers; Advocate for Domestic Violence Victims; Director of Battered Women's Center/Rape Crisis Program; Program Associate at Human Rights Organization; Human Services Administrator; HIV Educator; Community Educator/HIV Counsellor for Planned Parenthood; Graduate Student in Nurse-Midwifery; Battered-Women's Advocate; Social Justice Employee; Graduate Student in Art Therapy; Claims Reviewer for Dalkon Shield Claiments Trust; Planned Parenthood Clinic Coordinator; Recreational Therapist; Nurse; Health Clinic Medical Assistant; Sexual Assault/Abuse Educator; Graduate Student in Clinical Social Work.
The STUDENT EMPLOYMENT AND CAREER CENTRE (SECC) at the University of Saskatchewan houses a variety of resources that could help Women's and Gender Studies students and alumni do further career exploration on the occupational titles listed on this page.
For another perspective from the MS Magazine on what you can do with a WGST degree, go to: http://www.msmagazine.com/spring2007/womensstudies.asp
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