Time Schedule:
Sasha Welland
GWSS 494
Seattle Campus
Provides graduating seniors with the opportunity to demonstrate facility with writing, critical thinking, documentation of scholarly work, research/gathering of information, and the ability to disseminate ideas to intended audiences via the creation of a capstone project. Prerequisite: GWSS 200; GWSS 300; minimum grade of 2.0 in one additional graded 300-level GWSS course; minimum grade of 2.0 in one additional graded 400-level GWSS course. Offered: AWSpS.
Class description
The GWSS capstone provides an opportunity for majors to review the coursework they have completed so far, to synthesize overarching forms of analysis introduced in the department’s interdisciplinary curriculum, and to think in a sustained way about past and contemporary feminist debates, including the state of Women’s Studies as a field of study. Students will work together to historicize the development of the field and to locate our department and themselves within it. They will reflect upon what their undergraduate work as a GWSS major means to them as individuals and how it has positioned them to think about and participate in the various communities they belong to, including at the university, city, state, nation, and world level. They will also conduct an individual research project in the field that draws upon thinking they have done to date and/or that helps them explore a future career path as a form of feminist praxis.
Student learning goals
Specific course objectives of demonstrating competency in writing, research, developing feminist methods of interpretation and analysis, and communicating ideas articulate with the following overall departmental learning goals:
Learn how to link the politics of knowledge production with critical analyses of different modes of inquiry and related standards of accountability.
Critically reflect on relationships between students’ lives and skills, arguments and ideas
Develop skills and knowledge for effective political engagement based on feminist critiques of the interlocking dimensions of sexism, racism, heterosexism, ableism, nationalism, capitalism, and globalization
Synthesize, critique and extend current scholarship through effective written and spoken work
General method of instruction
Recommended preparation
Class assignments and grading
Class Participation 15% History of the Department Interview 10% Timeline Entry 10% Class Facilitation 15% Reflection Statement 10% Capstone Project Paper 40%
