The Women and Gender in Global Persepectives graduate minor in Gender
Relations in International Development (GRID) complements a student's major by providing a multi-disciplinary, international approach to pressing social issues. Human security focuses on a sub-set of development issues that stress basic needs, such as livelihood, housing, health care, sustainability, and agency. Development policies and globalization have freuently marginalized women and have resulted in uneven costs and benefits related to gender, age, ethnicity, and location. While grounding in a major discipline is crucial for students, many aspects of these issues are best understood through a multi-disciplinary approach that brings in analysis from areas such as economics, political sciences, and sociology. The minor provides that opportunity.
In this age of global economic transformation, it is especially important for researchers and practitioners to examine who gains and who loses from new policies, to assess the disparities in the impacts of crises and reforms on women, men, and chilldren, and to study the successful strategies and policies that appear. Having a deeper understanding of social issues and the impacts of disparities in areas such as the global labor market, entrepreneurship, global health policies, and migration gives students the tools to function competitively and compassionately in the increasingly global arena.
The Core Seminar, HCD 595G/GWS 480A4 GENDER RELATIONS IN INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, is multidisciplinary, global, and policy-oriented in scope. It focuses on analysis of the gendered dimensions of globalization and socio-economic transformation policies during the last few decades. The impacts of and responses to global crises are central to this field and we examine the current global financial/economic crises in this context. The course stresses global human security and gender equity, with special attention to livelihood, migration, and health. We examine the iimpacts on people's lives and the agency of women and men as they adopt strategies to improve conditions for themselves and their families. The course addresses conceptual tools for evaluating development policies based on different paradigms. It satisfies the core requirement for the graduate level GRID minor offered by the Women and Gender in Global Persepectives (WGGP) program in cooperation with departments and units across campus. Related seminars and other programs are offered by WGGP and cosponsors; students are encouraged to attend these and other related events.
Syllabus
SPRING 2009
