May 17, 2024  
2020-2021 Undergraduate Catalog 
    
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2020-2021 Undergraduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Course Descriptions

 Course Numbering System

001-099 Developmental Courses (Credit Type DV*)
100-299 Lower division courses; may have prerequisites
300-499 Upper division courses
500-599 Foundational graduate courses and Education graduate certification courses
600-699 Graduate courses

*DV - Developmental courses completed at Avila count toward Term hours, Term GPA and Career GPA, but are not counted in Career hours. Developmental courses completed at another institution are counted in Term hours and Term GPA, but are not counted in Career hours or Career GPA.

Catalog Course Information

The number in parentheses after the course title indicates the credit in semester hours.

The letters following the course description indicate the semester in which the course is given. Fall semester course offerings are indicated by FA; spring semester, SP; summer session, SU. Where frequency of course offering is not indicated, the course is given as required.
 

Women’s and Gender Studies
  

  • WS 210 - Images & Realities of Gender (3)

    This course will introduce students to the social construction and significance of gender from feminist, interdisciplinary, and multicultural perspectives. Students will analyze the ways that gender (in combination with race, sexual identity, and social class) affects access to opportunity, power, and resources. 2015 CORE: Belief & Reason, Acquire, Interdisciplinary Studies.

  

  • WS 214 - Psychology of Gender (3)

    This course provides an exploration of various perspectives on the role of gender in the formation of individual identity, as well as the interrelationship between gender identity and society. Students will examine the construction and development of gender identity through a scientific lens. The interaction between gender stereotypes and relationships, work, and health are explored. 2015 CORE: Explorations of Nature, Transform. FA.
  

  • WS 221 - Divas, Ingénues & Vixens (3)

    A study of folk, popular, and refined music from the Western tradition specifically analyzing the compositions, performances, and role of women in music and applying feminist perspectives. Comparative elements such as ethnomusicology and male musicians will be utilized to provide a framework for gender within the greater context of the music of women. 2015 CORE: Creativity & Culture, Transform. 2020 CORE: Liberal Arts, Arts. SP, odd years.
  

  • WS 253 - Gendered Media (3)

    A critical/cultural approach will provide a framework for understanding how gender, class, race, age, and ethnicity influence the production, construction, and consumption of the media. The emphasis is on understanding gendered media from a global perspective and empowering media consumers through both critical analysis and active creative production. 2015 CORE: Creativity & Culture, Transform, Global Studies. 2020 CORE: Liberal Arts, Social Sciences. FA.
  

  • WS 275 - Gender & Literature (3)

    This course explores the expression of gender as it appears in selected literature from the 19th Century to the 21st Century. In this class, we will explore Western heteronormative masculinity and femininity as well as alternative gender expression. Among the secondary focuses evaluated in this course are issues of power, authority, social representation, and social change as they relate to gender issues. Prerequisite: EN 111  or EN 112 . 2015 CORE: Social Justice & Civic Life, Transform, Global Studies. 2020 CORE: Liberal Arts, Literature/Rhetoric. FA, SP.
  

  • WS 278 - Global Literature (3)

    Through the lens of literature, this course explores the flows of people and their culture and labor across borders. Each text is examined in terms of its artistic and political dimensions with a focus on identity, gender politics, and historical revision. Rather than discrete nations and single cultures, the course concentrates on movement, hybridity, and multiplicity. In addition to physical movement, the course examines other possessions that move across the borders including information, language, traditions, and beliefs, examining ways in which people remember, re-imagine, and reshape their sense of self and community. Prerequisite: EN 111  or EN 112 . 2015 CORE: Social Justice & Civic Life, Acquire, Global Studies. 2020 CORE: Liberal Arts, Literature/Rhetoric. FA, SP.
  

  • WS 309 - Marriage & the Family (3)

    Examination of the major aspects of the family as a social institution; the current trends, changing nature, and possible developments of the family in the future. FA, even years.
  

  • WS 311 - American Women (3)

    This course explores changing cultural images of women, examines the role of gender in structuring American society, and compares the experiences of American women from a variety of racial and ethnic groups as well as class positions. Additionally, this course includes a discussion of important theoretical and methodological concerns related to women’s and gender history. Meets the upper-division requirement for American History in the history major. 2015 CORE: Social Justice & Civic Life, Contribute.

  

  • WS 326 - Feminist Theory & Practice (3)

    This course provides an overview of the major philosophical issues that have defined feminism as a subject of intellectual inquiry and offers practical engagement of these issues through its community engagement component. Although feminism’s historical focus has been on women, an even more fundamental issue for the movement has been how power and oppression are created from and wielded upon various categories of humans. In this light, this course will explore the construction of numerous identities (including “woman,” “man,” and many other ways of understanding the self), how power is negotiated from those identities, and how these translate into issues of subjectivity, rights, politics, aesthetics, sexuality, ethics, and a host of other issues. 2015 CORE: Social Justice & Civic Life, Contribute, Community Engagement. FA.
  

  • WS 331 - Women & Science (3)

    This interdisciplinary course in Women’s Studies and Natural Science introduces students to the complex and challenging relationship between women and science and technology across the globe. The course introduces students to the history of women and science and technology, including the ways in which female biology has been framed  by philosophers, physicians, and scientists from the ancient Greeks to the present and ways in which science has used gender as a way to explain the natural world. The course examines examples of gender bias in the substance of science and technology on both a broad and individual basis, identifies gender stratification within scientific and technological professions, explores the ways in which women use science and technology regarding reproduction, and analyzes persistent barriers to women’s participation and advancement in STEM fields. 2015 CORE: Social Justice & Civic Life, Transform. Global Studies, Interdisciplinary Studies.  FA, odd years.
  

  • WS 332 - Sex & Sexuality in America (3)

    This course examines the history of sex and sexuality in America from pre-colonial Native societies to the modern-day. This class uncovers the ways that ideas of sex and sexuality have changed over time and the impact of constructions of gender and sexuality on marginalized groups with the United States and in a global context.  Meets the upper-division requirement for American history in the history major.  2015 CORE: Belief & Reason, Contribute.

  

  • WS 354 - Victimology (3)

    This course will examine research, theory, history, legislation, and current trends in various forms of victimization while discussing victim characteristics, victim-offender relationships, and victim interaction with the criminal justice system. SP, even years.
  

  • WS 365 - The German Fatherland (3)

    This course explores the transformation of the German-speaking lands from an ambiguous cultural patchwork of feudal lands to a unified, industrial, and culturally diverse empire in the period from 1780 to 1914. Using gender as a central category of historical analysis, special attention is given to the dynamic relationship between German national identity (“the German Fatherland”) and supposed outsiders in German society, such as workers, women, and Jews. Meets the upper-division requirement for World history in the history major. 2015 CORE: Creativity & Culture, Contribute.

  

  • WS 370 - Fairy Tales & Culture (3)

    This course is an exploration of the creation, transmission, and implications of culture to power relations (particularly gender) of fairy tales in modern world history since 1450 C.E. in a global context. Meets the upper-division World History requirement in the history major. 2015 CORE: Creativity & Culture, Contribute.

  

  • WS 372 - Being Together: A Global Context (3)

    This interdisciplinary course considers what it means to exist together with other human beings in the midst of a “global” world, especially as that concept is navigated by means of gender, race, class, and other differences. The course will consider both the most basic philosophical issues involved in existing with others (recognition, acknowledgment, and inter-subjectivity, and their failures) as well as the more specific ways in which we come to relate to and identify ourselves and each other. 2015 CORE: Social Justice & Civic Life, Transform, Interdisciplinary Studies, Global Studies.

  

  • WS 380 - Topics in Women’s Studies (1-3)

    Special topics in women’s studies are explored from a variety of academic disciplines. Course topics are determined based on faculty/student interest and program needs. Course may be repeated for up to 12 credit hours towards the degree. Prerequisite: permission of instructor.

  

  • WS 440 - Gender & Crime (3)

    This course investigates definitions of gender, gender roles, and how gender effects offending, victimization, and criminal justice processing. The course also examines the influence of gender on working as a criminal justice professional. Criminological theories are evaluated in light of gender and the relationship between gender and the criminal justice system. Prerequisites: SO 101 and CR 264. FA, even years.
  

  • WS 471 - Women & Children Health & Illness Concepts (4)

    This specialty nursing theory course examines the concepts related to nursing care of women and children. Prerequisites: NU 471 , NU 450 , NU 452 , and NU 453 .  SP.

Liberal Arts
  

  • LA 101 - Liberal Arts Foundations (3)

    This course will provide students with a broad understanding of the value of this course of study. Along with a theoretical understanding, practical applications that cross an array of disciplines will demonstrate the efficacy of the major through readings, speakers, in-class discussion, and projects. Required of all Liberal Arts Studies majors.

  

  • LA 499 - Seminar in Liberal Arts Studies (3)

    Integrative seminar for Liberal Arts Studies majors designed to allow students to integrate the perspectives gained in previous courses in their emphasis areas. Meets capstone requirement in the major. Prerequisties: Senior standing. Liberal Arts Studies majors only.

 

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