GWS 295-01 - Special Topic: Growing Up Girl

4 credits (Fall Term 1)

As an introduction to the subfield of Girls’ Studies, Growing Up Girl explores the impact of this feminine gender on the lives and outlooks of girls and girl-identified women. In our engagement with historical and contemporary autobiographical texts, academic research, and popular media, we will seek answers to questions such as – Are girls simply “little women”? Why does girlhood exist and what brings it to an end? What do girls gain and lose by becoming women? Can women ever be girls (again)? How do race, class, sexuality, and nationality shape what girlhood means in different social contexts? As we explore the experiences - that is, the strengths, difficulties, hopes, and potential – of girls, we will consider girlhood as a fascinating window into our society’s inequalities as well as its possibilities.

Prerequisite: GWS 111.
Instructor: Beauboeuf