HUMAN SEXUALITY: SOCIAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL ISSUES

GEN&WS 528

Explores scientific approaches to studying sexuality. Examines current biological and neuroscientific research about sexuality, as well as feminist scholarship on these topics and critical responses to this research. Topics cover the intersections between biology (e.g., hormones, anatomy, neural activity, psychophysiology, evolution, etc.), sexuality (e.g., desire, dysfunction, arousal, bisexuality, orgasm, same-sex sexuality, pleasure, etc.), and feminist/critical scholarship about this research (e.g., feminist science studies, queer theory, feminist psychology, medicalization, etc.).

PSYCH 462

Examines research on biological, cognitive, social, and emotional development during the second decade of life. Covers topics most relevant to teenagers, such as pubertal development and its social consequences, changing relationships with parents, self and identity development, the increasingly important role of peers, school adjustment, and high risk behaviors.

PSYCH/SOC 453

Provides an interdisciplinary introduction to biological, psychological, and sociological aspects of human sexuality.

GEN&WS/LEGALST/SOC 406

Examines the legal and social development and implications of laws governing sexual behavior, human reproduction, media, privacy, and topics related to sexuality, sex and gender. Includes historical analyses of laws connected to present day regulations of sexuality, demonstrating the origins of many of the world's most frequently debated civil rights issues. Chief focus on the United States legal system, with some content including examinations of institutions around the world. Investigates taken-for-granted knowledge and assumptions about sexuality and look at legal, cultural and social constructions of sex in society. Covers intersectional social implications, including race, (dis)ability, class, etc. Topics include: obscenity, pornography, sex work, sexual surrogacy, birth control, abortion, sex education, sexual violence, sex offenders, sexual citizenship rights, trans and intersex legal topics.

SOC 300

A sociological examination of race, class, gender and sexuality - four central axes of social stratification, identity and experience that have real consequences in people's lives, the opportunities they have, and the challenges they face. Topics include sociological perspectives on how identities and differences are socially constructed and reproduced, and how these categories manifest themselves in inequities in institutions such as schools, workplaces, housing, and the law.