2023-2024 Undergraduate Academic Catalog

CSOCL 3820 Girlhood, Identity, and Girl Culture

This course introduces students to the emerging discipline of girls' studies. We will focus on the social and cultural construction of girlhood and how social categories of race, class, ethnicity, education, and the media, shape girls' lives in contemporary U.S. society. Following an examination of the rise of Girls' Studies during the 1990s, we will study various constructions of girlhood in both academic and popular discourses. Topics to be explored include the commercialization of girlhood, fitting in, negotiating identities, girls experiencing and perpetrating violence, sexualities, interventions and possibilities for resistance. We will apply theoretical understandings of girlhood and girl culture to practice in a seven-week service learning project for middle-school girls (grades 6-8) in Cambridge. Lesley students enrolled in this course will research, design, implement, and evaluate a girls' group focused on the intersections of identity, body image, and media literacy.

Credits

6

Prerequisite

CPSYC 1101 or 1401, CSOCL 1101 or 1404