Spring 2025 registration is now open! Make sure to check out our exciting, upper-division electives in African American and African Diaspora Studies, American Indian and Indigenous Studies, Asian and Asian American Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Latinx and Latin American Studies.
Our undergraduate degree majors and minors provide students with the skills they need to address real-world issues and succeed professionally in an increasingly diverse world. For more information, please email iges@unlv.edu
African American and African Diaspora Studies (AAS)
AAS 105: African American Music & Culture - Hip Hop
MW 11:30 - 12:45
Dr. Javon Johnson
This course is an introduction to African American music and its relationship
to politics and society.
AAS 330: From Civil Rights to Black Power and Beyond
Online
Dr. Tyler D. Parry
This course examines Black freedom struggles from the late-nineteenth century into the present. Students will learn about national campaigns and figures in the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, as well as activists in Las Vegas who fought racism and discrimination in southern Nevada.
AAS 433D: Race, Gender, and the Making of Modern Medicine
MW 10:00 - 11:15
Dr. Christopher Willoughby
Health and medicine shape our day-to-day lives from how we feel in our bodies to our ability to work and play. Moreover, from the slave trade to the COVID-19 pandemic, a person's race, gender, and class have affected the healthcare that they receive, including its cost, and quality. In this course, we'll analyze the evolution of America's unique medical profession from the conquests of the Americas to the ongoing movement for reproductive healthcare. Please note that this course is cross-listed with WMST 433D and HIST 433D, so GSS and HIST majors can enroll under those course prefixes if desired.
AAS 440 : Black Sexualities
MW 1:00 - 2:15
Dr. Javon Johnson
When Marlon Bailey stood in front of the audience at the Black Studies Conference at Northwestern University and said, “It's time to talk about sex,” he did so while incredibly aware of the pernicious notions of black sexual deviancy, homophobia within Black Studies, racism within queer studies, and the robust history of white sexualized violence enacted on black people. Following Bailey and of course, Salt- N-Pepa who urged us in 1990 to “talk about sex, baby…and…all the good things and all the bad things that may be,” this course makes use of black feminist theory, black queer theory, black masculine studies, black pop culture, and black literature to examine black sex and sexuality. While we will indeed explore scholarship that illuminates the history of sexual violence enacted on black people (and black women in particular), this course also takes its cue from a more recent cohort of black sexual scholars who write about black sexual agency and pleasure. In so doing, we will examine the nasty and neat, the political and personal, as well as the pleasures and pains of black sex and sexuality as theory, method, and object. Please note that GSS students can enroll in this course for GSS credit.
American Indian and Indigenous Studies (AIIS)
AIIS 494A: Native American Literature
MW 10:00 - 11:15
Dr. Steven Sexton
This course examines the literature of Native American peoples and oral traditions through contemporary works.
Asian and Asian American Studies (AIS)
AIS 400: Filipinx American Experience
TTH 1:00 - 2:15
Dr. Constancio Arnaldo
Interdisciplinary approaches to examine the social, economic, political, and cultural dimensions of Filipino/a/x experiences in the United States and globally from 1965 to the contemporary period. Emphasis will be placed on issues of post-colonial identities, the Philippine diaspora, globalization, transnationalism, patterns of labor, resistance to oppression, and cultural practices.
AIS 403: Food and Asian America
WED 11:30 - 2:15
Dr. Mark Padoongpatt
Food is an indelible part of the Asian American experience. This course explores the role of food in the making of Asian America. We’ll examine foodways in all its facets—from cooking and eating to procurement and representation—and take an interdisciplinary and transnational approach to exploring a variety of cuisines, their evolution, and how and why food acts as a dynamic site of identity and self-expression as well as the formation of race, gender, class, and nation. We will also venture out together to local restaurants and grocery stores to enhance our experience and understanding of the Asian American culinary landscape—and eat. Students can expect to learn about specific dishes, how to make them, and to think and write about the broader food cultures and communities they are part of.
Gender and Sexuality Studies (WMST)
WMST 301: Feminist Theory
TTH 11:30-12:45
Dr. Susana Sepulveda
This course introduces feminist theory as a basis for understanding structures of power, social inequalities, and forms of resistance. Students will explore key concepts and debates within the diversity of feminist thought including liberal, radical, Marxist, socialist, psychoanalytic, and postmodern feminisms, as well as the challenges to each posed by women of color. The course will also address the rise of U.S. Third World feminism, queer theory, and post-feminism or popular feminism. A goal of this course is for students to develop a theoretical “tool kit” that allows them to apply feminist theories to their own interdisciplinary endeavors and every day.
WMST 401J-1001/HIST 453-1001: Women in Politics
ONLINE
Dr. Valeria Taylor
This course examines the role of Black women’s political participation at the local, national and international levels. We will interrogate how the intersections of race, gender, sexual orientation, faith and class impact Black women’s success as political organizers, activists, elected officials, voters and policy makers. We will analyze the various ways that Black women defy the racist and sexist political institutions, laws and practices that have been designed to exclude their participation.
WMST 424-1001: Gay Plays
TTH 11:30 - 12:45
Douglas Hill
Study of selected gay plays which includes an examination of appropriate themes and issues.
WMST 433D: Race, Gender, and the Making of Modern Medicine
MW 10:00 - 11:15
Dr. Christopher Willoughby
Health and medicine shape our day-to-day lives from how we feel in our bodies to our ability to work and play. Moreover, from the slave trade to the COVID-19 pandemic, a person's race, gender, and class have affected the healthcare that they receive, including its cost, and quality. In this course, we'll analyze the evolution of America's unique medical profession from the conquests of the Americas to the ongoing movement for reproductive healthcare. Please note that this course is cross-listed with AAS 433D and HIST 433D, so AAS and HIST majors can enroll under those course prefixes if desired.
WMST 449: Sex and Social Arrangements
TTH 11:30 - 12:45
Brooke Weinmann
This course examines human sexuality in social contexts, with an emphasis on cross-cultural and historical comparisons. Themes include sex work, pornography, and queer sexuality.
WMST 453: Gender and Society
Online
Steph Landros
This course examines the micro-social and political aspects of gender, including socialization into gender roles, same-sex, and cross-sex communications, interactions, and long-term relationships.
WMST 476/WMST 676: Feminism and Activism
TTh 1:00-2:15
Dr. Danielle Roth-Johnson
Learn more about the dynamic landscape of feminisms and activisms in this course. By analyzing intersections of gender, race, class, and sexuality, we will explore the diverse voices and strategies that have shaped feminist movements globally. In this class, participants will examine key historical movements, social media, and contemporary activism to foster a deeper understanding of how to develop their own hands-on activism projects and advocate for social justice in their communities.
For more information, contact the Department of Interdisciplinary, Gender, and Ethnic Studies: iges@unlv.edu
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