Featured Course: Gender & Sitcoms

Mon, 16 Oct 2017 11:20:41 -0400

Do you enjoy watching sitcoms? Curious to see how sitcoms can influence the perception of genders and stereotypes? Study the relationship between changing gender roles and the leading ladies of television situation comedy between the 1950s and today with GWST 323 – Gender & Sitcoms. Watch 30 Rock for homework, paired with a text about the show’s discourses of feminism in popular culture, and debate if Liz Lemon’s feminism is the same as Tina Fey's!

Taught by Dr. Kathryn Kein, GWST 323 is a fully online course offered during UMBC Winter Session 2018. Students will participate in online discussions, videos with quizzes to follow, and other writing assignments.

Dr. Kein received her PH.D. in American Studies from George Washington University in 2016 and has been teaching in the UMBC Gender and Women’s Studies department ever since. During her studies, she presented at various local and national conferences (including ASA and PCA/ACA) and in 2013 received a research fellowship from the James and Sylvia Thayer foundation at UCLA for research on her chapter “Failing to Organize: Phyllis Diller and the Comedy of Domestic Failure.” Her research interests include gender and sexuality, popular culture, social movements, feminist and queer theory, race, and humor studies.