LGST 3445 - Gender Violence: Transforming Law and Society

Goals: Analyze how gender-based violence is framed in cultural, legal, political, and institutional or systems contexts, and survey the intersectional relationships between individual social statuses and how they relate to victimization, survivorship, and individual and institutional responses. Develop contextual reasoning and practice critical thinking about legal problems encountered by, and the connections among, systems, victim-survivors, perpetrators, and advocates. Explore pathways leading to systems change.

Content: Survey of feminist approaches to theories used to understand responses to victim-survivors of gender violence within legal, social, institutional, and systems contexts; examination of multiple types of gender violence, including physical, psychological, emotional, and sexual, as well as a range of contexts of violence including domestic/intimate partner violence, campus sexual assault, and stalking; laws and policies defining and governing harassment, criminal sexual conduct, rape, intimate partner and domestic violence, and stalking; personal narratives and case studies of impacted persons; empathy and advocacy skills used in a variety of contexts to further positive systems change.

This course includes a service-learning experience focused on crisis counseling and victim advocacy in conjunction with our community partners Sexual Offense Services of Ramsey County. This experience also provides students with the option to earn a state of Minnesota recognized certification as a Crisis Counselor and Victim Advocate.

Prerequisite: LGST 1110 or LGST 1300 with grade of C- or better, or instructor permission

Credits: 4