For a complete list of course offerings in Gender Studies, including full descriptions and faculty who will be teaching the offerings in 2008-2009, refer to the online Curriculum Guide.
Columbia Law School has built one of the premier faculties in Gender Studies. The study of gender at Columbia Law School seeks to explore the complex dynamics that make up the gender of law and the law of gender. Offered courses seek to introduce students to the gendered aspects of law through history, policy and doctrine. How are gendered hierarchies reinforced by and, in turn, dismantled through law? What are the unstated masculine or feminine assumptions that unlie important legal rules, such as self-interested, welfare maximization in law and economics, or the meanings of motherhood in family law? How can law be used as a progressive tool to eradicate complex social problems such as domestic violence, employment discrimination, unequal education for girls, and international women's rights, while not reinforcing stereotypes about women and men? Should the goal of efforts to combat sex discrimination be the eradication of sex/gender differences or the celebration of the ways in which men and women differ? The Gender Studies curriculum is designed to offer students a range of opportunities for study that emphasizes doctrinal, theoretical and practical aspects of gender and law.
Columbia Law School also runs the only Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic in the nation. More intesive study is available in seminar format in Perspective on Family and Gender; Meanings of Motherhood; Abortion: Law in Context; Domestic Violence and the Law; Feminist Theory Workshop; Sexual Harrassment in Employment: Policy and Practice; Gender and Development; Topics in Sexuality and Law; and Lawyering, Social Change and the Development of Sexuality and Gender Law.
