COMM 2181 Gender, Identity, and Sexuality
This course may be used to satisfy one of four electives required within the Communication major. This course offers an introduction to gender and sexuality studies, as a foundation to explore how the relationships between our personal biographies and the wider forces in society affect our lives and the lives of others. Employing an interdisciplinary approach to scholarship, we utilize a variety of academic and popular cultural resources to analyze how gender, sexuality, and identity are learned, embodied, and re/negotiated in everyday life. Underscoring the influence of media on social norms, we investigate how our identities are dynamically shaped by individual, interactional, and institutional sociocultural domains. With emphasis given to intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, religion, and ethnicity, we consider how our positionalities are socially constructed, with consequential effects.
Course overview
- Department
- Communication
- School
- MCAS
- Credits
- 3
- Level
- Undergraduate
- Offered
- Periodically
Course evaluations
- Course rating
- 4.04 / 5 · Very Good
- Instructor rating
- 4.43 / 5 · Very Good
- Terms evaluated
- 5
| Term | Instructor | Course overall | Instructor overall | Well organized | Clear learning objectives | Intellectually challenging | Helpful assignments | Applicable beyond course | Attendance necessary | Weekly effort | Responses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring 2026 | Emily B Barko | 3.9 | 4.3 | 4.0 | 4.1 | 4.1 | 4.4 | 4.4 | 4.2 | 1–3 hrs/week | 21 of 38 |
| Spring 2025 | Emily B Barko | 3.0 | 3.6 | 3.3 | 3.8 | 3.9 | 3.7 | 4.3 | 3.8 | 1–3 hrs/week | 28 of 42 |
| Spring 2024 | Emily B Barko | 4.0 | 4.4 | 4.0 | 4.3 | 4.2 | 4.3 | 4.5 | 4.4 | 4–6 hrs/week | 41 of 45 |
| Spring 2023 | Emily B Barko | 4.5 | 4.9 | 4.3 | 4.5 | 4.4 | 4.5 | 4.8 | 4.2 | 1–3 hrs/week | 33 of 44 |
| Spring 2022 | Ali Erol | 4.7 | 4.9 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 4.7 | 4.6 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 1–3 hrs/week | 27 of 41 |