Professor: Gaither Course format: Seminar	Number of respondents: 15 Total Enrollment: 16
Class Composition: Froshs: 8 Sophs: 6 Jrs: 1 Srs: 1 Concs: 2 Non-Concs: 10 Don't Know: 3

Instructor Average: 1.27 Course Average: 1.35

This course is called "American Girls Culture." The goal was to learn how American girls grow and shape their identities in the heterosexist male patriarchy. This is the history of girls' culture - from the Victorian era to the present. There was no background necessary. This course analyzes historical and contemporary concepts of American girls' lives and cultural practices. Students agreed that it may help to be a girl, but it is definitely an interesting experience for a boy. A little sociology background would help as well.

Even though this was a very early class, the professor managed to be quite encouraging and enthusiastic. She was sensitive to everyone's level of experience. Her teaching style was quite interactive. She let half of the class time be led by the students' discussion. Class generally revolved around discussion.

There were very interesting required readings in this class. The different perspectives provided by the readings and the personal accounts in discussion were quite useful and interesting. There were three papers to write. The first two papers were the same length while the third was a few pages longer. Also, there was a final presentation and several journal entries.

Most spent about 5 hours of outside class time on this course each week. It is a lot of reading, but students actually wanted to do the work. Even though this was an 8:30 am class, students absolutely loved it and definitely recommend it. This is an extremely interesting class - whether or not you are a feminist.

View AC/0019 in the Brown Online Course Announcement.