Introduction

Every spring semester at The University of MontanaMissoula (UM), I teach a firstyear Women's and Gender Studies course entitled WGSS 163L Historical and Literary Perspectives on Women with an average enrollment of thirtyfive students. The “L” in the title indicates that the course fulfils a general education requirement as a Literary Studies course, and thus it always attracts a fair number of students (50 per cent) who are not necessarily seeking a degree in Women's and Gender Studies, but who have at least a passing interest in women's history and literature. In general, the class demographics are fairly typical of Women's and Gender Studies classes— primarily traditionalaged women (over 75 per cent) and LGBTIQidentified students majoring in the humanities and social sciences. This class serves as a feminist counterpart to UM's Great Books courses, LSH 151L Introduction to the Humanities I, and LSH 152L Introduction to the Humanities II. These two Liberal Studies courses are exactly that— an overview of canonical texts in the Western tradition. WGSS 163L engages with the same time periods (ancient through medieval and early modern to present) but few of the same authors.

In WGSS 163L, students read excerpts from the Bible, excerpts from the patristic theologians St. Jerome and Tertullian, and excerpts from the late fifteenthcentury witchhunter text Malleus Maleficarum by Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger as context for the world in which the ancient and medieval women authors I assign produced their works. In the medieval period, students read both The Selected Writings of Hildegard of Bingen and Christine de Pizan's Book of the City of Ladies. The learning outcomes for the course state:

• 1) Students will develop an understanding of the different ways Western societies and cultures have viewed and constructed gender, oppression, and privilege.

• 2) Students will learn to analyze social norms and institutions (including governments, educational systems, the church, and the family) as they relate to gender and other concepts such as sexuality, race, and class.

• 3) Students will develop an awareness of the role women authors have played throughout history and learn to evaluate texts authored by women within and against the context of the Western canonical tradition.

• 4) Students will develop critical thinking and communication skills through inclass discussions, exams, informal writing assignments, and online discussion forums.