STS 323
Writing Gender in Sci-Fi and Speculative Fictions Spring 2026
Division II D Difference, Power, and Equity
Cross-listed ENGL 329 / WGSS 329

Class Details

This creative writing course will pair selected readings in feminist STS and queer theory with science fiction, speculative fiction, and horror stories that together put questions to gender. How and when is sci-fi a home for radical re-imaginings of gender? When and why does “genre fiction” house (and facilitate) radical (or reactionary) gender politics? Readings may include works by Octavia Butler, Ursula Le Guin, Brian Evanson, and Samuel Delany. Students will both analyze these fictions and take them as inspirations for their own stories and worlds.
The Class: Format: seminar; This course balance seminar-style discussion with workshops examining students' creative writing.
Limit: 12
Expected: 12
Class#: 3485
Grading: yes pass/fail option, no fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: Students will be complete and receive substantial feedback on at least two substantial pieces of fiction. Students will also compose 3-5 brief pieces in either analytical and speculative (world-building) prose. Evaluation will be based on attendance, timeliness of assignments, writing effort, and contributions to the writing community. There will be no exam.
Prerequisites: none
Enrollment Preferences: STS concentrators; WGSS majors; seniors and juniors; students who have not taken other creative writing courses at Williams.
Distributions: Division II Difference, Power, and Equity
Notes: This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
ENGL 329 Division I WGSS 329 Division II STS 323 Division II
DPE Notes: In this course students will confront and reflect on the operations of difference, power, and equity through readings, class discussions, and assignments. Readings include scholarship on the construction of gender and sexuality, as well as works of fiction that denaturalize the categories of sex and gender. Course assignments will include expository and creative writing, and students will work in both modes to imagine how this world could be otherwise and how other worlds could be.

Class Grid

Updated 8:50 pm

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