I took Professor Woolsey's class online during COVID-19. The class is very easy to navigate. You will learn a lot of things that will benefit you in your life going forward. I have no regrets taking this course and it isn't one you should worry about. This class isn't made to try and overload you with homework but rather educate you on the culture of the LGBTQ+ community. If you want to take a course that is interesting, entertaining, and engaging take M114. It will fulfill GE and provide you with knowledge you may not be able to learn in other classes. I also want to add in how Professor Woolsey and her TAs were all very outgoing and understanding. They were very nice, genuine, and easy to approach. If you have read this to this point just sign up for the class already.

Gender Studies/LGBTQ Studies M114. Honestly, I expected more from this class based on the previous reviews. I understand that it's an intro class, however, the majority of the material is just a repeat of the lower-div course Gender 10. While the content of the course being a repeat was nice in terms of an easy grade, I feel that I did not learn anything new. Moreover, the workload was really heavy in terms of the amount of readings, videos, and documentaries we had to to watch weekly and submit by Wednesdays - we'd often be assigned long readings AND 1.5-2 hours worth of videos/docs each week on top of lecture videos (which was especially terrible when my TA frequently posted the assignments late, leaving us a day or so to complete them before they were due). The midterm in this class was easy due to the comprehensive study guide provided, and there was no final exam, just a final project with various parts that had to be completed throughout the second half of the quarter. In terms of grading, there were major inconsistencies among the 5 TAs, so it caused a lot of confusion as to what expectations were for all of the assignments. Similar to the previous review, I feel that if the professor updated the curriculum and lowered the workload so students could engage with the (new) material rather than completing assignments just to get them done, I think this class could be really interesting.

Okay, I'm not even done with the class yet but I have to review her. Woolsey is a super nice professor who I see puts in a lot of effort, and she is very nice and accommodating. Her major issue is that she teaches M114 as if it was Gender10. The information so far has been very basic and disappointing due to the lack of intersectionality and updated resources. Most of the papers we read have so far are from white and most likely cis authors. We have watched 2 documentaries, both from the 90s, which focus on white queer history. Gender Studies is about community-based unlearning, and I feel like I haven't learned anything and I am in week 4. I really just think she needs to update and diversify her content and then this class would be so much more amazing and worth it.

Loved this class! The professor was super funny and the lectures were engaging most of the time. My TA was Nathan and he was awesome, too! Sometimes the IIQs (weekly responses based on the readings) could get tedious, but if you stay on top of it and do some of them in advance you will be fine!

Dr. Woolsey is an awesome and super approachable professor. The class was pretty interesting (although some of the material may be more dry than others, depending on your interests), and the workload wasn't too bad. There were readings every lecture, a midterm, and a final paper, all of which were doable. Take this class if you can.

I really enjoyed this class! I definitely recommend it if anyone is considering taking it for an upper division elective. There were weekly discussion boards and homework assignments, 3 papers total, a final reflection. Not too heavy overall, I'd say per week I spent maybe 2 hours at most on the course, 6 when papers were due.
Dr. Woolsey chooses materials from a diverse range of authors, and does not fail to emphasize intersectionality of race, gender, class, etc. alongside sexuality and gender.
One thing I will say is that all 3 papers were under a certain broad topic, like representation, or gender and sexuality. So when you choose your topic for your first paper, make sure you feel confident about being able to write 3 separate papers on it.
Week 1 we were assigned a Steven Universe episode, which I thought was fun.
You definitely don't need to know much about LGBTQ+ issues prior to taking this course, and if you already have a decent interest in queer issues, I guarantee the course will be super valuable in enhancing your understanding of queer and trans history. I'm gay and trans and have been pretty active in queer issues for a while, but I can still say this has been one of the most enriching classes I've ever taken.

Because of the asynchronous format I never directly interacted with this Professor, but I will say that I enjoyed the course. The material was engaging and I enjoyed the required readings and media. I did, however, find the workload tedious. I got really strong “this is the only course of yours that matters” vibes with the amount of work. Also, extra credit is offered but usually during busy weeks (due the same day as essays, midterms, finals). Overall, this is a great course to take if you need an interesting elective, just expect it to consume a lot of your time.