This course is concerned with how gender and race are represented and constructed within a variety of mediums and contexts and how it can have different meanings across social settings. The course introduces students to the field of gender and communication and some of the principal questions of feminist theory, as viewed from linguistics, media studies and sociolinguistics. We will explore the ways in which gender is socially constructed and the implications this process has for men and women. We will engage and evaluate a wide variety of contexts and texts including everyday interactions, media texts and imagery, all forms of print media, animation, graphic imagery, television, film and video, the Internet, and multimedia production. The course has a strong international and multicultural focus, drawing on descriptions of women and men's speech across the globe. In particular, we will examine how everyday representations, interactions, media, film, popular culture and journalism, incorporate gender and sexuality and at times perpetuate stereotypes about men, women and sexuality in general.