Covert Ops: Women Spies will be a case study of CIA and OSS agents Valerie Plame Wilson, Lindsay Moran, Gina Haspel, Mary Bowser, Virginia Hall, Elizebeth Friedman, and Elizabeth McIntosh who served their country with distinction; however, their country continues to redact their stories and their accomplishments. Students will embark on the hard work to make sure that female spies’ legacies are acknowledged, critiqued, and validated. We will actively remember women’s and people of color’s contributions to the United States to acknowledge resistance movements and individuals and to create lasting change in our society. In Covert Ops, students will focus less on political and military history, and more on questions of culture, especially in terms of gender, race, religion, class, and power. We will examine recently declassified CIA files from female intelligence officers during WWII, and focus on Virginia Hall’s (known as the Limping Lady) legacy in the advent of the Office of Strategic Services through her biography. In the present, we will work with Valerie Plame’s redacted autobiography, Fair Game, within the context of the War on Terror.

Prerequisite: U.S. History

Offered Fall 2024