Rethinking Women’s Studies: Curriculum, Pedagogy, and the Introductory Course
Margaret Hobbs is Associate Professor and fait usage dans le cadre de la révision de former Chair of the Gender and Women’s notre cours de première année. Nous offrons Studies Department at Trent University. The des réflexions qui pourraient aider les in- recipient of two teaching awards, she has structeurs avec la tâche difficile de monter le extensive experience with the introductory cours de première année. course in Gender and Women’s Studies. She is also a member of the graduate programme in Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies Introduction and was a founding board member of the During the past few years, women’s Trent Centre for Community-Based Education. studies programs in Canada have experienced Her research focuses mainly on Canadian increasing threats and attacks from both women’s history and welfare state development inside and outside academic institutions. The in Canada. closure of some programs due to university restructuring, and the name changes of others Carla Rice is Canada Research Chair in to reflect theoretical developments in feminist Care, Gender and Relationships at University scholarship and to widen the student base, of Guelph, a position she recently assumed have prompted media coverage critical of after serving as Associate Professor in Gender women’s studies as an outmoded discipline and Women’s Studies at Trent University. A that is, according to the National Post, too leader in the field of body image within political, too radical, and undeserving of an Canada, she is a founding member and existence in the academy (Belyk 2009; Cole former director of innovative initiatives such 2010; National Post Editorial January 25, 2010; as the National Eating Disorder Information The Current January 12, 2010). Centre and the Body Image Project at Although Women’s Studies at our Women’s College Hospital in Toronto. Her university has also been hit hard by cutbacks research explores cultural representations and administrative restructuring, our department and life history narratives of body and is managing to hang on, albeit with distress- identity. ingly diminished resources. We believe that the first-year women’s studies course is key to Abstract maintaining our major base and our auto- We comment on the current context framing nomy as a distinct academic department. An women’s and gender studies in Canada, introductory women’s studies (or women’s identify recent and important curricular trends, and gender studies) course inhabits a pivotal and discuss some guiding principles that we place in the curriculum as the site where have used to revise our first-year course. We women’s studies as a scholarly field and an offer reflections that might assist instructors in academic unit is introduced, explained, and, the challenging task of mounting the entry- to the extent that this is possible, defined. level course. This is a daunting challenge given the extent of debate within feminism about what exactly Résumé women’s studies is at this point in time, what Nous émettons des commentaires concernant constitutes its foundational knowledges, and le contexte actuel d’encadrement des études what, therefore, we want our students to learn sur les femmes et sur le genre au Canada. (Brown 2008; Friedman 2002). Introductory Nous identifions les tendances circulaires undergraduate courses, intentionally or not, récentes et importantes, et discutons de quel- “brand” the field, and with it the department or ques principes directeurs dont nous avons program. They construct a program’s identity
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while giving students a taste of the broader efficiency and marketability to a new student fare available for consumption at the upper body constructed as “consumers” of education years. Student reaction to the “gateway” (Karpinsky 2007). Women’s studies programs, course can either make or break the viability which typically run on a shoestring budget, of the undergraduate degree program. As at are particularly vulnerable in this climate, and most other universities, our first-year course the effects of restructuring are often evident also services other academic units by in curricular discussions and shifts focused providing important gender and diversity specifically on the first-year course from training not available in such concentration which majors are recruited. Curriculum review elsewhere. and reflexive self-scrutiny are essential to the We are two women’s studies survival of feminist scholarship and education. professors with almost thirty years combined In a backlash environment, however, when experience teaching in women’s studies. For the institutional and political future of women’s several years we co-taught the Introduction to studies is so uncertain, this potentially fruitful Women’s Studies course at Trent University, process carries risks. Witness the enormous and we are currently collaborating on the controversy sparked by Wendy Brown’s 1997 development of a women’s and gender studies article “The Impossibility of Women’s Studies,” reader geared specifically to introductory which argued that women’s studies as a classes. This paper grows out of our ongoing discrete field in the university had outlived its reflections, observations, and discussions original purpose and value, and was becoming about trends, developments, and debates “politically and theoretically incoherent” and shaping women’s studies and how first-year conservative—“incoherent because by definition courses and students might engage with it circumscribes uncircumscribable ‘women’ as them. In this article, we comment on the an object of study, and conservative because current context framing women’s and gender it must resist all objections to such circum- studies in Canada, including the political scription if it is to sustain that object of study climate, and we identify some recent curricular as its raison d’être” (2008, 21). The contro- and pedagogical trends within the field. versy has not quieted as influential feminist Considering these new directions and the scholars like Joan Scott continue to suggest challenges they pose for introductory courses, that women’s studies has lost its “critical edge” we conclude with a discussion of some guiding and must embrace critique, “still feminism’s principles that we have used in our efforts to most potent weapon,” in order to revitalize revise and revitalize our first-year course and re-imagine a future that is not trapped by content and teaching. nostalgia (2008, 7). We suggest, however, that women’s It’s Chilly in Here studies is not as inflexible and intransigent as The recent direct attacks on women’s is implied in these critiques. In Canada, as studies programs are part of a broader back- elsewhere, the field is undergoing rethinking, lash against feminism made all the more redefinition, and, in some cases, renaming, damaging by the neoliberal political and eco- partly in response to internal intellectual and nomic climate and the corporatization of political debates and challenges. We refuse university campuses across Canada and Brown’s construction of feminists within other countries (Bromley and Ahmad 2006; women’s studies as defensively “policing” the Karpinski 2007). As governments and university borders of the field, and we take issue with administrators police the bottom line, depart- her judgment that women’s studies was mental budgets are reduced, tenure-track becoming overly political at the expense of its appointments become scarce, and more of intellectual project. A cursory reflection on some the undergraduate teaching load is carried on of the key recent curricular developments the backs of underpaid, often itinerant, part- within Canadian women’s studies reveals a time faculty with no job security. Departments robust and healthy embrace of debate, an competing for “bums in seats” feel pressure to expansion of boundaries, and a willingness to revamp the curriculum with an eye to economic explore the tensions, contradictions, and
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uncertainty that characterize women’s studies this paper we found that of 43 undergraduate at this historical juncture (see for example programs or departments visited electronically, Braithwaite et al. 2004; Crow and Gotell 2009). 25 still called themselves “women’s studies.” In the section that follows, we introduce and Still, that left 16 with names flagging “gender,” synthesize some of these trends, specifically and 1 (Western) adding “feminist” to its title. those that we think warrant critical attention Concordia’s program is unusual, simply calling when students first encounter the field of itself the “Simone de Beauvoir Institute.” women’s and gender studies. While acknowledging the impressive history of knowledge generation and dissent Curricular Trends: Women’s and Gender in women’s studies, in this section of the Studies in Canada article, we emphasize some emerging trends Over the past three decades, the field in women’s studies curricula and pedagogy of women’s studies has shown considerable across Canada in response to recent develop- curriculum development and change (Salley, ments in feminist scholarship and activism. Winkler and Celeen 2004). Many of these Our discussion addresses curricular more changes are reflected in the recent move than pedagogical trends, but curriculum towards highlighting “gender” over or along- changes (the “what” and “when” or content side “women” in the names of programs and and sequencing of courses) are intimately departments. This shift potentially takes women connected with pedagogy (the “how” or out of the centre of the curriculum in favour of methods of teaching content). We identify broader subjects of inquiry, with greater and synthesize current curricular trends from attention to masculinities, queer, gender, and two main sources. The first consists of sexuality studies, and trans-feminism (National scholarship published in the last decade on Women’s Studies Association, http://www.nwsa. teaching women’s studies in North America. org/research/genderstudies.php). The depart- This rich and diverse literature explores and ment at Queen’s University reoriented recently debates key themes, new directions, and under the umbrella of “Gender Studies,” and challenges in women’s and gender studies as Nipissing’s program has become “Gender, a scholarly field and as a critical site of Equality and Social Justice.” Others, not will- teaching and learning. The second comes ing to let go of “women,” have added “gender” from an informal perusal of course outlines and in one case “sexuality” to their names and calendar descriptions of recent introductory (Carlson 2010). Included in this group are the courses from 43 undergraduate women’s and University of British Columbia (BC and gender studies programs across Canada. We Okanagan), Simon Fraser, Carleton, Dalhousie, wrote to first-year instructors in women’s and Acadia, Laurier, University of Toronto (St. gender studies at most Canadian universities. George and Mississauga), Saint Mary’s, and At the time, we wanted to sample course the programs at Winnipeg, Manitoba, descriptions and learning objectives, and Saskatchewan, and Regina. Trent has just discover which (if any) core texts instructors made the move as well to “Gender and were using. Assuring them that our interest Women’s Studies,” and the issue is being was not evaluative, we highlighted our desire discussed at the University of Victoria and to use the information to assist us in likely at many other institutions (Carlson 2010). reviewing women’s studies textbooks on the Controversy over naming extends back to the market and assigned in Canadian introductory early 1990s in North America, and continues classes. Thirty-seven syllabi from 30 different today, although less vociferously (see the institutions were received from generous in- eight-part discussion from 1993 to 2009 in Joan structors and from program websites. (The fact Korenman’s online Women’s Studies List: that some universities had more than one
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the variation in content and approach to teach- sectionality” (McCall 2005). According to the ing first-year women’s and gender studies, yet Canadian Research Institute for the Advance- we also noticed that prominent new directions ment of Women, an intersectional approach in the field as a whole were reflected in the attempts “to understand how multiple forces topics, the required readings, and in the org- work together and interact to reinforce con- anization and orientation of the courses. The ditions of inequality and social exclusion” information gathered has been used in two (CRIAW 2006, 5). Intersectionality is not a separate but interlinked projects: a review of new concept. Conceived by African American multiple textbooks as well as this essay feminists and critical race scholars Patricia examining curricular and pedagogical develop- Hill Collins (1990) and Kimberle Crenshaw ments and their relevance to gateway courses. (1994) in response to issues of exclusion within We did not request permission from instructors mainstream second-wave feminism (Ringrose to analyze their syllabi but collectively they 2007; Yuval-Davis 2006), the theory has been have shaped our reading and understanding adapted and developed in the work of many of the ways that introductory courses are feminist writers and organizations in Canada engaging with new bodies of work and areas (see for examples CRIAW 2006; Denis 2008; of inquiry. More specifically, the course de- Lee 2006). Intersectionality moves a feminist scriptions and learning objectives helped us focus beyond gender to consider the multiple, identify which of the trends and new directions intersecting “axes” of power and difference shaping the field in general were being taken that constitute women’s diverse experiences up in first-year classrooms. and positions in the social world (Yuval-Davis In our reading of these varied sources, 2006). Its utility lies in its capacity to explain we identify four prominent and recent develop- how gender, sexuality, aboriginality, class, race, ments in women’s studies content and peda- disability, geography, refugee and immigrant gogy: 1) de-universalizing and diversifying the status, size, age, and other differences interact curriculum through undertaking intersectional with broader social forces such as colonialism approaches; 2) gendering and queering the and neoliberalism to shape women’s sub- curriculum; 3) globalizing, internationalizing, and ordination and status in highly specific ways transnationalizing the curriculum; and, finally, (CRIAW 2006). Taking as its starting point 4) indigenizing and decolonizing the women’s what Karpinski calls the “heterogeneity of studies curriculum. The curricular moves we difference,” intersectionality seeks to historicize, describe emerge from debates and develop- contextualize, and politicize differences as a ments within feminist scholarship. They also sustained critique of “homogenizing” multi- come out of women’s and social justice move- cultural approaches to diversity, which erase ments, from diversely positioned and especially inequality by detaching difference from a marginalized people and grassroots commun- critical analysis of power (2007, 46). Through ities locally and globally, at the forefront of interrogating the complexities and specificities feminist thought and action (see, for example, of identities and social locations, inter- Antrobus 2004; Bornstein 1998; CRIAW 2006; sectionality explores how women occupy Green 2007; Mohanty 2006; Smith, 2005; many different and contradictory positions, Wilchins 2004). Our description of these de- and illuminates how we each are implicated velopments is not intended to be exhaustive in power relations (Brah and Pheonix 2004). or conclusive. We recognize that they are Although some scholars have raised concerns overlapping and evolving. Instead, our purpose that intersectionality theory has become water- here is to identify some of the significant trends ed down in introductory women’s studies in women’s studies curricula more broadly courses, others see the concept as pivotal to with a particular focus on how they may be feminist pedagogy (Davis 2010; Ringrose impacting first-year women’s studies courses 2007). By de-centering the assumed white, and shaping the future of and debates about Western, middle-class subject of feminism the field. and women’s studies and articulating an 1) The first curricular move involves approach to understanding women’s specificity explaining and applying the theoretically import- (Davis 2010), intersectionality works to over- ant and challenging feminist concept of “inter- come historical exclusions that have alienated
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Aboriginal women and women of colour (for 2004); to explore masculinity as a manifestation example) from earlier theorizing and activism, of sex/gender systems (Kimmel and Aronson and it awakens students to how power differ- 2010); and to integrate trans and intersex ences affect them profoundly and differently experiences and perspectives in ethical, pro- (Ringrose 2007). gressive ways that go beyond de-constructing 2) A second curricular move involves binaries toward advocating visibility, inclusion, “gendering” and “queering” the women’s studies and social justice for gender and sex variant curriculum. Recent developments in gender, people (Cooper and Connor 2006; Koyama queer, and trans theory and activism across and Weasel 2002). Although most feminist North America have placed a strong analytic educators believe that a sustained focus on spotlight on gender and sexuality as social sexism is necessary—especially in the face of constructs. Within women’s studies courses deepening global gender inequities—theoretical and programs, this move has resulted in insights offered by GLBT studies, queer theory, greater curricular attention being paid to and transfeminism have led many to radically masculinities, queer and sexuality studies, rethink the assumed subject of feminism and and transfeminism. At their heart, gender and the privileging of women in women’s studies queer theory involve deconstructing the binary curricula and classrooms. categories of woman/man and femininity/ 3) The third curricular trend involves masculinity by de-stabilizing sex, gender, and globalizing, internationalizing, or transnation- sexual identities, or, in other words, challenging alizing women’s and gender studies. The terms “the notion of two discrete tidily organized themselves, as well as the practices they entail, sexes and genders” (Scott-Dixon 2006, 12). are the subject of considerable debate. In addition to feminist studies, this rich theory Sometimes they are used interchangeably. base has emerged out of gay, lesbian, Increasingly, however, the language of “global bisexual, and transsexual (GLBT) studies, feminism,” and hence calls for “globalizing” itself a fairly new area of academic inquiry the curriculum, is giving way to the politics of which seeks to investigate GLBT history and “internationalizing” or “transnationalizing.” For culture and understand how gendered and most, the term “global” in relation to feminism sexed bodies/identities and erotic desires and is too reminiscent of the condescension and practices are socially constructed in different denial of differences evident in past Western times and places (Meem et al. 2010; feminists’ scholarly and activist interventions Stombler et al. 2010). Distinct from LGBT in the “Third World” (Grewal and Kaplan 2006; studies, queer theory aims not only to Mohanty 1991; Shohat 2001). International- interrogate sexuality norms but also to turn ization is often employed as a broad umbrella upside down the very idea of “the normal,” term encompassing various practices and namely “everything in the culture that has methods, which are not themselves inherently occupied a position of privilege, power, and counter-hegemonic. Indeed, international issues normalcy, starting with heterosexuality” (Bacon can be taken up in women’s studies in highly 2007, 259). While GLBT studies highlights problematic ways. A recent example in the the diversity of sexuality, gender studies as a post-9/11 context was the Western feminist discrete field focuses on understanding gender campaign to “save” women in Afghanistan variance historically and cross culturally. Add- from the Taliban. Preoccupied with cultural ing another layer of nuance and complexity, practices like veiling and locked in orientalist transfeminism has materialized at the inter- stereotypes of Islam, Western feminists sections of feminist and trans ideas as a participated in “new forms of cultural imperial- vibrant gender inclusive political, social, and ism,” rarely acknowledging the history of US intellectual movement dedicated to ending the foreign policy support for the Taliban regime oppression of gender-crossing and gender- (Grewal and Kaplan 2006, xvii‒xviii). Mohanty divergent people (Scott Dixon 2006). These describes three dominant models for inter- theoretical and political movements have nationalizing women’s studies. The “feminist challenged women’s studies to become in- as tourist” approach adds “Third World” and clusive of gender and queer theory (Wilchins Indigenous women into existing analytic frame-
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works, stereotyping them as either hapless centre of course texts and topics, and disrupting victims or romantic heroines. The “feminist as Eurocentric, first-world privilege through an explorer” model, an outgrowth of area studies, examination of colonial relations from the per- focuses on “foreign” women “over there” spectives of colonized “others” (2010). (through courses such as “Women in India,” Aboriginal feminists including Smith (Cherokee) “Third World Women,” etc.), without a sus- (2005), LaRocque (Metis) (2007), and Green tained analysis of structural relations of power. (Ktunaxa/Cree-Scots Metis) (2007) see such Mohanty instead encourages a third alternate anti-colonial feminist approaches as critical to approach, “feminist solidarity,” which enables grasping urgent issues faced by Indigenous anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist, and anti-capital- women today. For example, Smith (2005) ist critique, draws on trans-national border argues that because sexual violence has been crossings and comparative work, and recog- used as a weapon of colonialism to destroy nizes differences and hierarchies of power while and assimilate Aboriginal people into a white building on affinities and common interests racist, sexist hierarchy, anti-violence and anti- (Mohanty 2006). Increasingly, a “transnational” colonial struggles cannot be separated if lens (as opposed to an “international” one) is feminists hope to end violence against all promoted as a complex and nuanced way to women. Straddling tensions between anti- “teach students how to think about gender in colonial and feminist perspectives (in no small a world whose boundaries have changed” part due to white, European feminist failure to (Kaplan and Grewal 2002, 79). Transnational recognize white women’s complicity with approaches emphasize the movement of cap- colonialism and imperialism) (Ali 2007; Grande ital, labour, information, and culture across 2003), women’s studies instructors are now national borders; they draw out how histories taking up the important task of decolonizing of colonization and, more recently, globalization the curriculum. Many feminist scholars, both structure inequalities; and they explore the Native and non-Native alike, are working to possibilities for solidarity among women and centre Indigenous feminist thought, issues, and social movements organizing across geographic activism; analyze the gendered genesis and boundaries. In a transnationalized women’s consequences of colonialism; and teach learn- studies curriculum, Canada and the US can still ers to interrogate their positionality and im- be examined, but they are not centred (Mohanty plicatedness in current conditions (Blyth 2008; in Dua and Trotz 2002). Dion 2009). 4) The fourth curricular move centres The above trends are transforming on “indigenizing” and “decolonizing” the wom- the field in significant and exciting ways. Even en’s studies curriculum. “Indigenizing” involves a cursory glance at program descriptions and the integration of Indigenous thought and per- course offerings (including those first-year spectives; rather than focusing on Aboriginal outlines we received) reveals that these de- women for a single unit or class in an intro- velopments are influential in women’s and ductory course, for example, Indigenous gender studies across the country. It is possible women’s perspectives are woven across course that some might see the new directions as topics and themes. The closely related evidence of a fragmenting field with a fractured concept of “decolonizing” refers to the anti- focus, as the centre and subject of what colonial project of critiquing western world- historically defined women’s studies under- views and challenging oppressive power goes profound challenges and shifts. The curric- structures that they uphold. According to ular moves we identify, however, are broad Maori scholar Linda Smith, decolonizing, and internally diverse: they can be taken up in “once viewed as the formal process of handing scholarship, teaching, and activism in many over the instruments of government, is now different ways and are subject to continual recognized as a long-term process involving debate and revision. Our interest is in ensuring bureaucratic, cultural, linguistic, and psycho- that feminist analyses of gender and sexism logical divesting of colonial power” including remain central points of entry into these broad in the academy (1999, 98). For Davis, de- new arenas. We maintain that there is a need colonization of women’s studies means dis- for a sustained study of gender and sexism placing white, Western subjectivities from the as they operate and intersect with other axes
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of power and difference including racism, class- support learners’ respectful debate and ism, ableism, and heterosexism, and that disagreement. women’s and gender studies must continue to These goals and objectives reflect a provide that “critical edge” in its engagements vision of women’s and gender studies which with gender, queer, and trans theory, inter- is indebted to the insights and emphases sectionality, transnationalism, and indigeneity. emerging from the curricular shifts described above. Instructors charged with the respon- Reflections on Introductory Course sibility of developing entry-level courses must Curriculum absorb these trends, sift through confusing What is it that introductory women’s and often contradictory perspectives, and be- and gender studies courses today are hoping come familiar with the underlying debates. As to accomplish? From our review of syllabi and we worked through these challenges in our calendar descriptions, we have synthesized the own teaching, we have generated a number following list of common goals, which admitted- of governing principles that are helping us ly is partial and suggestive of greater coherence incorporate the new theoretical developments. across programs than probably exists: 1) Diversity of authors, multiplicity of . To introduce students to women’s/gender disciplines: We found that it is important to studies as a broad, dynamic, interdisciplin- include work by a broad range of authors ary, and global field of inquiry, and to from various social, economic, and geograph- familiarize students with some of the key ic identities and locations. We need to highlight issues, debates, and approaches in feminist the richness of women’s studies literature and scholarship and activism. debates and the diversity of women’s exper- . To complicate normative understandings iences, perspectives, and analyses. We want of concepts like “women,” “sex,” “gender,” voices from the margins as well as the centre. “race,” and “disability” by examining his- Women’s studies developed as a multidisciplin- torical and contemporary constructions of ary and interdisciplinary field, and students “difference.” need exposure to feminist scholarship from . To analyze and challenge hierarchical and across the disciplines as well as within the intersecting relations of power influenced newer interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary by gender, sexuality, class, race, ethnicity, women’s and gender studies stream. (For ability, and other categories of difference. debates on multi-, inter-, and transdisciplin- . To understand how power relations are arity see Bouchard 2004; Buker 2003; Dölling embedded in institutions and in everyday, and Hark 2001; Finger and Rosner 2001; taken-for-granted social relations, practices, Friedman 1998, 2001; Kitch 2003; Shteir 2007; and values. Wiegman 2001.) Because a minority of first- . To highlight affinities and differences year students typically go on to major or joint among women, both within North America major in the field, the introductory course might and worldwide, and to analyze intersecting be the only one they take that specifically and social, cultural, political, and economic sys- consistently centres feminist work. While tems which shape their lives and agency. selections should balance historical with con- . To explore the multiple pathways and forms temporary analyses, to address broader of women’s individual and collective re- society’s historical amnesia they also should sistance to injustice and inequities in the aim to build a strong foundation in history. past and the present, and to analyze their 2) Canadian and Aboriginal content: creative visions and strategies for change We believe that in Canadian women’s studies in local and global contexts. classrooms there should be a focus on Canada, . To inspire and empower students to de- partly to challenge some commonly voiced velop their knowledge of feminist scholar- assumptions that gender and other inequalities ship and to engage critically in their commun- exist mainly beyond our borders (over “there”), ities at local, national, or global levels. and partly to encourage student identification . To develop students’ skills in critical think- with content. Understanding the specificity of ing and analysis, reading, and writing, and issues in Canada provides students with critical to create classroom environments that
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perspectives on their immediate contexts, where material in practice and let students in on they can also begin to untangle the multiple strategies and debates from inside the ranks and complex relations of power between “the of social justice movements. Such works also West and the rest.” We believe a focus on inspire students to see the relevance of their Indigenous women and colonial histories within studies, and generate ideas for their action- the Canadian context is also essential, not oriented praxis. Materials and teaching aids merely in a few separate classes or a distinct must be chosen with attention to the wide section of the course, but as sustained themes variation in identities, ages, backgrounds, throughout. There is a rich and growing body interests, literacy levels, and other academic of Native women’s writing, including work by skills among first-year students. Indigenous feminists, and integrating this work 5) Balance of bad news/good news: across thematic sections builds breadth and Women’s and gender studies instructors are depth of understanding. well aware that students can be overwhelmed 3) Global/transnational content: Al- with the “bad news” about women’s status though we maintain it is useful for Canadian and socially created inequalities, particularly in topics’ specificity to be foregrounded in intro- contemporary neoliberal times. The optimism ductory women’s and gender studies courses that fueled second-wave feminists is not as in this country, it is critical that links are made accessible to our students for a host of to broader global trends and to the diversity different reasons, yet they want to build on of women’s experiences within and between signs of hope. Diverse examples and case different geographic and political contexts. studies of women’s resistance go far to dispel Students need encouragement to think about lingering myths about women’s powerless- the local and the global as mutually constitutive. ness, by challenging gendered and racialized Global systems and institutions of power stereotypes and conveying a sense of the demand close examination, and material should vibrancy of human agency. Organized and be included by and about women in various collective forms of resistance, as well as parts of the world while trying to avoid the individual actions, require exploration. Many “feminist as tourist model” so aptly critiqued students yearn to explore and share ideas by Mohanty (2006) where women from “other about what they can do, as individuals and in countries” are merely added in to existing groups of their own making and choosing, to Eurocentric frameworks. The Canadian fore- participate in social change. The introductory grounding we envision does not take up fully course content and pedagogy should inspire Mohanty’s challenge to “internationalize” and facilitate students’ social justice aspir- women’s studies curriculum in accordance with ations, while also developing their intellectual the “feminist solidarity” model that she favours. capacity to critique different pathways of Our approach, however, still draws on her in- resistance. sights and those of other transnational feminist scholars. Conclusion 4) Multiple genres, styles, and We have geared this article towards a methods: As instructors, we appreciate mater- general women’s studies audience in Canada ials that vary genres and styles, exposing but more specifically to first-time and even students to the multiple forms in which feminist seasoned instructors of introductory courses. ideas are created, sharpening their skills at While making no claims to comprehensiveness, reading across disciplines, and celebrating we have reviewed in broad strokes some of the epistemological diversity. In addition to stan- key contexts and developments—theoretical, dard scholarly articles, short fiction, poetry, political, and curricular—that inform the current and personal narrative add a great deal to a state of women’s and gender studies, and textbook or coursepack, and not only by that shape the thinking and rethinking of the breaking up the academic style. They can teach beginner-level undergraduate course. As scholars different truths, and can move audiences in in the field continue to question and revise the different ways, and often more intimately, than very foundations of women’s studies, the intro- straight scholarly pieces. Popular works by ductory course becomes a site of debate, activists or activist organizations ground the
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uncertainty, and often anxiety. Compounding Modern Language Association. 37.1 (2004): these challenges, programs and departments 32‒39. face financial, administrative, and political pressures in the current neoliberal climate, thus Brah, A. and A. Phoenix. “Ain’t I a Woman? intensifying the scrutiny of women and gender Revisiting Intersectionality,” Journal of Inter- studies programs, their content, pedagogy, and national Women’s Studies. 5.3 (2004): 75–86. enrolments. The introductory course, typically the biggest course in a program’s offerings Braithwaite, A. et al., eds. Troubling Women’s and the foundational course for the field, does Studies: Pasts, Presents and Possibilities. not escape this critical gaze. This article offers Toronto: Sumach, 2004. some practical and theoretical reflections that might assist instructors in the challenging task Bromley,V. and A. Ahmad. “Wa(i)ving Solidarity: of mounting the entry-level course. Feminist Activists Confronting Backlash,” Canadian Woman Studies/les cahiers de la Acknowledgements femme. 25.3/4 (2006): 61‒71. We would like to acknowledge the support of the Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Brown, W. “The Impossibility of Women’s Indigenous Studies at Trent University. We Studies,” in Women’s Studies on the Edge. also want to thank those who shared with us London: Duke University Press, 2008, pp. information about their courses and pro- 17‒38. grams/departments. Buker, E. “Is Women’s Studies a Disciplinary References or an Interdisciplinary Field of Inquiry?” NWSA Ali, S. “Feminist and Postcolonial: Challenging Journal. 15.1 (Spring 2003): 73‒93. Knowledge,” Ethnic and Racial Studies. 30.2 (2007): 191‒212. Canadian Research Institute for the Advance- ment of Women (CRIAW). Intersectional Antrobus, P. The Global Women’s Movement: Feminist Frameworks: An Emerging Vision. Issues and Strategies for the New Century. Ottawa: Canadian Research Institute for the Black Point, Nova Scotia: Fernwood, 2004. Advancement of Women, 2006.
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