Transnational feminisms

4 credits Winter term, 2018-19

Dr Sarah Smith Department of Gender Studies

Course description This course examines the intersections and antagonisms of transnational feminism, as both a disciplinary perspective and a mode of solidarity and activism. In a world characterized by globalization, neoliberalism and uneven capital accumulation, the course seeks to examine feminist solidarities and solutions in global politics and international organizations, while being attentive to the problematics that are also produced. Given its transnational and globalized focus, the course considers how different groups are positioned and impacted within global politics, and the relations of power that underpin complex experiences. In doing so, it pays attention to broader contexts of globalization and globalizing neoliberalism, drawing on IR and political economy frameworks of analysis. We will therefore engage with debates on the gendered nature of (in)equity and representation within global politics, as well as critically engage with the central question of what transnational feminisms can be and do, and the potentials and pitfalls in transnational feminist solidarities. Given the broad remit of transnational feminisms, the course stays focused through a grounding in IR, global governance and development literature.

Learning outcomes 1. Understand concepts and issues associated with transnational feminist strategies, within and outside international institutions. 2. Understand a history of feminist transnational networks and activism. 3. Analyze the impacts and experiences of globalization on different groups of both men and women. 4. Understand complex gendered and other relations of power that structure global inequalities

Expectations Mobile phones are not allowed in class and must be on silent and in bags. You can work from a tablet or laptop, but please do not use it to look up unrelated material while in class. Part of participation is also paying attention to your peers and their contributions to discussion. Please minimise disruption by avoiding exiting the class where possible. Please be on time. Please check the learning site regularly – this is where new information and updates will be placed.

Assessment All written work for this class is to be submitted electronically via the learning site, and will be processed via Turnitin. This is also how comments and grades will be returned. All work must be fully referenced and include a bibliography following one of the style formats (either footnotes or in- text citations – guides are available via CEU library site). Please do not plagiarise – to do so may result in failure of the assessment or the course. Work submitted late without obtaining an extension will be subject to penalty. Extensions will be granted only in exceptional circumstances and/or where documentation is provided. If you think you need an extension, please get in touch with me as early as possible.

Participation & attendance 20% Critical commentaries (x2) 30% Research project: Research presentation 20% Research essay 30%

Participation and attendance – 20%, ongoing Active participation from all students is required. You are expected to attend every seminar and engage actively in the conversation, based on the weekly readings and your understanding/ interpretation of them. Please come to each class prepared for informed discussion – this means bring discussion questions/discussion points with you. In each class I will ask you for discussion questions.

Critical commentary 1 – end of Week 4, 15% Write a 750-1000 word critical commentary (also known as a review) of the set readings for one seminar in weeks 2-4 (inclusive).

A critical commentary asks you to critically engage with the texts under review and how they speak or relate to each other. Rather than just summarise, you should assess the contribution made and what insights it provides in the study of Transnational Feminisms.

Critical commentary 2 – end of Week 7, 15% Write a 750-1000 word critical commentary (also known as a review) of the set readings for one seminar in weeks 5-7 (inclusive).

Research project: The research project is a chance for you to explore an issue of your choosing, drawing on the themes, concepts and theories covered in the course. It is an independent research project, and you are expected to read beyond the syllabus. There are two components to the research project:

Presentation – Week 11, 20% In week 11, we will hold a mini-conference, at which each student is required to present their research essay. Presentations will be approximately 15 minutes in length, depending on the size of the class. You should: 1) provide a summary of your research question and any case study/ies; 2) outline your main contention and how you will make this case; 3) identify key sources and position your argument in relation to existing literature. This is an opportunity for you to get feedback on any issues or tensions you have come across as well. I would suggest that you think of it as presenting the final draft of your essay – not fully complete, a ‘work in progress’ to some extent, but with depth and development nonetheless.

You are required to upload a 100-200 word abstract, with title, for your presentation to the dedicated forum on the learning site by the end of week 9

Research essay – TBC, 30%, Students are required to write a final research essay on their research project of 3000 words (+/- 10%). Your essay is expected to be fully research and referenced and, where applicable, incorporate any feedback from the presentation and abstract submission.

Reading schedule

Week 1 : Introductions, theories and approaches

Seminar 1

Myra Max Feree. 2006. “Introduction.” In Global feminism: transnational women’s activism, organizing and human rights, edited by Myra Max Feree & Aili Mari Tripp, 3-16. New York: New York University Press.

Aili Mari Tripp. 2006. “The evolution of transnational feminisms: consensus, conflict, and new dynamics.” In Global feminism: transnational women’s activism, organizing and human rights, edited by Myra Max Feree & Aili Mari Tripp, 51-60. New York: New York University Press.

Seminar 2

Manisha Desai. 2015. “Critical Cartography, Theories and Praxis of Transnational Feminisms.” In The Oxford Handbook of Transnational Feminist Movements, edited by Rawwida Baksh and Wendy Harcourt, 116-130. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Valentine M. Moghadam 2015. “Transnational Feminist Activism and Movement Building.” In The Oxford Handbook of Transnational Feminist Movements, edited by Rawwida Baksh and Wendy Harcourt, 53-81. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Week 2 : Transnational movements in globalisation and neoliberalism

Seminar 1

Valentine M. Moghadam. 2005. Globalizing women: transnational feminist networks. Chapter two: Globalization and its discontents, pp. 21-49.

Inderpal Grewal and Caren Kaplan. 1994. “Introduction: transnational feminist practices and questions of postmodernity.” In Scattered Hegemonies, 1-33.

Seminar 2

Linda Carty and Chandra Talpade Mohanty. 2015. “Mapping transnational feminist engagements: neoliberalism and the politics of solidarity.” In The Oxford Handbook of Transnational Feminist Movements, 82-115.

And continuing conversation from the first seminar.

Week 3 : The politics of solidarity

Seminar 1

Maitrayee Mukhopadhyay. 2015. “Gendered citizenship in the postcolony: the challenge of transnational feminist politics.” In The Oxford Handbook of Transnational Feminist Movements.

Kiran Grewal 2012. ‘Reclaiming the voice of the ‘third world woman’’, Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 14:4, 569-590

Seminar 2

Nikita Dhawan. 2017. “The problem was not what our enemies did…”. Feminist*Innen.

Watch Nikita Dhawan lecture at CEU: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgafacZ_RuE

Week 4: Theorizing transnational feminisms

Seminar 1

Chandra Talpade Mohanty. 2013. “Transnational feminist crossings: on neoliberalism and radical critique.” Signs 38 (4): 967-991.

Serene J. Khader. 2018. Decolonizing universalism: a transnational feminist ethic. Oxford University Press. Chapter 1: Toward a decolonial feminist universalism.

Seminar 2

Guest lecture TBC

Week 5 : Transnational movement building at and within the UN

Seminar 1

Peggy Antrobus. 2004. The Global Women’s Movement: Origins, Issues and Strategies. Chapter 4: “A Decade for Women: UN Conferences, 1975-85”. London: Zed Books.

Elisabeth Friedman. 2003. “Gendering the Agenda: The Impact of the Transnational Women’s Rights Movement at the UN Conferences of the 1990s.” Women’s Studies International Forum 26 (4): 313-331.

Seminar 2

Gayatri Spivak. 1996. “‘Woman’ as theatre: United Nations Conference on Women, Beijing, 1995.” Radical Philosophy 75: 2-4.

Myra Cunningham. 2006. “Indigenous women’s visions of an inclusive feminism.” Development 49 (1): 55-59.

Beijing Declaration of Indigenous Women: http://www.ipcb.org/resolutions/htmls/dec_beijing.html

Week 6 : Localisation, translation, NGO-isation

Seminar 1

Sonia E. Alvarez. 2000. “Translating the global effects of transnational organizing on local feminist discourses and practices in Latin America.” Meridians 1(1): 29-67.

Amrita Basu. 2000. “Globalization of the local/localization of the global: mapping transnational women’s movements.” Meridians 1(1): 68-84.

Seminar 2

Sonia E. Alvarez. 1999. “Advocating feminism: the Latin American feminist NGO ‘boom’”. International Feminist Journal of Politics 1(2): 181-209.

Islah Jad, 2004. “The NGO-isation of Arab women’s movements.” IDS Bulletin 35(4): 34-42.

Srila Roy. 2017. “The positive side of co-optation? Intersectionality: a conversation between Inderpal Grewal and Srila Roy.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 19 (2): 254-262.

Week 7: Movements, regions

Seminar 1

Phillip M. Ayoub and David Paternotte. 2014. “Introduction.” In LGBT Activism and the making of Europe: a rainbow Europe?, edited by P. Ayoub and D. Paternotte, 1-17 (notes & bibliography 21-25). Palgrave Macmillan.

Ashley Currier. 2012. Out in Africa: LGBT organizing in Namibia and South Africa. University of Minnesota Press. Chapter: The rise of LGBT organizing in Namibia and South Africa, pp. 25-50).

Seminar 2

Sam Grey and Rag Patel. 2015. “Food sovereignty as decolonization: some contributions from Indigenous movements to food system and development politics.” Agriculture and Human Values 32 (3): 431-444.

Dianne Rocheleau and Padini Nirmal. 2015. “Feminist political ecologies: grounded, networked and rooted on earth.” In The Oxford Handbook of Transnational Feminist Movements, edited by Rawwida Baksh and Wendy Harcourt. Oxford University Press.

Week 8: Movements, regions cont.

Seminar 1

Guest seminar – TBC

Seminar 2 – Transnational activism in the digital age

Helen Berents. 2016. “Hashtagging girlhood: #IAmMalala, #BringBackOurGirls and gendering representations of global politics.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 18 (4): 513-527.

Hester Baer. 2015. “Redoing feminism: digital activism, body politics, and neoliberalism” Feminist Media Studies 16(1): 17-34.

Taking #metoo into global supply chains: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/88668/1/businessreview- 2018-02-05-taking-metoo-into-global-supply.pdf

The #metoo movement and postcolonial feminist dilemmas: a reflection from India: http://duckofminerva.com/2018/06/the-metoo-movement-and-postcolonial-feminist- dilemmas-reflections-from-india.html

#Metoo, feminism and anti-feminism: a reflection from Sweden: http://duckofminerva.com/2018/06/metoo-feminism-and-anti-feminism-a-reflection-from- sweden.html#more-32137

Roxanne Gay, ‘Why the #MeToo movement still has a lot left to do’, https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2018/10/212802/me-too-change-women-2018-roxane-gay

Week 9: Transnational anti-feminist movements

Seminar 1

Elżbieta Korolczuk & Agnieszka Graff. 2019. “Gender as ‘Ebola from Brussels’: the anticolonial frame and the rise of illiberal populism.” Signs 43(4): 797-821.

Conny Roggeband and Andrea Krizsán. 2018. “Reversing gender policy progress: patterns of backsliding in Central and Eastern European new democracies.” European Journal of Politics and Gender.

Sarah Smith. 2018. ‘(Anti-)Gender in International Relations’. LSE Engenderings: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/gender/2018/09/18/anti-gender-and-international-relations/

Seminar 2

Cai Wilkinson. 2018. “Mother Russia in queer peril.” In Revisiting Gendered States. Oxford University Press.

Phillip M. Ayoub. 2016. When states come out: Europe’s sexual minorities and the politics of visibility. Cambridge University Press. Chapter 6: Poland and Slovenia’s responses to international norms, pp. 158-198.

Watch: Prejudice and Pride in Hungary: Inside the far right, Aljazeera: https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/radicalised-youth/2018/10/prejudice-pride-hungary- 181029060026570.html

Week 10: Resistance and protest

Seminar 1

Judith Butler. 2016. “Rethinking vulnerability and resistance.” In Vulnerability in Resistance, edited by Judith Butler et al, 12-27. Duke University Press.

Cornwall, Andrea, Jasmine Gideon & Kalpana Wilson. 2008. “Reclaiming feminism: gender and neoliberalism.” IDS Bulletin 39(6): 1-9. https://www.ids.ac.uk/files/dmfile/bull39.6intro3.pdf

Campbell, Beatrix, 2014. ‘Neoliberal neopatriarchy: the case for gender revolution’, Open Democracy, January 6. Available at: https://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/beatrix- campbell/neoliberal-neopatriarchy-case-for-gender-revolution

Seminar 2

Discussion and reflections. Please come prepared to talk. Bring example of transnational movement, protest, something that picks up on the themes and issues discussed.

Week 11: Presentations

Week 12: NO CLASSES – Sarah at International Studies Association conference.

Please use this time to work on your final assessment.