AMS 370 Women Radicals and Reformers Tuesday and Thursday, 11:00-12:15 Professor: Julia Mickenberg Email: [email protected] Office: 456 or 420 Burdine Office phone: 232-2650 Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30-2:00 Course Description Concentrating on the twentieth century but beginning with eighteenth and nineteenth- century precedents, this course will look at traditions of women’s radical activism and female traditions of reform, using decisions and actions on the part of historical actors from the past as a lens for thinking about how to make ethical choices in the present and future. Our course will touch upon ideas about women’s citizenship from the revolutionary era to the current day, including the struggles for suffrage and equal rights; women’s role in the abolitionist, socialist, anarchist and communist movements; female activism against lynching; the settlement house movement; reproductive rights agitation; labor and welfare rights activism; the peace movement; women’s role in ethnic nationalist movements; and women’s liberation efforts in the 1970s and beyond. Throughout, we’ll attend to the ways in which backlash and the threat of backlash shaped and limited radical and reform movements. We’ll also examine aesthetic and cultural radicalism, from avant-garde writing to women advocating free speech and free love. We’ll consider the ways in which various movements took on particularly “feminine” dimensions; the dynamics between individual leadership and communal organization; the impact of race, gender, ethnicity, class, region, and sexuality on women’s individual and collective sensibilities; the interrelations between women and men in various social and cultural movements; and the variety of forms in which women’s and girls’ reformist or radical sentiments have been expressed. Our course reading load is significant but designed to give students a good sense of the range of American women’s radical and reform activism (and the ethical and moral issues these encompass), so that students can see both continuity and change over time. Assignments are designed to give students space to grapple with issues raised in the readings and in class discussions (especially as these relate to ethical and moral concerns), to offer students the opportunity for independent research on topics of interest to them related to the course, and to build writing and research skills. Students will actively contribute to course content through research and presentations to the class, through sharing their writing, and through informed participation in class discussions. Course Readings: (available from University Co-op and on Canvas) Sheila Rowbotham, Dreamers of a New Day Emma Goldman, Anarchism and Other Essays Tillie Olsen, Yonnondio Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzuldua, This Bridge Called My Back: Writings By Radical Women of Color Jessa Crispin, Why I Am Not a Feminist: A Feminist Manifesto Unless otherwise noted, additional readings, if not linked on the syllabus (see version on Canvas) are available on Canvas under “documents” Films: Paris Was a Woman She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry Digital collections (for research projects): Gerritsen collection: Women’s History online http://gerritsen.chadwyck.com.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/home.do Women and social movements http://asp6new.alexanderstreet.com.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/was2/was2.index.map.aspx Women’s Liberation Movement print culture (Duke): http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/wlmpc/Series/General%20and%20Theoretical Independent Voices http://voices.revealdigital.com/cgi-bin/independentvoices?a=p&p=home&e=-------en-20- -1--txt-txIN---------------1 Resources on Ethics Ethics Unwrapped (UT site) http://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/ WGS Librarian Gina Bastone is available as a resource for individual or group consultations. Email: [email protected] Class goals: Content goals: •By the end of the course, students should have a basic grounding in the tradition of women’s progressive and radical activism in the United States, a sense of the ways in which these traditions have foreign roots and internationalist dimensions, and a sense of how, if at all, these traditions are gendered female. •By the end of the course, students should be able to articulate ways in which women’s concerns have tended to vary according to broader historical circumstances as well as race, religion, ethnicity, class, age, and region. •By the end of the course, students will be able to discuss patterns of reaction against progressive and radical women’s activism. • Students should have some sense of links (and distinctions) between aesthetic and political radicalism. •Students should be able to draw connections between ways in which historical actors of the past grappled with ethical dilemmas and how these might be related to the ethical challenges of today. •Students should understand the difference between radicalism and reform. •Students should have a very basic understanding of terminology and some key issues in the field of Ethics. Skills goals: •Students should hone their ability to conduct primary research and analyze and evaluate sources. •Students should be able to draw connections between different sources, and different kinds of sources. •Students should improve their ability to write in a clear and organized fashion, and marshal evidence to support an argument •Students should hone their presentation skills. •Students should build their ethical reasoning skills. Flags: This course carries the Ethics and Leadership flag. Ethics and Leadership courses are designed to equip you with skills that are necessary for making ethical decisions in your adult and professional life. You should therefore expect a substantial portion of your grade to come from assignments involving ethical issues and the process of applying ethical reasoning to real-life situations. This course carries the Independent Inquiry flag. Independent Inquiry courses are designed to engage you in the process of inquiry over the course of a semester, providing you with the opportunity for independent investigation of a question, problem, or project related to your major. You should therefore expect a substantial portion of your grade to come from the independent investigation and presentation of your own work. This course carries the Writing Flag. Writing Flag courses are designed to give students experience with writing in an academic discipline. In this class, you can expect to write regularly during the semester, complete substantial writing projects, and receive feedback from your instructor to help you improve your writing. You will also have the opportunity to revise one or more assignments, and you may be asked to read and discuss your peers’ work. You should therefore expect a substantial portion of your grade to come from your written work. Writing Flag classes meet the Core Communications objectives of Critical Thinking, Communication, Teamwork, and Personal Responsibility, established by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Course requirements and procedures: 1.Informed participation in class discussions. You should come to class having done the reading assigned for that day; unless otherwise indicated, bring a copy of the assigned reading to class (readings on Canvas or posted on line can either be printed out or read from an e-reader that allows for annotation—I recommend the program i-annotate). Attendance is mandatory and your participation is vital to the success of the course. Missing more than two classes is likely to affect your grade. Missing more than six classes is grounds for failure. •In-class writing, at instructor’s discretion, will contribute to your class participation grade. 2. Weekly Canvas postings based on the readings. Each week you’ll be required to react to the readings on Canvas, discussing the ways in which the readings raise issues related to ethics, leadership, or morality. Although you should focus on the readings in the historical context they were written (or that they discuss), you are welcome to extrapolate to the present in your discussion of ethical issues raised by the readings. These responses need not be long (150-300 words) and the writing can be informal, but you should use proper grammar, spelling, and syntax, and whenever possible, use concrete examples from the readings. End by raising questions for discussion. You’re also encouraged to draw links to other weeks’ readings and, especially, to recurring themes in the course. Posts will be evaluated on a check, check plus, check minus scale, based on level of engagement with the material, the originality of your points, and your efficacy at highlighting ethical dimensions of the material. DO NOT simply summarize the readings—the point is to critically assess their significance and the issues they raise. Late posts will not be allowed, but you may miss one week without penalty; those who post every week, on time, will receive extra credit. Unless otherwise noted, Canvas posts are due by 8:00 am on Thursdays. You should also read your peers’ responses, and comment on at least one of them each week; comment need not be more than a line or two, but you might also use another person’s post as a jumping off point for your own, in which case your comment might be something to the effect of “this post provoked my own response—see below.” 3. Formal Paper 1: close reading of an assigned primary text, situating it in a social and historical context based on assigned readings and considering the larger context of women’s radicalism and reform (based on course material up to this point). 4-6 pages. Due Sunday, October 8, 5:00 pm. 4. Team Presentation: On the first or second day of class you will sign up for presentations to the class on topics of various weeks’ discussions. Done in teams of two (possibly three) people, presentations should be based on original research, but should also draw connections to the common class readings. You are responsible for evenly dividing the workload of researching, organizing, and preparing the presentation.