Eliasova sylabus FGS-II 1
FOUNDATIONS OF GENDER STUDIES II Vera Eliasova Winter 2015 MA course, 2 credits
Class Time: TBA Place: TBA Office: TBA Office Hours: TBA Contact: TBA
Course Description:
In this course, which builds on the FGS I, we will focus on major contributions to feminist scholarship that have shaped the discipline of gender studies after the first and second waves of feminism. We will discuss especially those theories that question universalizing categories, such as the category of ‘woman’, make connections between academic disciplines and try to reach beyond the walls of academia. We will discuss the multiplicity of post 1970s feminist theories, exploring how they strive to reconceptualize major concepts such as power, agency, sexuality, language, or even the human, as well as how they seek to revamp political activism and search for new pedagogical approaches. We will also discuss breaks and continuities of the post 1970s feminist debates, trying to identify specific challenges and opportunities they still pose for scholars and activists today.
Learning Outcomes:
Students will be able to understand major theoretical concepts and debates of feminist scholarship after 1970s, question them from a variety of perspectives, and make connections between them. They will also be able to evaluate social impacts and implications of these theories. Students will also improve their skills of critical reading and analysis. Moreover, they will learn to apply their own findings from the course readings and debates to a variety of challenges of the contemporary world. Finally, students will improve their academic writing and oral presentation skills.
Course Requirements and Evaluation
Attendance and Participation: 20%
This is a discussion-based course. Therefore, you are asked to come to class prepared, having read the assigned readings in order to contribute effectively, constructively and responsibly to class discussions. Attendance is required; absences due to medical problems must be officially documented. However, missing more than 3 classes, including documented absences, may result in failing the course.
Presentation (in a group): 20%
In a group of 2-3 people, you are asked to prepare an oral presentation on a given theme scheduled for the day of your presentation. The presentation should serve as an introduction to that theme. It may take various forms; for example, it may provide a wider context for the assigned reading, a background on the author(s), presenting an in-depth analysis of a particular idea or a quotation, making specific connections between other readings covered in the course, preparing a set of questions for the class discussion, etc. The presentation should take about 10-15 minutes with all presenters participating equally. Eliasova sylabus FGS-II 2
Reaction Papers: 60 %
You are asked to write 4 reaction papers on 4 different texts (i.e. one paper reacts to one text) covered in the class. These papers will be submitted at the beginning of the class and may be shared by the class in order to start our discussion. The reaction paper is a short exercise in critical thinking, reading and writing; its goal is to offer your own analysis of the text that raises some of your concerns with the text (why it is important, what questions it raises, which ideas and concerns are central or overlooked, etc). Since the reaction paper is not just to present an individual opinion, but craft a focused analytical response, you should engage with the text closely and support ideas with textual evidence. The required length is 1-2 pages.
Weekly Schedule
Week 1.
Foucault and Feminism 1
Shane Phelan, “Foucault and Feminism,”American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 34, No. 2 (May, 1990), pp. 421-440.
Week 2.
Foucault and Feminism 2
Joan W. Scott, “The Evidence of Experience,” Critical Inquiry, Vol. 17, No. 4 (Summer, 1991), pp. 773-797.
Week 3.
Psychoanalysis and Gender
Judith Butler: “Prohibition, Psychoanalysis, and the Production of the Heterosexual Matrix,” Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York: Routledge), 1999, 45-101.
Week 4.
Feminism, Psychoanalysis, and the Gaze
Laura Mulvey: “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. ” Screen Vol. 16, No. 3 (Autumn, 1975), pp. 6-18.
Week 5.
French Feminism Eliasova sylabus FGS-II 3
Annette Kuhn: “Introduction to Hélène Cixous’s ‘Castration or Decapitation?’” Signs, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Autumn, 1981), pp. 36-40.
Hélène Cixous: “Castration or Decapitation,” trans. Annette Kuhn, Signs, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Autumn, 1981), pp. 41-55.
Week 6.
Master Class Week--No Class
Week 7.
Feminism, Writing, and Activism Across Differences
Gloria Anzaldúa. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. 2nd ed. (San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books), 1999. (selected chapters)
Week 8.
Feminism and Transculturation
Cerwonka, Allaine. “Traveling Feminist Thought: Difference and Transculturation in Central and Eastern European Feminism,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Vol. 33, No. 4, (2008), pp. 809-32.
Week 9.
Feminism, Postcolonial Critique and Secularism
Saba Mahmood, “Feminist Theory, Embodiment, and the Docile Agent: Some Reflections on the Egyptian Islamic Revival,” Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 16, No. 2 (May, 2001), pp. 202-236.
Week 10.
Posthuman Feminism
Donna Haraway: “A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s,” Feminism/Postmodernism, ed. Linda J. Nicholson (New York : Routledge, 1990), pp. 190-233.
Week 11.
Feminist Pedagogy Eliasova sylabus FGS-II 4
Elizabeth Ellsworth: “Why Doesn’t This Feel Empowering? Working Through the Repressive Myths of Critical Pedagogy” Harvard Educational Review, Vol. 59, No.3 (August, 1989), pp. 297-324.
Week 12.
Review
No new reading. Additional homework in preparation for the review may be assigned.
The syllabus is subject to change.