FEMINIST THEORY

FEMINIST THEORY

WSS 565 (6009)

http://www.albany.edu/faculty/jhobson/femtheory/wss565.htm

Fall 2004

Wed. 4:15-7:05 p.m.

AS 15

Instructor: Dr. Janell Hobson

Office: Social Sciences, Room 344

Phone: 442-5575 email: jhobson@albany.edu

Office Hours: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 3:00-5:00 p.m.

Description:

Through interdisciplinary and intersectional frameworks, this course will explore concepts and ideologies that articulate and define principles of feminism. We will read and view texts that challenge the centrality of gender in feminist analyses through intersections of race, class, nationality, sexuality, and empire. We will also reconstitute the political agenda of feminism as we apply a global perspective on women’s lives and blur the lines between theory and practice, academia and policy, grassroots organizing and public media.

Women’s Studies Department Goals and Learning Outcomes:

Students who graduate from our program will:
1. understand Women's Studies as an interdisciplinary field of study and research.
2. understand intersectional feminist theory at an advanced level.
3. apply feminist theory to research, scholarship, and/or creative work that engages gender, race, class, sexuality, and nation as intersectional vectors of feminist analysis.
4. learn concepts and theories of feminist pedagogy and observe feminist pedagogy in practice.

For more information, please visit: www.albany.edu/ws/graduate.html

Course Goals and Learning Outcomes:

This course will parallel departmental goals and objectives in that students will:

1. integrate diverse studies through an interdisciplinary framework – such as connecting sciences with philosophy or creative arts with public policy.

2. dismantle the intersecting ideologies of racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, imperialism, etc.

3. conceptualize feminist social justice beyond gender equity and toward community and human dignity.

4. fully participate in the teaching process as active learners, peer educators, and public scholars.

Required Texts (available at Mary Jane Books and the Book House at Stuyvesant Plaza):

Fraden, Rena. 2001. Imagining Medea: Rhodessa Jones & Theater for Incarcerated Women.

Koff, Clea. 2004. The Bone Woman: A Forensic Anthropologist’s Search for Truth in the Graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, & Kosovo.

Mohanty, Chandra. 2003. Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity.

Petchesky, Rosalind. 2003. Global Prescriptions: Gendering Health & Human Rights.

Satrapi, Marjane. 2003. Persepolis: Story of a Childhood.

Trinh, T. Minh-ha. 1990. Woman, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality & Feminism.

Young, Iris Marion. 1990. Justice and the Politics of Difference.

Requirements:

1. ATTENDANCE & PARTICIPATION (15%): fully expected of every student in order for this seminar to run successfully. You are allowed 3 unexcused absences; afterwards, 2 points will be deducted for each additional absence.

2. CLASS PRESENTATION (15%): each student is required to lead at least one discussion over reading assignments through the following roles: 1.) Moderator will open with an introduction of the presenters; next, the moderator will facilitate discussion, after presenters give their response to readings, by either providing an alternative reading and/or posing 3-4 questions for general discussion. 2.) Respondent will provide a brief response to reading assignment(s) (roughly 2-3 pages, typed and double-spaced, or an improvisational response with a prepared outline); 3.) Counter-respondent will provide a counter-response to the Respondent’s views on the reading(s). Presenters should meet prior to class to prepare for this discussion.

3. ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY (10%): As part of our participation in the IROW-Women’s Studies-sponsored lecture by Cynthia Enloe, on Wednesday, September 29, in LC 20, you will be required to prepare and turn in an annotated bibliography, which will feature 5 essays/articles (you are limited to featuring only 1 online article) on the subject of Women, War, and Militarization (or the alternative, Gender and US Imperialism). This assignment is designed to prepare you for Enloe’s lecture, as well as for independent research and study as it relates to feminist theory. Articles may be found through the following databases: Women’s Studies International, EBSCOE, Project Muse, Social Sciences Abstracts, MLA Bibliography, or WorldCat. Articles in available periodicals at our library can be electronically delivered; those that are not available can be accessed through interlibrary loan. (See UAlbany’s library page for more information.)

4. BOOK REVIEW (20%): You will need to submit a review (5-8 pages, typed and double-spaced) of one book on the recommended reading list (see below; a literary or biographical title not included on the list will only be approved if recently published – earliest first publication in 2001 – and dealing with issues of gender, race, sexuality, nationality, etc.): due October 27. Submit both a hard copy and disk/CD copy (in html format). Only the top 3 reviews will be published on our class website.

5. REVIEW ESSAY (20%): You will be expected to submit a review essay (10-15 pages, typed and double-spaced) of 3-5 texts (book and/or film) studied in class: due November 17. Submit both a hard copy and disk/CD copy (in html format). Only the top 2 essays will be published on our class website.

6. CLASS CONFERENCE (20%): You will be required to organize a class conference based on this seminar. You will need to assemble panels of graduate students, accepted in our conference, who will present to the public a paper or project-in-progress based on the conference theme. Students enrolled in this class need not submit a paper abstract to participate in the conference (although you will be expected to participate as panel moderators or discussants). You will have the option of submitting a paper abstract and presenting a paper (based on this seminar or for another class). You will be given a time-table around which you will schedule panel presentations. You will also divide into smaller committees to work on this conference, such as the Publicity Committee, Selections Committee, and Scheduling Committee. The conference time table is as follows:

Friday, Dec. 3 (Humanities 354)

11:30 am – 12:30 pm – Luncheon (organized by students in WSS 360).

12:30 pm – Opening Remarks.

12:45-2:15 pm –Concurrent Sessions I (alternate Rooms – HUM 260 and HUM B39)

2:15-2:30 pm – Break.

2:30-4:00 pm –Concurrent Sessions II “ “

4:00-4:15 – Break.

4:15-5:45 pm – Concurrent Sessions III “ “

5:45 pm – Closing Remarks

7:30 pm – Evening Event (performance by students in WSS 360) – HUM B39.

Committee Tasks:

- Publicity Committee: will be expected to issue a “call-for-papers” by September 29, over email and/or through letters to professors teaching graduate seminars, flyers, or an original web page, soliciting a variety of topics and themes relating to our class conference. The conference title – “Doing Justice, Living Feminism: Practicing What We Preach” – based on our seminar, should solicit papers from other graduate seminars in the women’s studies department or through other related departments, such as Africana Studies, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, English, History, Political Science, etc. Please submit call-for-papers in class on September 22 before making it public. This “CFP” should explain the concept of the conference and request full name, paper titles, 200-word paper or project abstracts, and email addresses. Deadline for submissions: October 31. By November 19, you will be expected to further publicity with flyers and other announcements, including the distribution of conference programs the day of conference.

- Selections Committee: will be expected to review paper abstract submissions and select 18-24 of the best descriptions (if we receive less than this number, select 6-12 of the best descriptions). You will need to make final decisions of your selections by November 10. You will also be responsible for emailing to contributors acceptance/rejection letters by November 12. Full papers (6-8 pages, typed/ds) will need to be turned in by November 30, which will later be distributed to assigned panel discussants.

- Scheduling Committee: will be expected to organize panels of 2 or 3 presenters (limited to 20 minutes each) and seek members in our class to serve as moderator (introducing presenters to the audience and transitioning from presentations to question/answer or discussion) and discussant (responding in 15 minutes to key themes and arguments presented by each panelist) on each panel. The committee will also create panel titles and arrange speaker orders, different panels scheduled to different rooms during the concurrent sessions, and any multimedia equipment requested by presenters. Conference schedule should be completed before November 24. It should also be emailed to conference participants by this date. Scheduling of multimedia equipment (contact Audio-Visual Services at 442-3417) must be completed by November 30.

*All emails distributed, which pertain to the class conference, must be blind-carbon-copied to my email address: jhobson@albany.edu.

Late assignments will result in a 25% reduction from your grade for each day late; no extensions will be granted with the exception of emergencies. In addition, plagiarism is a violation of university policy, and any errors in citations and use of work that is not your own will result in a failing grade.

Course Expectations and Format:

- Prelude to each session: I will introduce a creative work (art piece or music selection) at the beginning of class (5-10 minutes), during which you will take the time to write on the subject (creatively, personally, or analytically if you wish). The creative selection will connect to the reading assignments for that day. Exceptions to this format will occur when we have a film screening (see October 27 and November 17).

- Following this prelude, students designated as class presenters for that session will lead discussion.

- Interlude to each session: after a 5-10 minute break midway through our class sessions, we will briefly discuss committees’ class conference plans before continuing with our discussion of seminar assignments.

- This course will be structured primarily around discussions. We will implement a style of discussion called “Rotating Chair.” Hence, whoever is the last to contribute to discussion is responsible for calling on the next speaker. You will be expected to maintain respect towards others in class and refrain from insulting remarks and disruptive behavior!

Course Schedule

Introduction

Sept. 1 Course overview; Film: Flag Wars.

Unit One: Theorizing across Differences, Organizing across Cultures

Sept. 8 Justice and the Politics of Difference.

Sept. 15 holiday – no class.

Sept. 22 Feminism without Borders.

Call-for-Papers Due (publicity committee)

Sept. 29 Making Feminist Sense of the War in Iraq: Cynthia Enloe, 5:30 pm, LC 20.

Annotated Bibliography Due

Unit Two: No Longer Silent … But Who Gets to Speak?

Oct. 6 Persepolis.

Oct. 13 Woman, Native, Other.

Handouts: “The Race for Theory”; “Can the Subaltern Speak?”

Oct. 20 Imagining Medea.

Oct. 27 Film: Señorita Extraviada.

Book Review Due

Unit Three: Human Rights – A Feminist Issue

Nov. 3 The Bone Woman.

Nov. 10 Global Prescriptions.

Conference Paper Selections Due (selections committee)

Nov. 17 Film: Closet Land.

Review Essay Due

Conclusion

Nov. 24 holiday – Conference Schedule Due (scheduling committee) before Nov. 24.

Dec. 1 Class conference planning; full papers given to discussants.

Dec. 8 Conference reflections and course review.