Instructor: Dr. Sanjam Ahluwalia

Office: LA 232 

Phone # : 3-8709

Office Hours: TTH 12.45 - 1.45, and by appointment

E-mail: Sanjam.Ahluwalia@nau.edu

Class Meetings: LA 321; TTH 11.10-12.25

IMPORTANT: Please look at the "Northern Arizona University Policy Statements" and the "Classroom Management Statement" at the back of this document before reading the syllabus.
 

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course is designed to introduce students to themes within women's history in Asia. This is a liberal studies class bearing the thematic focus "Valuing the Diversity of Human Experience." It is in the "Cultural Understanding," distribution block. This course will address several of the essential skills which are features of the liberal studies program, including critical readings, critical and creative thinking, ethical reasoning, effective writing and oral communication. 

Covering a wide chronological time frame and large geographical areas, we will use gender as a lens to examine the past. While privileging gender as an analytical category, we will simultaneously explore how gender identities were inflected by politics of race, class, caste, community, religion, and nation, in different parts of Asia--primarily India, China, and Afghanistan. This course will also reflect upon current debates within women's history to familiarize us with some of the issues and problems that arise in re-writing the past from a gendered perspective. To facilitate our understanding of the varied historical experiences of Indian, Chinese, and Afghani women this course will use materials drawn from primary documents, academic writings, autobiography, fiction, and films. 
 

COURSE OBJECTIVES

By the end of the course students will demonstrate their understanding of the complex historical roles of women within Asian histories by writing critical commentaries on primary documents, films and works of fiction. In essay exams for the Mid-term and the Finals, they will indicate their ability to critically examine the past from a gendered perspective and identify the tools employed by women's historians to reconstruct the past. This course will also enable students to develop effective speaking and writing skills through class participation and various writing assignments
 

COURSE STRUCTURE:

The class will be a combination of lectures and discussions, with expectations of increasing student participation and performance. Students should feel free to speak their minds, but not at the expense of others' opinions and beliefs
 

TEXTBOOK AND REQUIRED MATERIALS

Barbara N. Ramusack and Sharon Sievers, Restoring Women to History: Asia. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999. REQUIRED. 

Susie Tharu and K. Lalita, Women Writing in India: Volume 1. REQUIRED

X Zhong, Some of Us. REQUIRED

Zoya, Zoya's Story: An Afghan Woman's Struggle for Freedom. REQUIRED
 

A set of REQUIRED or other RECOMMENDED readings will also be placed on reserve at the Cline library. 
 

COURSE SCHEDULE: SUBJECT TO MODIFICATION 

August 27: Course Introduction
 

August 29 & September 3: Introduction to Women's History in Asia and Issues within Women's History: We will discuss some of the significant debates within the field of women's history and trace how the field has evolved during the last two or three decades. We will examine some of the difficulties historians encounter in retrieving women's voices from the past. In seeking to understand the theoretical concerns underlying women's history, we will identify ways in which historians have undertaken to address some of these in their specific works, especially within Asian women's history.
 

Readings: Restoring Women, "Introduction," xvii-li; "Introduction," Recasting Women: Essays in Colonial History, eds., Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid. This essay will be available on E-reserve in the Cline library.
 

September 3: Class discussion of Sangari and Vaid article.
 

September 5: Introductory lecture on India. 

Chronological handout.
 

September 10 : Prescriptive Literature and Gendered Representations: We will critically examine selections from prescriptive literature to identify gendered roles assigned within Indian society. We will also watch parts of a dramatized version of the Indian epic, Mahabharata, directed by Peter Brooks. The reading material will be selected from the web and students are expected to get a print out from the web site that will be indicated in the previous class. 
 

Readings: Restoring Women, 15-35; Women Writing in India, 65-70 and 

Web Readings: Selections from Laws of Manu; Selections from the Qur'an; Selections fromArthashastra; and Kamasutra. .
 

September 12 & 17: Expressions of Women's Agency: Within the devotional traditions of Bhakti and Sufism in Medieval India, women found a platform for expressing their agency through poetry and sainthood. We will read some of the poetry written by women during this period to identify subversive expressions by women articulated within patriarchal structures. 

Readings: Restoring Women, 35-40; Selections from Women Writing in India, 82-87, 89-94. 
 

September 19-26: Reform and Recasting: This week we will examine how the various reform movements in colonial India sought to recast Indian women as symbols and repositories of Indian tradition. We will also watch the film Home and the World. 
 

Reading: Restoring Women, 41-53. Women Writing in India, 145-186; 221-235, 340-352.

Sangeeta Ray, "Woman as Nation and a Nation as Women: Tagore's The Home and the World and Hossain's Sultana's Dream," in Ray, Engendering India: Women and Nation in Colonial and Postcolonial Narratives 90-125; 175-180. Ray's article will be available on e-reserve in Cline library. 
 

October 1: Class discussion of readings and short review paper due in class. 
 

October 3: Mid Term Review. 
 

October 8: Mid-Term Exam!! PLEASE REMEMBER TO BRING BLUE BOOKS!! 
 

October 10-15: Nation and Its Women: We will discuss the role of Indian nationalism both in allowing and limiting women's participation in public sphere politics. We will study the writings of male reformers and national leaders such as Gandhi to examine how nationalism sought to recast gender roles, which in the ultimate analysis did not allow women the freedom of expression promised with swaraj, national independence. 
 

Readings: Restoring Women, 56-65; Selections from Mahatma Gandhi's writings. A selection from Gandhi's writings will be handed out in class. Madhu Kishwar, "Gandhi on Women," Economic and Political Weekly 20 (October 5 & 12): 1691-1702, 1753-1758; Urvashi Butalia, "Abducted and Widowed Women: Questions of Sexuality and Citizenship During Partition,"in Meenakshi Thapan, ed.,Embodiment: Essays on Gender and Identity (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997): 90-106. These articles will be placed on e-reserve in Cline library. 
 

October 15: Class discussion of Gandhi's writings, Madhu Kishwar, and Urvashi Butalia articles. 
 

October 17-22: Dangerous Alliances: Women and Religious Fundamentalism: We will examine how Hindu and Muslim fundamentalism have sought to represent women's issues, and why some women have embraced the sectarian ideology espoused by these groups. 
 

Readings: Paola Bacchetta, "Militant Hindu Nationalist Women Re-Imagine Themselves: Notes on Mechanisms of Expansion/Adjustment," Journal of Women's History, Vol 10, no.4, (Winter, 1999): 125-47; Zoya Hasan, "Minority Identity, State Policy and Political Process," in ed., Zoya Hasan,Forging Identities: Gender, Communities and the State, 59-73. Articles will be available on e-reserve in the Cline library.
 

October 22: Class discussion of the assigned articles and second review paper due in class. 
 

October 24: Introductory lecture on Chinese history

Chronological handouts. 
 

October 29: Prescriptive Literature and Gender Roles: We will examine traditions of Confucianism and Buddhism to determine the traditional roles assigned to women in China.
 

Readings: Restoring Women, 166-184.
 

October 30: Women as Repositories of Tradition: We will review Pan Chao's essay "Lesson's For Women," to assess the representations of women as repositories of culture and tradition within Chinese society. 
 

Readings: Restoring Women, 188- 193; Pan Chao, "Lesson's For Women." Copies of the essay will be given out in class. Zhang Zhen, "Congratulations, it's a Girl!,"in Some of Us. Film, Small Happiness. 
 

November 5: Patriarchal Mutilations: Practice of Foot-binding in Seventeenth Century China: We will critically examine the socio-cultural practice of foot-binding that sought to control female mobility and sexuality in parts of China. In seeking to evaluate this practice, emphasis will be laid on its historical specificity and the ways in which Chinese women perpetuated, subverted, and rejected the practice. In trying to understand cultural practices in parts of Asia, this course strongly discourages orientalist tendencies of exoticing or essentializing these cultures, instead it stresses the importance of a nuanced analysis which is sensitive to issues of differences and complexities within Asian histories. 
 

Readings: Dorothy Ko, "Talent, Virtue, and Beauty: Rewriting Womanhood," in her book, Teachers of the Inner Chambers: Women and Culture in Seventeenth Century China (California: Stanford University Press, 1994): 143-176. Article on e-reserve in Cline Library.
 

November 7: Institution of Marriage: Concubines as the "Other" Woman within the Chinese Household: We will examine the institution of marriage during the Sung period to understand the different roles assigned to Chinese women within the patriarchal Chinese family. In particular we will seek to understand the roles and status of concubines within the Chinese household during the Sung dynasty. 
 

Readings: Patricia B. Ebrey, "Concubines," in The Inner Quarters: Marriage and the Lives of Chinese Women in the Sung Period ( Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993): 217-234; 289-291. 
 

November12 : 

Lost Promises or Dreams Fulfilled: Women and the Chinese Revolution: We will evaluate the effects of the Chinese Revolution on women's lives, to see if gender inequalities were addressed by the revolution. We will also examine the involvement of women revolutionaries such as Ch'iu Chin and Ding Ling at different moments in the history of the revolutionary period in China. 
 

Readings: Restoring Women, 206-218; Primary Source: Selections from Mao Tse-tung, "Little Red Book;" Ch'iu Chin, "An Address to Two Hundred Million Fellow Country Women;" Ding Ling, "Thoughts on March 8." These readings will be handed out in class. 

November 14: Cultural Revolution and Politics of Gender . We will critically evaluate the dominant characterization of the cultural revolutionary period (1966-76) one which witnessed "gender erasure." Feminist historians have challenged this representation of this period of Chinese history. 
 

Readings: Yanmei Wei, "Gender and Identity in Mao's China," in Some of Us; Emily Honig, "Maoist Mappings of Gender: Reassessing the Red Guards," in Susan Brownell and Jeffrey Wasserstrom, eds., Chinese Femininities/ Chinese Masculinities: A Reader (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002): 255-268. This article will be placed on e-reserve in Cline Library. 
 

November 14: Class discussion of assigned reading and third review paper due in class.
 

November 19: Introductory lecture on Afghanistan
 

November 21: Afghan Nationalism and Women: We will critically review the roles assigned to women by Afghan nationalist leaders in the early 20^th century. 
 

Readings: Valentine Moghadam, "Nationalist Agendas and Women's Rights: Conflicts in Afghanistan in the Twentieth Century." This article will be placed on e-reserve in Cline library. 
 

November 26- 28: Afghani Women as Agents of Resistance: In this concluding section we will contrast the dominant western representations of Afghani women as victims with the life story of Zoya, a member of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). We will also reflect upon differences within feminist understandings determined by specific historical and geographical contexts to appreciate the many nuances of women's experiences across time and space.
 

Readings:Zoya's Story; Ms. Magazine, "Afghan Women: A Coalition of Hope," (Spring 2002); 

Elizabeth Miller, "An Open Letter to Ms. Magazine re: Afghan Women," Haideh Moghissi, "Islamic Feminism and its Discontents," in Feminism and Islamic Fundamentalism: The Limits of Postmodern Analysis (London: Zed Books, 1999): 125-148; Mrinalini Sinha, "How History Matters: Complicating the Categories of "Western" and "Non-Western" Feminisms," in The Social Justice Group at the Center for Advanced Feminist Studies, University of Minnesota, eds., Is Academic Feminism Dead? Theory in Practice (New York: New York University Press, 2000): 168-186. Articles will be placed on e-reserve in Cline library. 
 

November 28: Class discussion of assigned readings. Forth review paper due in class. 
 

December 3: Review Session for Final Exams.
 

Final Exam December 12: 11.10-12.25!

COURSE REQUIREMENTS: 

You are expected to engage with weekly readings carefully and critically and participate actively in class discussions. This class will also require use of internet resources. 

Review Papers: You will be expected to write short critical responses to academic articles, works of fiction, primary documents, and films. 

Mid-Term Exam: There will be an in-class mid-term exam. The format of which will be discussed in class.

Final Exam: In-class final exam will consist of essay questions drawn from a list handed out in class two weeks prior to the exam. 
 

ASSESSMENT OF OUTCOME: 

The course will use differenttypes of instruments to assess students achievement of the learning objectives. The FOUR review papers ( 10% each and 40% of the total course grade) will help students to appreciate the complex issues addressed by historiography on Asian women. This part of the course requirement will also help prepare students to effectively communicate their ideas through prose and will strengthen their writing skills. Mid-term exam (20%) and final exam (25%) together will provide students an opportunity to demonstrate their critical thinking and reasoning skills through testing their ability to make connections between historical events in different settings. Class participation (15%) will train students to articulate their own ideas clearly and promote ethical reasoning through debate and intellectual interaction with fellow class-mates and the instructor. 

LEARNING PORTFOLIO: 

The short written response papers on readings, films, and novels could be added to the students learning portfolios to effectively demonstrate their critical thinking and effective writing skills acquired through this course. 
 

COURSE GRADES: 

Grades for the course will be calculated in the following way:

Class Discussion and Particiaption15%; Review Papers 40%; Mid-term Exam 20%, and Final Exam 25%.
 

TOTAL FOR COURSE 100%

The grading scale for the course will be as follows: 

90%+ = A; 80 - 89%= B; 70-79%= C; 60-69%= D; below 60%= F.
 

COURSE POLICIES: 

ALL WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS ARE DUE IN CLASS.
 

PLEASE NOTE: I do not give extensions, incompletes, or make-up exams, except in cases allowed for by University Policy. 
 

Plagiarism or other forms of academic dishonesty will not be tolerated in any of the assignments, and will result in failing the course. Please consult the section on "Academic Integrity" in the NAU Policy Statements appended to this syllabus for further details. IT IS THE STUDENTS' RESPONSIBILITY TO FAMILIARIZE HERSELF/HIMSELF WITH THESE MATTERS AS DEFINED BY THE UNIVERSITY. 
 

ATTENDANCE AND PUNCTUALITY: 

While I will not take regular roll, frequent and repeated absence and/or lack of punctuality could effect your grade. As pointed out above 15% of your class grade will depend on participation in the various class discussions assigned in the syllabus. Whatever your reasons for arriving late or missing a class, it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to arrange to meet or call a classmate and find out what happened in that class. 
 

COURSE POLICIES

ALL WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS ARE DUE IN CLASS.