Instructor: Dr. Sanjam Ahluwalia 

Office: LA 232 

Phone # : 3-8709 

E-mail:Sanjam.Ahluwalia@nau.edu

Class Meetings: TTH 2.20 - 3.35; LA 204

Office Hours: TTH 12.45 - 1.45, and by appointment 
 

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course will revisit the politically charged and intellectually animated debates around nationalist movements, ideas, and theories. We will examine how nationalist movements and discourses imagine and construct national identities in specific gendered, class, race, community, and caste terms over time and space. In using gender as an analytical lens to re-evaluate nationalist politics, we will seek to understand how masculine and feminine ideals are constantly reworked to project images of strong, healthy, virile, and morally pure nations. While paying close attention to women's roles, this course seeks to do much more than merely document women's presence within nationalist movements. Rather, we aim to understand the many negotiations, compromises, and concessions women enter into with dominant nationalisms to shape political agendas. In order to facilitate our understanding of nationalisms and their gendered manifestations, we will draw upon a variety of different works by feminist scholars, political scientists, literary critics, and historians. We will also review works of fiction and films to grasp the complex ways in which nationalist identities are gendered. Geographically, we will stretch our readings to include parts of Asia, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Europe, and United States. 

COURSE STRUCTURE AND APPROACH

The class will be a combination of lectures and discussions, with expectations of increasing student participation and performance. Each student, besides being required to engage with the readings, will also choose ONE theme from the syllabus to lead class discussion. Discussion leaders are urged to meet with me or discuss over email their presentation ahead of class. Given the nature of the course and our readings, this class will work best if we are all committed to timely completion of required readings and lively intellectual conversations. While encouraging debate and critical engagement with your colleagues and instructor in the class room, proper intellectual decorum should be maintained. Please take a few minutes to carefully read over the class room management statement attached at the end of this document. 
 

READINGS

1. Anne McClintock, et al., Dangerous Liaisons: Gender, Nation and Postcolonial Perspectives (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997) (REQUIRED)
 

2. Jael Silliman and Anannya Bhattacharjee, ed., Policing the National Body: Race, Gender and Criminalization (Cambridge: South End Press, 2002) (REQUIRED)
 

3. Rokeya Sakhawat Hossian, Sultana's Dream (New York: Feminist Press, 1988). (REQUIRED) 
 

4. Yuki Tanaka, Japan's Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery and Prostitution during World War II and the US Occupation (London: Routledge, 2002). (RECOMMENDED)
 

5. Simona Sharoni, Gender and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Politics of Women's Resistance (New York: Syracuse University Press, 1995). (RECOMMENDED)
 

6. Rhoda Ann Kanaaneh, Birthing the Nation: Strategies of Palestinian Women in Israel (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002). (RECOMMENDED)
 

7. Michael Gorkin and Rafiqa Othman, Three Mothers Three Daughters: Palestinian Women's Stories ( Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996). (RECOMMENDED)
 

These texts have been ordered at the NAU Bookstore. 
 

A set of REQUIRED readings will also be placed on electronic reserve at the Cline library. The readings marked with an asterisk are additional readings for graduate students. Please make sure you keep up with these readings by checking the syllabus for the weekly assigned articles. Remember 15% of your course grade depends on completing the readings and class participation. 
 

PROVISIONAL COURSE SCHEDULE: SUBJECT TO MODIFICATION
 

August 27 Class Introduction

Cartoons and political subtexts!
 

August 29-September 3 Rethinking Theories of Nationalisms

Readings:

1. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Community: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism ( London: Verso): 1-36. (E-RESERVE)
 

2. Anne McClintock, "'No Longer in a Future Heaven': Gender, Race and Nationalism," Dangerous Liaisons.
 

3. Nira Yuval-Davis, " Theorizing Gender and Nation," Gender and Nation (London: Sage, 1997): 1-25. (E-RESERVE)

**Graduate Reading:

1. Crystal Bartolovich, "Global Capital and Transnationalism," in Henry Schwarz and Sangeeta Ray eds., A Companion to Postcolonial Studies (London: Blackwell Publishers, 2000): 126-162 (E-RESERVE)
 

2. Ida Blom, "Gender and Nation in International Comparison,"in Blom and Catherine Hall ed.,Gendered Nations: Nationalisms and Gender Order in the Long Nineteenth Century (Oxford: Berg, 2000): 3-26. (E-RESERVE)
 

September 5-12 Nationalist Politics and the Woman's Question

September 5-10 Film, Home and the World, Class Discussion September 12

Readings: 

1. Partha Chatterjee, "Nationalist Resolution of the Woman's Question," in Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid, eds., Recasting Women (New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1989):233-253; (E-RESERVE)
 

2.S. Sharoni, "Nationalisms, Gender, and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict," Gender and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (New York: Syracuse University Press, 1995): 31-55. 
 

**Graduate Reading:

1. Charu Gupta, "Mapping the Domestic Domain, in Sexuality, Obscenity, Community: Women, Muslims and the Hindu Public in Colonial India, (New Delhi: Permanent Black, 2002): 123-195. 

(E-RESERVE) 
 

September17-24 Women Imagine the Nation

September 17-19 Film, Fresh Blood; Class Discussion September 24

Readings: 

1. Rokeya Shakawat Hossain, Sultana's Dream, PP 7-18. 
 

2. Mrinalini Sinha, "The Lineage of the 'Indian' Modern: Rhetoric, Agency, and the Sarda Act in Late Colonial India," in Antoinette Burton, ed., Gender, Sexuality and Colonial Modernity (London: Routledge, 2000): 207-21 (E-RESERVE)
 

3.Ella Shohat, "Sephardim in Israel: Zionism from the Standpoint of its Jewish Victims," Dangerous Liaisons 39-68. 
 

**Graduate Reading:

1. Simona Sharoni, "Palestinian Women and the Intifada," 69-89 ; "Israeli -Jewish Women and the Intifada,"110-130 Both the readings are from Sharoni's book, Gender and the Israeli- Palestinian Conflict.
 

No class on September 26! 
 

October 1-8 Empire, Nation, and Feminism

Lecture October 1; Class Discussion October 3-8

Readings: (Choose any 3 articles from the list below)

1. Antoinette Burton, "Reading Indian Women: Feminist Periodicals and Imperial Identity," in Burton,Burden's of History: British Feminists, Indian Women, and Imperial Culture,1865-1915 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1994): 97-126 & 238-247 (E-RESERVE)
 

2. Catherine Hall, "British Cultural Identities and the Legacy of the Empire," in David Moorley and Kevin Robins eds., British Cultural Studies (New York, Oxford University Press, 2001): 27-40. (E-RESERVE)
 

3.M. Annette Jaimes with Theresa Halsey, "American Indian Women: At the Center of Indigenous Resistance in Contemporary North America." Dangerous Liaisons.
 

4. Ann Laura Stoler, "Making Empire Respectable: The Politics of Race and Sexual Morality in Twentieth Century Colonial Cultures. " Dangerous Liaisons.
 

5.. Web article: Lila Abu-Lughod, "Feminism, Nationalism, Modernity: Aysha Parla, doctoral candidate in Anthropology interviews Lila Abu-Lughod, Professor of Anthropology and Middle East Studies at New York University."

http://isim.leidenuniv.nl/newsletter/2/research/1.html
 

**Graduate Reading:

1. Audre Lorde, "Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference." 
 

2. Hazel Carby, "'On the Threshold of Woman's Era': Lynching, Empire, and Sexuality in Black Feminist Theory." 
 

3.bell hooks, "Sisterhood: Political Solidarity Between Women," these three articles are fromDangerous Liaisons. 
 

October 10-17 Sex and War

Lecture October 10-15; Film, Coming Out Under Fire; October 17 Class discussion

Readings:

1. Yuki Tanaka, Japan's Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery and Prostitution, 1-60; 84-132. 
 

2. Yoshiko Nozaki, "Feminism, Nationalism, and the Japanese Textbook Controversy over 'Comfort Women,'" in France Twine and Kathleen M. Blee, ed., Feminism and Antiracism: International Struggles for Justice (New York: New York University Press, 2001):170-192. (E-RESERVE)
 

**Graduate Reading:

1. Cynthia Enloe, "All the Men are in the Militias, All the Women are Victims: The Politics of Masculinity and Femininity in Nationalist Wars," in Lois Ann Lorentzen and Jennifer Turpin, ed., The Women and War Reader (New York: New York University Press, 1998): 50-62. (E-RESERVE)
 

October 22-24 Religion, Nationalism, and Gender

Lecture October 30; Class Discussion November 1

Readings:

1.Naheed Hasnat, "Being 'Amreekan' : Fried Chicken Versus Chicken Tikka," in Shamita Das Dasgupta, ed., A Patchwork Shawl: Chronicles of South Asian Women in America (New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 1998):33-45. (E-RESERVE)
 

2.Lila Abu-Lughood, "The Marriage of Feminism and Islamism in Egypt: Selective Repudiation as a Dynamic of Postcolonial Cultural Politics," in Lila Abu-Lughod ed., Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998): 234-269. (E-RESERVE)
 

3.Paola Bacchetta, "Communal Property/Sexual Property: On Representations of Muslim Women in a Hindu Nationalist Discourse," in Zoya Hassan ed., Forging Identities: Gender, Communities and the State (New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1994): 188-225. (E-RESERVE)
 
 
 

October 29- November 5 Sex, National Bodies, and Modernity

October 29-31 Film, Father, Son, and Holy War Class Discussion, November 5. 

Readings: E-reserve

1. Uma Chakravarti, "Inventing Saffron History: A Celibate Hero Rescues an Emasculated Nation," in Mary John and Janaki Nair, ed., A Question of Silence? The Sexual Economies of Modern India (New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1998): 216-242. (E-RESERVE)
 

2. Rhoda Ann Kanaaneh, "Modernizing the Body," in Kanaaneh, Birthing the Nation: Strategies of Palestinian Women in Israel (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002): 167-228. (E-RESERVE)
 

3.Ken Plummer, "Gay Cultures/Straight Borders," in Morley and Robins, British Cultural Studies: 387-398. (E-RESERVE)
 

***Graduate Readings:

Mrinalini Sinha, "Introduction," and Reconfiguring Hierarchies: The Illbert Bill Controversary, 1883-84," in Sinha, Colonial Masculinity: The 'Manly Englishman' and the 'effeminate Bengali' in late Nineteenth Century. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994): 1-68.
 

November 7-14 Family, Reproduction, and Nation

Lecture November 7; Class Discussion November 12-14

Readings: 

1. Andrea Smith, "Better Dead Than Pregnant: The Colonization of Native Women's Reproductive Health."
 

2. Loretta Ross, "Just Choices: Women of Color, Reproductive Health, and Human Rights." 
 

3. Syd Lindsley, "The Gendered Assault on Immigrants." 
 

4. Bestsy Hartman, "The Changing Faces of Population Control." All these articles are from Jael Silliman and Anannya Bhattacharjee, ed., Policing the National Body: Race, Gender and Criminalization (Cambridge: South End Press, 2002). 
 
 
 

November 19-26 Long Distance Nationalism and Gender Politics

Lecture November 19; November 19-21, Film, Bhaji on the Beach. Class Discussion November 26. 

Readings:

1. Salman Rushdie, "Imaginary Homeland," in Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticisms, 1981-1991 (London: Granta Books, 1991): 9-21 (E-RESERVE)
 

2. Anannya Bhattacharjee, "The Habit of Ex-Nomination, Nation, Woman, and the Indian Immigrant Bourgeoisie," in Dasgupta, A Patchwork Shawl: 163-185. (E-RESERVE)
 

3. Tariq Modood, "British Asian Identity: Something Old, Something Borrowed, Something New," inBritish Cultural Studies, 67-78. (E-RESERVE)
 

4. Kevin Robins, "To London: The City Beyond the Nation," in British Cultural Studies, 473-494. (E-RESERVE)
 

***Graduate Readings: 

Madhavi Kale, "Projecting Identities: Empire and Indentured Labor Migration from India to Trinidad and British Guiana, 1836-1885," in Peter van der Veer, eds., Nation and Migration: The Politics of Space in the South Asian Diaspora. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995): 73-92. 
 
 
 

November 28-December 3 Feminists Rethink Nationalism

Readings: 

1. Joan Scott, "Feminist Reverberations," (Berkshire Conference keynote, June 7, 2002) (E-RESERVE)
 

2. Gila Svirsky, "The Impact of Women in Black in Israel," in Lorentzen and Turpin, ed., The Women and War Reader, 329-336. (E-RESERVE). 
 

***Graduate Readings: 

Caren Kaplan and Inderpal Grewal, "Transnational Feminist Cultural Studies: Beyond the Marxism/Poststructuralism/Feminism Divides," in Kapal and Norma Alarcon, eds., Between Woman and Nation: Nationalisms, Transnational Feminisms, and the State. (Durham: Duke University Press, 1999): 349-364. 
 

REQUIREMENTS

Class Participation: Class discussions will be central to the course and, should be attended faithfully. This includes attendance and active intellectual participation in class and small group discussions. It will also include reviews of films. Class participation will contribute 15% of your class grade. 
 

Informal Writing: You will be expected to submit typed responses to the weekly readings. In this you should summarize the main arguments of the articles assigned and point out their strengths and limitations. These papers are due in class on the day of our discussions of the required readings. These papers should NOT be longer than 3-4 pages, double spaced, with one inch margins all around, and do NOT use a typeface or font above 12 points. The paper should be free of grammatical and spelling errors. No late papers will be accepted. By the end of the semester each student should have submitted a total of 6 typed papers on assigned readings. These papers will constitute 30% of the course grade.
 

Lead Class Discussion: Students will do a short oral presentation on readings from one of the course themes. This will count towards 20% of the course grade. You have to lead class discussion on a theme for which you are not submitting a written response.
 

Final Paper: This is the final requirement of the course and will make up the remaining 35% of the course grade. Students will submit a 6-8 page written response to one of the themes discussed in the course. In addition to responding to the assigned readings in the syllabus, students will be required to read 4 additional articles on the subject which they should get approved by the instructor. Please submit the list of the 5 additional articles or a book title before the Thanksgiving break. More detailed instructions on the final paper will be discussed in class before the assignment is due. 
 

COURSE GRADES

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

Class Participation 15%; Informal writing 30%; Leading Class Discussion 20%; and 

Final Paper 35%.
 

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 POLICY

TURN IN ALL ASSIGNMENTS AND HEED ALL DUE DATES-- You are responsible for knowing all due dates including schedule changes. You will lose a letter grade for each (school) day your assignment is late.
 

ATTENDANCE IS MANDATORY-- Your attendance and participation will not only affect the quality of this class, but it will also make a difference in your grade. After TWO absences you will lose half a letter grade for each additional undocumented absence !! If you are required to miss class due to medical reasons or for University related business, please make sure you submit appropriate written proof for it. 
 

COMPLETE THE READINGS BEFORE THE CLASS IN WHICH THEY ARE DISCUSSED-A significant part of your grade will be based on participation.
 

PLAGIARISM-- Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. We will talk about appropriate use of other people's thoughts and ideas. However, students should also familiarize themselves with these matters as defined by the university. IT IS THE STUDENTS' RESPONSIBILITY TO FAMILIARIZE HERSELF/HIMSELF WITH THESE MATTERS AS DEFINED BY THE UNIVERSITY. Please refer to the current NAU Student Handbook, (Appendix-F) for details on academic dishonesty.