Instructor: Dr. Sanjam Ahluwalia 

Office: LA 232

Phone # : 523-8709 

E-mail: Sanjam.Ahluwalia@nau.edu

Office Hours: TTH 12.30-1.30 and by appointment

Class Meetings: LA: 200M: 3.00-5.00

Course Description: WST 600 is a graduate-level introductory course in feminist theories. We will focus on theories, conceptual developments, debates, and epistemological and methodological issues that chart the evolution of feminist theories. The course will critically interrogate the different intellectual traditions that have shaped debates and issues within feminist politics and theories. Important feminist theories examined during this semester include: liberal feminism; Marxist feminism; radical feminism; socialist feminism; postmodern feminism; and postcolonial feminism. The course will examine these traditions from an explicitly interdisciplinary perspective, highlighting the methodological contributions made by feminist scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds. 
 

One of the significant contributions of feminist scholarship and politics since the 18^th century has been to critically investigate how structures of power have been constructed in order to marginalize, devalue, and undermine women's position in the world. However, this simple position of "women" as "victim" is increasingly difficult to sustain - especially in the light of recent critiques from within the feminist tradition. Through the assigned readings and class discussions, we hope to explore more deeply the implications of deploying feminist tools from different traditions to understand women and men's varied locations within society, economy, politics, and culture. The course hopes to foster a more complex and sophisticated understanding of the interactive workings of different variables such as gender, race, class, sexuality, ethnicity, community, and nation, with attention to specific variations over time and space.
 

The course has several objectives: 1) to provide an overview of contemporary feminist theories and the authors associated with them; 2) to examine competing foundations, arguments, and positions within feminisms and their theories; 3) to develop the analytical skills needed to critically evaluate the assumptions, arguments, and debates among contemporary theorists; 4) to understand the research methodologies associated with different theoretical traditions; and 5) to apply knowledge and skills to the definition of a research problem for a seminar paper.
 

Course Texts: The following texts are required and recommended reading; they may be purchased at the NAU Bookstore. Set of essays will also be placed on electronic-reserve at Cline Library.
 

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Chandra Mohanty, Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity. Duke University Press, 2003.

Sandra Kemp and Judith Squires, eds. Feminisms. Oxford University Press, 1998.

Shahnaz Khan, Aversion and Desire: Negotiating Muslim Female Identity in Diaspora. Women's Press, 2002.

bell hooks, We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity. Routledge, 2003.

Robert Nye, Sexuality: A Reader. Oxford University Press, 1999.

Maria Lugones, Pilgrimages/Peregrinajes: Theorizing Coalition Against Multiple Oppressions. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. 2003.

Antoinette Burton, Dwelling in the Archives: Women Writing House, Home, and History in Late Colonial India. Oxford University Press, 2003.

Sandra Harding, eds., Discovering Reality: Feminist Perspectives on Epistemology, Metaphysics, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003. (Second Edition).

Lydia Sargent, eds., Women and Revolution: Discussion of the Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism. South End Press, 1996.
 
 
 

RECOMMENDED TEXTS:

Monica Ali, Brick Lane. Scribner, 2003.

Sandra Cisneros, Caramelo. Vintage Books, 2003.

Sarah Gamble, ed. The Companion to Feminism and Postfeminism. Routledge, 2002.

Reina Lewis and Sara Mills, eds., Feminist Postcolonial Theory: A Reader. Routledge, 2003.
 

Other assigned readings listed in the course calendar will be available through the Reserve Services at the Cline Library.

Requirements and Evaluation: WST 600 will be conducted as a graduate seminar, with emphasis on timely reading of all assigned materials and informed discussion of ideas and issues. Written assignments include weekly position papers. Participation will be evaluated. Students are encouraged to read carefully, to bring reading notes to class to facilitate seminar discussion (in addition to the position papers), and to incorporate previous weeks work into seminar discussions.

Evaluation is based on:
 

--participation. Evidence of preparation and active participation in class discussions will be considered in evaluating student performance. Worth 20% of your course grade.
 

--weekly position papers. These short papers (1-2 pages, typewritten) should address the assigned readings for our class session, presenting your position on issues raised by the various authors. You may summarize concepts, arguments, or debates, although the objective of your writing should be to raise questions, respond to issues you identify, and otherwise provide a critical positioning with relation to the readings. Please pay attention to staying within the stipulated word limit. These papers are due in class on day of the discussion. Please note, NO late OR e-mail submissions will be accepted! Together worth 50% of your course grade.
 

--lead class discussion. Each student will be responsible for leading one class discussion on a week of their choice. I would strongly urge students to meet with me ahead of class to go over their class plan and organization of class period for the week they choose to lead the discussion of our assigned readings. This will count 10% towards the final grade.
 

-Short end- of -term review paper. A short response paper (5-8 pages, typewritten) in which you discuss how the feminist intellectual traditions covered in the course helps understand and locate the characters in Sandra Cisneros OR Monica Ali's novels. In your reviews of the novels you should provide comparative strengths and weaknesses of the different feminist traditions that can best assess the fictional characters. Students are expected to familiarize themselves with prevailing citation styles. This will count 20% towards the final grade.
 

Grades will be assigned based on the following basis:
 

90-100% = A

80-89% = B

70-79% = C

60-69% = D

59% and below = F.
 

Course policy. Students are expected to: attend all class sessions; to observe norms of courtesy and respect for others that will facilitate serious discussion of sometimes controversial matters of policy and politics; to submit work on the dates listed in the Course Calendar; and to observe university and professional standards of academic integrity. Please see the additional university policies that are attached to the syllabus. 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 Student Handbook for further details. IT IS THE STUDENTS' RESPONSIBILITY TO FAMILIARIZE THEMSELVES WITH THESE MATTERS AS DEFINED BY THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 

Week Date Topic/Readings/Assignments
 
 
 

Week 1 January 12 Introduction to Course
 

Week 2 January 19 Martin Luther King Day-No class!
 

Week 3 January 26 Foundings: Liberal Feminism; First and Second Wave Theory and Practice

1. Mary Wollstoncraft, Vindication of the Rights of Women. (Selections-Chapters 1, 2, 13) Web reading: http://www.bartleby.com/144/ .

2. Josephine Donovan, Ch. 1 Enlightenment Liberal Feminism" in Feminist Theory: The Intellectual Traditions, 3^rd 3d. New York: Continuum, 2000. (E-Reserve).

3.Lynda Lange,"Women is not a Rational Animal: On Aristotle's Biology of Reproduction."

4.Louise Marcil-Lacoste, "The trivilaization of the Notion of Equality."

The last two readings (3 & 4) are from Harding eds., Discovering Reality.
 

Week 4 February 2 Radical Feminism

1. Rosemarie Tong, Ch. 3, "Radical Feminism on Reproduction and Mothering" and Ch. 4, "Radical Feminism on Gender and Sexuality," in Feminist Thought: A Comprehensive Introduction, 2^nd ed. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1998.(E-Reserve).

2. Kemp and Squires, Chs . 49-51, 53-54, 60.

3. Robin Morgan, "Everyman's Politics: The Democratization of Violence," in The Demon Lover: On the Sexuality of Terrorism. New York: W.W. Norton, 1989. (E-Reserve).

4. Ruth Hubbard, "Have only Men Evolved?" in Harding eds., Discovering Reality
 

Week 5 & 6 February 9-16 Marxist/Socialist Feminism

February 9

1. Lydia Sargent, "Introduction;" Heidi Hartmann, "The Unhappy Marriage;" All essays from the section "Disagreements,"in Women and Revolution.

February 16

1.Charlotte Perkins Gilman, A Feminist Challenge to the Privatized Home, in Susan Ware, ed., Modern American Women: A Documentary History. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, 1997.(E-Reserve).

Methodological and Disciplinary Issues:

2.Catherine A. MacKinnon, "Feminism, Marxism, Method, and the State: Toward Feminist Jurisprudence," Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 8:4 (1983). (E-Reserve).

3.Kum-Kum Bhavnani and Marget Coulson, "Transforming Socialist Feminism: The Challenge of Racism," Feminist Review 23 (1986). (E-Reserve).

4.Nancy Hartsock, "The Feminist Standpoint: Developing the ground for a Specifically Feminist Historical Materialism" in Harding eds., Discovering Reality.

5. Zillah Eisenstien, "Reform and/or Revolution: Towards a Unified Women's Movement." in Sargent eds., Women and Revolution.
 

Week 7 February 23 Postmodern Feminism

1.Kemp and Squires, Ch. 17 and Section 3. "Subjectivities" (Chs. 32-48).

2.Monique Deveaux, "Feminism and Empowerment: A Critical Reading of Foucault," Feminist Studies 20:2 (Summer 1994): 223-45. (E-Reserve)

3.Denise Thompson, "The Self-contradiction of 'Post-modernist' Feminism," in Diane Bell and Renate Klein, eds., Radically Speaking: Feminism Reclaimed. North Melbourne: Spinifex, 1996. (E-Reserve).

4. Sandra Harding, "Why has the Sex/Gender System Become Visible only Now?" in Harding eds., Discovering Reality.
 

Week 8 March 1 Theorizing Sexualities/Embodying Theory

1.Robert Nye, Sexuality: A Reader. Selections TBA.

Week 9 & 11 March 8 &22 Gender and Diaspora

March 8:

Monica Ali. Brick Lane OR Sandra Cisneros, Caramelo. Film, Bhaji on the Beach.

March 22:

Shahnaz Khan, Aversion and Desire: Negotiating Muslim Female Identity in the Diaspora.
 

Week 10 Spring Break! March 15-21
 

Week 12 March 29 Postcolonial Feminism

Chandra Mohanty, Feminism Without Borders.
 

Week 13 April 5 Masculinity and Women of Color

bell hooks, We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity.
 

Week 14 April 12 Postcolonial Feminist Turn in Disciplines

Antoinette Burton, Dwelling in the Archives: Women Writing House, Home, and History in Late Colonial India.
 

Week 15 April 19 Building Feminist Communities

Maria Lugones, Pilgrimages/Peregrinajes: Theorizing Coalition Against Multiple Oppressions
 

Week 16 April 26 Contemplating Future Feminist Theoretical Projects!

1.Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, "Integrating Disability, Transforming Feminist Theory," NSWA

Journal 14:3 (Fall 2002). (E-Reserve).

2.Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards, "What Is Feminism?," in Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Girous, 2000. (E-Reserve). 3.Deborah A. Miranda, "'What's Wrong with a Little Fantasy?' Storytelling from the (Still) Ivory Tower," in Gloria E. Anzaldúa and Analouise Keating, eds, This Bridge we Call Home: Radical Visions for Transformation. New York: Routledge, 2002.(E-Reserve).

4.Mary Loving Blanchard, "Poets, Lovers, and the Master's Tools: A Conversation with Audre Lorde," in Gloria E. Anzaldúa and Analouise Keating, eds, This Bridge we Call Home: Radical Visions for Transformation. New York: Routledge, 2002. (E-Reserve).

5.Joanna Kadi, "Stupidity 'Deconstructed',"327-346. (E-Reserve).
 

Final paper due in class!