Feminist Theory
SOCL 7202, Fall 2009Wednesdays, 4:30-6:30 pm
540 Holmes Hall
Professor Debra Kaufman
515 Holmes
d.kaufman@neu.edu
ex. 4270
Office Hours: Wed, 2:00-4:00 pm, or by appointment
Course Description:
This course is organized primarily around the major trends in feminist theory since the turn of the twentieth century. The primary focus of the course will be on the major intellectual and political debates and questions theorists have faced over the past thirty years, a time often characterized as the second wave of the women's liberation movement.The following questions are meant to serve as a guide for understanding some of the underlying issues relevant to both feminist theory and method and as a way of looking to some of the issues inherent in the readings for this course.
Question: If gender is key to feminist theory, how do we confront the dilemma of a universal idea of women and the historical particularities of specific women?
Question: How might feminist epistemology be troubling for feminists from groups that are not dominant (with respect to race, class, sexuality, religion, etc.)?
Question: How can feminist epistemologies make use of insights from these standpoints?
Course Requirements:
1. Attendance and participation. Absolutely necessary if a seminar is to be successful.2. Keeping up with the readings. To encourage engaged reading and to foster lively, productive discussions, each week you must prepare comments and questions about the sessions's readings. They must be one or two pages, typed, double-spaced, and turned in (emailed) at the end of class. Response papers will not be accepted later than Thursday noon.
3. Seminar facilitators. Each student must facilitate or co-facilitate at least one seminar discussion. Your presentation should be at least twenty minutes and you should distribute written questions and comments to the class to structure the discussion (all comments and questions should be distributed to the class no later than Tuesday night by 8:00 p.m.). The facilitator will have help from other students who will be prepared with their own comments and questions. The idea is to inspire lively, challenging discussions. Facilitators should briefly summarize the material but then raise issues, themes, questions, or reflections on the reading's implications for feminist theory, for work of your own, for social change, or for whatever seems pertinent to your intellectual concerns. Students should bring the readings to class for common reference points and for textual discussion if necessary.
4. A paper developed in close consultation with me is required, as all papers will have to integrate course materials, although the specific topic may be to each student's choosing. A five page proposal, four pages written with a one-page relevant bibliography is due on October 14. On November 18, each student will orally report in class on her/his topic and progress. The final paper should be double-spaced and 15 to 20 pages in length. It is due by Wednesday, December 16 (finals week).
Required Readings:
Sandra Harding, ed. The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader (2004, FST)Wendy Kolmar and Frances Bartkowski. Feminist Theory (A Reader, Third Edition, 2010, FT)
Carole McCann and Seung-kyung Kim. Feminist Theory Reader (2010, FTR)
Chandra Mohanty. Feminism without Borders (2003, FWB)
All of the required books can be purchased through Amazon.com as used books and will also be on reserve in the library. All other readings will be available online through blackboard (links within the syllabus) or through the Women's Studies Website.
Course Schedule:
September 9:Gender or Feminist Theory: A Sociological Perspective
Symposium in Gender and Society, pp. 72-123
(Volume 23, Number 1, February 2009)
September 16-23:
What is Feminist Theory? What is Feminism?
First Wave, Second Wave
From (FT): Parts I to VI1
September 30:
Feminist Standpoint Theory
All from Harding (ed.) The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader (FST):
Introduction
I. The Logic of a Standpoint
II. Identifying Standpoints
III. Controversies, Limits, Revisionings
October 7:
Beyond the Second Wave
From McCann and Kim (FTR):
Section II: Theorizing Intersecting Identities
October 14-21:
Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity
Chandra Mohanty Feminism Without Borders (FWB)
Part VII (FT)
Selections: 89, 90, 91, 97, 98, 100
October 28:
Rewriting the Body; Rethinking Sexuality
From FTR
Post structural Epistemologies
Selections: 38, 39, 40
Imagine Otherwise: Solidarity Reconsidered
Selections: 43, 45
From FT
Reread: Part VI: 73, 78, 83, 84; Part IV: 30; 31 Part IV: 43; 45; 48 Part V: 55; 60; 67
Part VII: 87, 88, 91, 93, 94, 95, 96, 99
Links:
Butler, "Imitation and Gender Insubordination"
Roscoe, "How to Become a Berdache"
Warnke, "Intersexuality and the Categories of Sex"
Phelan, "Be Coming out"
Smith, "Mistaken Identity"
November 4:
Modern or Postmodern? Natural or Only Social Sciences
Part IV (FST)
Butler "Contingent Foundations: Feminism and the Question of Postmodernism"
Benhabib, "Feminism and Postmodernism: An Uneasy Alliance"
Fraser, "False Antithesis: A Response to Benhabib and Butler"
November 11:
Veteran's Day (No School)
November 18:
Student Presentations (Paper Topics plus Outlines)
November 25:
Thanksgiving Recess
December 9:
Reflecting on the Relationship between Sociology of Gender and Feminist Theory
Reread: From FT: Part V: 56; 65; Part VI: 81; 83; 84 Part VII: 89; 94; 96
Reread: From FTR: 21; 22; 34; 38
December 16:
Reflecting on the Relationship between Feminist Theory and Feminist Method (Papers Due)
Question: (To paraphrase Audrey Lord) Can only the master's tools destroy the master's house? And if so, how are feminists to use these tools? Can there be a feminist ethnography?
Question: Is there (or can there be) a feminist method of inquiry? What is worthy of investigation? What solutions are worthy of acceptance?
Question: Can (should?) researchers be advocates? How do we reconcile these roles?