GNDR 290
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| Dr. Valerie Lehr Phone: x5677 Email: VLEHR@STLAWU.EDU Office: 84 Park Street, #203 Office Hours: Wednesday 10:00-12:00 |
| Feminist Theory is complex and developing. In fact, it is a huge body
of work, one in which there is serious disagreement and debate about what
it means to be a feminist or to engage in feminist analysis. We will read
Rosemarie Putnam Tong's Feminist Thought in order
to get a sense of the variety and complexity of feminist theory. In addition
to reading this secondary source, we will also read and discuss primary
source material. Because I want you to see how theoretical perspectives
allow one to approach concrete social issues and problems in different ways,
these primary source materials will focus on a single set of issues, those
connected to family and reproduction.
Studying theory requires that you pay close attention to both the argument that an author is making and how that author is making the argument. As you read, you should ask yourself the following: What assumptions are the starting point for her/his argument? Does s/he justify these assumptions? What theoretical traditions share the assumptions made by the author? Does the author make assumptions that others working in roughly the same theoretical tradition would question? Does the author explicitly reject other theoretical perspectives? What implications might the author's arguments have for practical decision-making and policy making? Finally, as you respond to the author, you should ask similar questions of yourself. Throughout the course of the semester, you will having writing and oral assignments that ask you to practice asking and answering questions such as these. |
| Required Texts: Tong, Rosemary, Feminist Thought Rich, Adrienne, Of Woman Born In addition, you will be required to read a number of essays that will
be on reserve in the library and one of the following: |
| Course Requirements: 1) You must come to every class with a section of the reading that you find particularly provocative or confusing marked (which also implies that you should bring your copy of the reading to class). You should be prepared to discuss why you chose this particular selection. If the passage is confusing, try to figure out why this is the case. The only unacceptable reason is that you don't know what the words mean and haven't looked them up in a dictionary. Although we will not always discuss the passages that you have identified, I will regularly begin class by asking someone to read us her/his passage. If you are unable to do this on two occasions, your participation grade will be no better than 2.0. 2) Midterm -- (15%) 3) Blackboard discussion assignment – Once during the semester, you will write a 3 page response to a current news story. You will also write responses to two of the stories/responses (about 2 pages each). One of these responses must be written from a particular feminist perspective. You should read through the responses regularly, since a question about one of the topics is likely to appear on the midterm or the final (or both). (15%) 4) Abstract of Rich. (5%) 5) Response to Born in Flames (5%) 6) Extra Book Writing and Presentation -- In groups of two or three read, you will read a book in addition to those required for the entire class. You will then be in charge of running a class in which discuss the main ideas of your book and involve the class in the discussion of these ideas. On the day that you will lead class, everyone will have read a chapter of the book that you will choose. For this assignment, you must: 1) individually write an abstract of your book; 2) as a group, lead the class in a manner that makes connections between your book and the theory that we studied; 3) individually write a 2-3 page response to the class for which you are responsible in which you discuss what went well, what didn’t go so well, what you might do differently if you were to do this again. (25%) 7) Final Exam -- The exam will consist of two sections. In the first, you will be asked to define a number of key terms. The second half will ask you to write 2 essays. The exam will be held during the scheduled time slot. You may use notes for the essay section of the exam. (20%) 8) Class Participation – I expect that you will regularly contribute to class. You will assign yourself 50% of this portion of your grade. In order to receive a 4.0 for this segment of your grade, you should: 1) attend class regularly. If you miss more than 3 classes, you will receive a 0 on the class participation portion of your grade and lose the right to assign your portion of the grade; 2) you should be engaged in class, whether by speaking or listening and, occasionally, by writing; 3) you should participate in conversation in a way that indicates both that you have read and thought about the course material and that you have been paying attention to what others say; 4) you should be respectful of others in how you respond to them verbally and non-verbally. As requirement #1 states, if you fail to demonstrate that you have read on two occasions, you will not receive above a 2.0 for participation. At mid-term, we will provide one another with a grade and explanation for the grade. If our evaluations are different by more than 1.0, we will meet to try to understand why the grades are so different. (15%)
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Reading topics and assignments: 8/28 – Syllabus distribution. 9/2 – Liberal Feminism 9/4 – Liberal Feminism: Pregnancy, Gender Norms, and the Law 9/9 – Radical Feminism 9/11 – Radical Feminism and Mothering 9/16 – Radical Feminism and Mothering, cont. 9/18 – Radical Feminism and Mothering, cont. 9/23 – Abstracting and Discussing Theoretical Ideas 9/25 – Marxist and Socialist Feminism 9/30 – Marxist and Socialist Feminism: An Analysis of Discourse about Abortion Petchesky, Rosalind. 1980. "Reproductive Freedom: Beyond 'A Woman's Right to Choose'" Signs 5(4):661-685 . (Reserve) 10/2 – Identity and Political Alliance 10/7 – Radical Democracy 10/9 – Midterm review – I will be out of town, but I will give you a review sheet. If you have questions, email them to me. 10/14 – Midterm 10/21 – Psychoanalytic and Gender Feminism 10/23 -- Multicultural and Global Feminism 10/28 – Postmodern Feminism 10/30 – Postmodernism, Science, and Bodies 11/6 – Group discussion of extra book. Read your book before this group meeting. Bring copies of your abstract for your group members and for me. At your meeting: 1) discuss the abstracts; 2) discuss the ideas that you find most interesting to discuss with the class as a whole. Also, by the end of this class, you must tell me which chapter of the book you wish to assign to the class as a whole. 11/11 – Watch Born in Flames. Write a 3 page response in which you discuss connections between the film and any of the theory that we have studies throughout the semester. 11/13 – Discussion of Chodorow 11/18 – Discussion of Collins 11/20 – Discussion of Lehr 12/2 – Discussion of Schiebinger 12/4 – Review for final. |