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WGST-200-01 Feminist Theory
Fall only
Velez, Elizabeth
This course will examine a variety of feminist theories--from eighteenth and nineteenth century writers such as Wollstonecraft and Mill through the radical feminist discourse of Ti-Grace Atkinson and Shulamith Firestone to contemporary writers and activists. The class will focus on central and recurring debates within feminist theory and practice: debates between essentialism and social constructionism; between liberal reformism and radical transformation; between the politics of sameness and the politics of difference. We will also examine how feminist theories have attempted to reckon with the challenges of poststructuralism and the critiques offered by women of color. The intersections of race/ethnicity and class with the category of gender will also offer a central analytic strand throughout the course. Fall.
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: WGST 140-01 Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies or permission of instructor
Sections:
WGST-200-02 Feminist Theory
Spring only
How do our bodies mediate our experiences of the world? How is the body inextricable from our sense of self? How are our bodies disciplined and regulated? How might we also craft our own bodies and engage in body politics? This course will introduce students to the ways in which these questions have been examined within feminist theory and related fields of critical thought. We will analyze the body and its political investments in relation to gender, sexuality, race, and class. Our purpose here is to deploy feminist theory in order to consider the following topical concerns: what is a body; body/knowledge and technologies; bodies and identities; ‘normal’ bodies; bodies in health and disease; bodies in consumer culture; bodies and biomedicine; and body ethics. Central to our analysis will be the questions of what is “natural” and “unnatural” about the assumed biological categories of male and female and what does it mean to be “human”. Spring
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: WGST 140-01 Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies or permission of instructor
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