FEMINIST THEORIES AND MASCULINITIES

GEN&WS 444

Explores feminist theories from a broad array of disciplines and perspectives. Beginning with early feminist writings, to the significance of the Second Wave, examines consciousness raising, political pamphlets, personal manifestos, and the feminist ideology of the "personal is political." Explores work from Black feminist thought, queer theory, theory from disability studies, fat studies, ecofeminism, and transnational and global feminisms. Identifies and addresses crucial areas of contestation that punctuate the dynamic relationships among texts from past and present-the arrivals, departures, and returns-in feminist theory. Listens to voices that align and voices that dissent. Engages with the work of writers and thinkers from the past and bringing these ideas to our current cultural configurations and conceptualizations of feminism(s) and feminist movement(s).

GEN&WS 930

Research seminar on feminist theory.

GEN&WS 441

Contemporary theoretical positions and debates about feminisms in the humanities and social sciences.

GEN&WS 830

Examines assumptions and debates in contemporary theorizing about gender and women including what constitutes "good" gender and women studies' theorizing, how to recognize gender-based oppression when we see it, how gender, race, sexuality, and other hierarchies of power intersect, as well as the merits of transnational theorizing about gender and women. Explores whether gender and women's studies' theorizing is a form of activism, how to teach theory in gender and women's studies' classrooms, the value of cultivating distinct gender and women studies' methods, and other dimensions of putting gender and women's studies' theorizing into practice.

GEN&WS 547

Critically examines important issues, questions, and debates regarding intersectionality or the notion that race, gender, and sexuality, and other terrains of difference gain meaning from each other. Materials include texts, films, and other multimedia resources drawn from an array of disciplines including sociology, critical race theory, history, political theory, and cultural studies.