WOMGEN 1200FH: Feminism in the Age of Empire

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WOMGEN 1200FH: Feminism in the Age of Empire

Mondays 9:45- 11:45 AM 

Course Description:
Debates about women's and sexual rights define almost every public debate today—from reproductive justice to healthcare for queer, trans, and gender nonconforming people, public protest, war and state violence, environmental crisis, economic development, sexual harassment, censorship, and human rights. This course critically engages the possibilities and limits of liberation through the global history of feminist ideas of freedom. It traces the complicated relationship between colonialism, slavery, racism, and feminist liberatory projects in case studies from America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East from the nineteenth century until today. Over the course of the semester, we will explore key questions: How has feminist thought shaped ideas of liberation in our contemporary world? What is the relationship between empire and feminism? And what is the place of decolonization, antiracism, and decarceration in global feminist thought? We will immerse ourselves in rare materials on global, Third World, and women of color feminisms through the close reading of the archives and writings of women and LGBTQ communities from around the world. Over the course of the semester, you will build a toolkit of critical thinking and writing skills by engaging diverse primary sources, ranging from political texts, short stories, posters, movies, to human rights reports. You will come away from the course having a deeper understanding of ideas of protest, justice, and liberation that animate our past, present, and future.

Keywords: Third World, Postcolonial, and Women of Color Feminisms, Gender, Sexuality, Racism, Colonialism and Empires, Queer and Trans Rights, Immigration, Sexual Rights, Liberalism

No books are required for purchase for this class. All readings will be available through Hollis or through our course Canvas site.

Skills: 

Students will learn how to analyze primary sources and construct arguments based in diverse forms of primary source material, including diaries and journals, organizational papers, and visual and multimedia materials

Students will acquire the skills to conduct archival research at a major research library, the Schlesinger Library on the History of American Women

Students will learn key critical reading and writing skills through writing exercises, in-class workshops, and final projects

Assessments (subject to change!):
In-class Participation and Scaffolded Assignments with Schlesinger Materials:

    1. In-class participation and group exercises (20%)

    2. Weekly Response Papers/Weekly exercises and In-Class Participation, Responses Due on Canvas (20%), due weekly

    3. Primary Source Analysis from Schlesinger Library (15%)

    4. Design a Conference Project (15%)

    5. WRITE A MANIFESTO (30%)

 

Abridged reading list, including but not limited to:

Abu-Lughod, Lila. “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on

Cultural Relativism and Its Others” American Anthropologist Vol. 104, No. 3 (Sep., 2002), pp.

783-790

Burton, Antoinette. Burdens of history: British feminists, Indian women, and imperial culture, 1865-1915. University of North Carolina Press, 2000.

Combahee River Collective, 'A Black Feminist Statement'. na, 1977.

Davis, Angela. "Reflections on the Black Woman's Role in the Community of Slaves." The Black Scholar 12, no. 6 (1981): 2-15.

Djebar, Assia. Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade. Heinemann, 2003 edition.

Freedman, Estelle (ed.) The Essential Feminist Reader. Modern Library, 2007.

Hussain, Rokeya. “Sultana’s Dream” (1905)

Jordan, June. Directed by desire: The collected poems of June Jordan. Copper Canyon Press, 2007.

Koyama, Emi “The Transfeminist Manifesto,” in Catching a Wave: Reclaiming Feminism for the 21st Century, ed. Rory Dicker and Alison Piepmeier (Lebanon, NH: Northeastern University Press, 2003).

Moraga, Cherríe and Gloria Anzaldúa, eds., This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. Watertown, MA: Persephone Press, 1981.

Mayo, Katherine. Mother India: Selections from the Controversial 1927 Text, ed. by Mrinalini

Sinha. University of Michigan Press, 2000.

Mohanty, Chandra. “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses”

Boundary 2 12/13 (1984): 333-58.

Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, “Statement on the Occasion of International Women’s Day” (Afghanistan, 2004)

Sha’arawi, Huda. “Speeches at Arab Feminist Conference” (Egypt, 1944)

Zhen, He-Yin “On the Question of Women’s Liberation” (1907)

 

Film: India Cabaret (Mira Nair, 1985)