Spring, 2004

WGS 391 (unique 44590)

Foundations II: Theories of Knowledge and Praxis

Instructor: Katherine Arens
k.arens@mail.utexas.edu
Office: E. P. Schoch 3.128
TTH 1100 -1230P NOA 1.110

**NOTE: Many of the assignments require you to pick from among alternatives, or have just a title listed. Check the complete bibliography for details on readings.

PART ONE: Defining the Women's and Gender Studies Community: The Ethics of Embodied Research

Week 1: 20, 22 January

Setting the Stage

T

Introduction to the course: Sites and Skills

TH

Michel Foucault, "Body/Power." From Power/Knowledge (class handout)
Adrienne Rich, "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence."
Recommended background: Rosen, The World Split Open.

Week 2: 27, 29 January

T

Sandra Harding, ed. "Introduction: Is There s Feminist Method?" Feminism and Methodology: Social Science Issues
Shulamit Reinharz with Lynn Davidman. Feminist Methods in Social Research (passim -- Intro, 12 & 13 are particularly recommended)
Discussion: where do disciplinary boundaries lie, and what do they imply for individuals, what kinds of data does gender/feminist studies make available?
**ASSIGNMENT 1 DUE: personal disciplinary history assignment

TH

Gender, Knowledge, Disciplinary Practice
Nancy Tuana and Sandra Morgen, eds. Engendering Rationalities (read at least one of the 3 case studies [science, Chicana studies, Hair Testimony])
Donna Haraway, Primate Visions (excerpts)
**ASSIGNMENT 1 DUE: completion of oral history projects from last class (if needed)

PART TWO:
Research Parameters: How Gender Theory Turns into Research and Engaged Practice

Week 3: 3, 5 February

T

Epistemology of Gender: The Origin of Psycho-Social Oppression
Mary Margaret Fonow and Judith A. Cook, eds. Beyond Methodology (read at least two essays)

TH

Gunew,Sneja, ed. Feminist Knowledge: Critique and Construct
Read Gunew, "Feminist Knowledge" and one other essay of choice
Rosi Braidotti, Nomadic Subjects:
Read "Introduction: By Way of Nomadism" and skim one other section
OPTIONAL: Alcoff, Linda, and Elizabeth Potter, eds. Feminist Epistemologies
*PRÉCIS DUE: any essay

Week 4: 10, 12 February

T

GUEST SPEAKER: Lucia Gilbert, Vice-Provost and Professor of Counseling Psychology
Lucia Gilbert, "Reclaiming and Returning Gender to Context"

TH

Gender as a Research Parameter
READ AT LEAST TWO CASE STUDIES FROM AMONG:
Linda Thompson, "Conceptualizing Gender in Marriage"
Linda Thompson and Alexis J. Walker, "The Place of Feminism in Family Studies"
Janet Shibley Hyde, "Meta-Analysis and the Psychology of Gender Differences"
Laura Lein, et al. "Economic Roulette: When is a Job not a Job?"
Ronald J. Angel, et al. "Health Insurance Coverage for Children and their Caregivers in Low-Income Urban Neighborhoods." Linda M. Burton, Tet al. "The Three-City Ethnograhy: An Overview."
Feminism and Nursing. Special issue of Advances in Nursing Science

Week 5: 17, 19 February

T

Social-Science /Governmental Issues
Micaela di Leonardo, ed. Gender at the Crossroads of Knowledge
Candace West and Sarah Fenstermaker, "Accountability in Action"

TH

Legal Definitions of Gender
Zillah R. Eisenstein, The Female Body and the Law (excerpts)
Martha Hodes, ed. Sex, Love, Race: Crossing Boundaries in North American History. (your choice of legal history essay)
Janet L. Dolgin, "Family Law and the Facts of Family," in Sylvia Yanagisako and Carol Delaney, eds. Naturalizing Power
Judith Butler, "Burning Acts, Injurious Speech," in Andrew Parker and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, eds. Performativity and Performance
*PRÉCIS DUE: any essay since last précis

Week 6: 24, 26 February

T

DEBRIEF: where women's studies / theory informs my area. Your posted materials will be the basis for the discussion.
ASSIGNMENT 2 DUE: Posted on Web: problems of speaking in WS, gender studies, feminism across disciplinary lines

PART THREE: Expanding Theories and Praxes

TH

Identity Construction: Gender, Ethnicity, Race, and the Politics of Representation
Gita Rajan, "Subversive-Subaltern Identity: Indira Gandhi as the Speakiing Subject," in: Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson, eds., De/Colonizing the Subject
Chandra Talpade Mohanty, "Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses."
Sylvia Yanagisako, "Transforming Orientalism," in Sylvia Yanagisako and Carol Delaney, eds., Naturalizing Power
*Assignment 2 follow-up: you have to post comments to others essays

Week 7: 2, 4 March

T

Gendered Language, Symbolic Forms, and Rhetorical Authority
Readings:
Anuradha Dingwaney & Carol Maier, eds. Between Languages & Cultures Alice Parker, "Under the Covers . . . (Lesbian Translation)", in Susan J. Wolfe and Julia Penelope, eds, Sexual Practice, Textual Theory
*PRÉCIS DUE: any essay

TH

Sherry Simon, Gender in Translation (excerpts)
Barbara Godard, "Theorizing Feminist Discourse/Translation."
Luise von Flotow, Translation and Gender (excerpts)

Week 8: 9, 11 March

T

Activist Rhetorical Theory
Susan Gal, "Between Speech and Silence: The Problematics of Research on Language and Gender," in Micaela di Leonardo, ed., Gender at the Crossroads of Knowledge: 175-203
Teresa de Lauretis. "The Violence of Rhetoric: On Representation and Gender," in Roger N. Lancaster and Micaela di Leonardo, The Gender/Sexuality Reader

TH

Norma AlarcŪn, "Traddutora, Traditora"
James Paul Gee, Introduction to Discourse Analysis
*PRÉCIS DUE: any essay

SPRING BREAK: 15-19 March

Week 9: 23, 25 March

Case studies: Space and epistemology

T

Cultural Studies
Yanagisako and Delaney, eds. Naturalizing Power: Essays in Feminist Cultural Analysis

TH

*Assignment 4 due: abstract
Class discussion: difficulties in specifying projects.

Week 10: 30 March, 1 April

T

Feminist Pedagogy
bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress (excerts)
Paolo Friere, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (passim)

TH

Adrienne Rich, "Taking Women Students Seriously (1978)"
Wendy Luttrell, "'The Teachers, They All Had Their Pets,'" in Ruth-Ellen B. Joeres and Barbara Laslett, eds. The Second Signs Reader
*Feedback on abstracts due

Week 11: 6, 8 April

T

Performativity
Annamarie Jagnose, Queer Theory

TH

Susan J. Wolfe and Julia Penelope, eds., Sexual Practice, Textual Theory (Wolfe and Penelope, Zimmerman)
Donna Haraway, " A Cyborg Manifesto"
*Assignment 5 (Research Plan) due: and post

Week 12: 13, 15 April

T

Nina Lykke and Rosi Braidotti, eds. Between Gods, Monsters, and Cyborgs (READ ONE RESPONSE TO HARAWAY)
Judith Butler, excerpt from "Introduction" to Bodies That Matter, in Roger N. Lancaster and Micaela di Leonardo, The Gender/Sexuality Reader

TH

Discussion on Research Methods/Presentation
Be sure you check Reinharz, Feminist Methods, for inspiration
*Feedback on research plans due

Week 13: 20, 22 April

T

Music, Performance
Andrew Parker and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, eds. "Introduction," in Performativity and Performance
Corinne E. Blackmer & Patricia Juliana Smith, eds. En Travesti (excerpts)
Sheila Whiteley, ed., Sexing the Groove (musician of your choice!!)

TH

Lisbeth van Zoonen, Feminist Media Studies, passim (read around)
*PRÉCIS DUE: any essay

Week 14: 27, 29 April

T

Feminism and Historiography
Joan Wallach Scott, "Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis."
Canning, Kathleen. "Feminist History after the Linguistic Turn"

TH

Poster Session Presentations
*Assignment 6 due: Draft version posted; comments due by Wednesday, 30 April

Week 15: May 4 & 6

T

Poster Session Presentations (continued)

TH

*LAST DAY OF CLASS: Assignment 7 (CV) due

*FINAL PROJECT DUE (Assignment 8):
Official exam time: Wednesday, May 12, 7 pm. Which means I'll accept projects up to 9:00AM on Thursday, 13 May. Late projects will be docked.