Documentation as Required:
Course Justification Below
Student Learning Objects Below
Assessment Statement In syllabus, attached
Enrollment for the last 5 years Fall 01 – 6 students
Fall 99 – 17 students
Resources No new resources
Consultation with other Departments Below
GER Justification Not Applicable
Syllabus Proposed, attached
Course Justification
Feminist thought has emerged as an important intellectual tradition within the social sciences. Graduate students in sociology need to have the option of a feminist thought course to fulfill one of their doctoral requirements for social theory. Students who are minoring in gender studies at the graduate level should have the opportunity to focus attention on theory in the social sciences. This course has been taught twice now as a special topics and has been exceedingly popular in the Sociology and Anthropology department and received favorable teaching reviews. The majority of graduate students in the doctoral program now choose the curriculum of Inequality: Gender, Race, and Class for one of their doctoral specialty areas. Each student must take two required general sociological theory courses and choose an additional course in social theory. This course fits the intellectual interests of many of our students, and is particularly appropriate for those students whose research interests are focused on inequality.
Consultation with Other Departments
This course will also fulfill the requirement for one of three graduate courses for a minor in Gender Studies at the MA or Ph.D. level.
Specific Student Learning Objectives
Students will:
1) be able to compare and contrast a variety of theoretical explanations for gender inequality.
2) be able to analyze research using a standpoint analysis.
3) be able to discuss the readings with comprehension and critically analyze the material.
4) write a final paper which applies feminist thought to a social issue or empirical question.
Sociology 704 Feminist Thought
Professor Barbara Risman Wednesday 6:00-8:50pm
1911 Building, Room 324 Harrelson 345
515-9013
email:
Office Hours: 4:00pm-6:00pm Wednesday
Course Description:
This course is designed to provide an overview of feminist thought in the social sciences. We evaluate theoretical writings on social structure, social processes the development of consciousness about gender inequality. We include both discussion of and distortions within mainstream theory and the recent development of alternative theory using the standpoint of women as a point of departure. We begin with general theoretical issues and move quickly to the complexity of matrices of domination within U.S. and global contexts.
General Requirements:
We can read books and amass facts on our own but understanding is a product of social interaction. We often don’t even know what we think about something until we hear ourselves discuss it with someone else. The main project of this course is that we all agree to read the material carefully so that when we come together as a group we can figure out what’s really being said and how to evaluate it. Thus, participation in discussion is an important obligation for all of us and will be part of the basis for the final grade.
There are two major obstacles to participation in discussion and other course requirements are designed to overcome them. One obstacle to participation in discussion is not knowing what the authors are talking about. Therefore, students will be expected to come to class having read and thought about the assigned readings for that day. To facilitate that process, students are required to prepare a written summary on each week’s readings, identifying the logic of the argument(s) made. The summaries are not to exceed 1 page per reading (maximum of 4 pages when there are multiple assigned readings) and are to be typed (12 pt.) and double-spaced. The summaries will be accepted or not based on whether the main theories have been understood. If not accepted, you will be asked to revise and resubmit it. Personal reflections are welcome, but not required.
Another obstacle to participation is intimidating social process. The usual dynamics of class discussion are organized so that each student is interacting with an authority figure, the professor, in front of an audience, the other students. Two ways of dealing with social threats built into this situation predominate. One is to refuse to say anything unless one is sure it is brilliant; thus to usually say nothing. The other is to pepper one’s speech with high level abstractions and allusions to esoteric information, hoping to hide behind the smoke screen. This is another way of saying nothing, but louder. One strategy for breaking down this obstacle is to redefine our discussions into a conversation among all of us. This implies agreeing to some ground rules for democratic discussion: no personal attacks; no attacks based on gender, class, sexual preference, or race/ethnicity; no use of terms unless one is willing to define them for the group; no reference to materials the group has not read unless one is willing to summarize their relevance.
This is a graduate seminar; we will average reading one book per week, although the course is structured into modules to allow us some flexibility to remain on a topic of particular interest and/or complexity for two or more weeks. The course will be structured into three modules, beginning with the theoretical concepts that must be understood before we have the tools to investigate substantive issues. The modules include: gender theory, matrices of domination and gender in a global context.
We will have one midterm essay exam on September 26th. The final requirement consists of a literature review or an alternative paper, due the last day of class December 5th. In the literature review, you should use feminist theoretical perspectives to take a new look at a topic of interest to the student. However, alternative final paper projects from students are welcome! More details on this will follow. A paragraph proposing a paper topic will be due no later than October 3rd.
Components of final grade:
Class discussion & Web discussion 10%
Weekly commentaries on readings 20%
Exam 35%
Final paper 35%
If you have a disability that might make it difficult to demonstrate your understanding and accomplishments in this class, please let me know as soon as possible so we can figure out what kind of accommodation is appropriate.
PLAGIARISM (the appropriation or imitation of the language, ideas, and thoughts of another person and representation of them as one’s own original work) will be treated as ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT.
Required Readings
Collins, Patricia Hill. 1998. Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for Justice. University of Minnesota Press.
Harding, Sandra. 1998. Is Science Multicultural? Post Colonialisms, Feminism, and
Epistemologies. Indiana Univ. Press
hooks, bell. 1984. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the practice of Freedom South End
Press
Hawkesworth, Mary. 1997. “Confounding Gender,” Pp. 649-686 in Signs 22(3). University
of Chicago Press.
Howard, Judith and Carolyn Allen. 2001. Feminisms at the Millenium. University of Chicago
Press.
Lorber, Judith. 1994. Paradoxes of Gender. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Myers, Kristen, Cynthia Anderson and Barbara Risman. 1997. Feminist Foundations.
Sage Press
Sprague, Joey and Diane Kobrynowicz. 1999 “A Feminist Epistemology”, Pp. 25-43 in
Handbook of the Sociology of Gender, edited by Janet Chafetz. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
Module I: Gender Theory
Feminist Foundations edited by Myers, Anderson and Risman
Paradoxes of Gender by Judith Lorber
Module II: Matrices of Domination
Fighting Words by Collins
Teaching to Transgress by hooks
Module III: Global Issues and Gender
Is Science Multicultural by Harding
Feminisms at a Millenium edited by Judith Howard and Carolyn Bell
Week 1 August 22 Introduction
Week 2 August 29 Feminist Foundations: Parts 1, 2 and 3
Prepare Abstracts for Acker, Lever and West and Zimmerman
Week 3 September 5 Feminist Foundations: Parts 4 and 5
Prepare Abstracts for Kanter, Reskin, Acker, and
Hill Collins
Week 4 September 12 Paradoxes of Gender: Chapters 1,2,3,4,5,6
Hawkesworth article
Week 5 September 19 Paradoxes of Gender: Chapters 7,8,9,10,11,12
Week 6 September 26 MIDTERM
Week 7 October 3 Sprague and Kobrynowicz Article
Fighting Words: Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4
PAPER PROPOSAL DUE
Week 8 October 10 Fighting Words: Chapters 5,6,7
Week 9 October 17 Teaching to Transgress: Chapters 1,2,3,4,5,6,7
Week 10 October 24 Teaching to Transgress: Chapters 8,9,10,11,12,13,14
Week 11 October 31 Is Science Multicultural: Chapters 1,2,3,4,5,6
Week 12 November 7 Is Science Multicultural: Chapters 7,8,9,10,11
Essays In Contemporary Sociology Millenium Issue
Week 13 November 14 Feminisms at a Millenium
Week 14 November 21 Thanksgiving Break
Week 15 November 28 Feminisms at a Millenium
Week 16 December 5 Class Presentations