FEMINISMS: LOCAL TO GLOBAL
The Evergreen State College, Fall 2006
Faculty: Office Mailbox Phone Email Office Hours
Lin Nelson Sem 2, E-3102 Sem 2, A-2117 X6056 nelsonl Fri. 3-4 & by appt.
Therese Saliba Sem 2, E-3106 Sem 2, A-2117 X6854 salibat Tues. 12-1 & by appt.
Class Standing: Sophomores or above; transfer students welcome.
Special Expenses: Approximately $75 winter quarter for Seattle fieldtrip
Internship Possibilities: During winter quarter with faculty approval
Spring quarter for this program has been cancelled
Program Description
This program offers an overview of the contentious and problematic constructions of gender and women’s lived experiences, both locally and globally. Drawing on environmental studies, cultural studies, and gender studies, we will examine issues of women’s bodies, health, population, human rights, and women’s involvement in social justice movements. We will also interrogate the many approaches to feminism, the methods for studying women’s lives, within contemporary global structures of power—including economic and cultural globalization, militarization, and environmental degradation.
Beginning with colonialist and “scientific” representations, we will examine the ways women have been aligned with the natural world in ethnography, literature, and film. These representations of gender, sexuality, class, culture, and national identity lay the foundation for the eroticization of inequality and the devaluing of women’s reproductive health and daily labors. We will work to disentangle woman-centered practices around the globe from culturally appropriated forms that use women symbolically and limit their power. The continuity of stereotypical images in the mass media and in public discourse often form the basis for both domestic and foreign policies in population control, women’s health, and labor practices. Significantly, such policies have often fostered global networks of resistance, which will be a central focus of this program.
Our work will therefore focus on women’s involvement and leadership in movements around environmental, social, and economic justice, cultural sovereignty, population, reproductive rights, and human rights. Much of public policy and international relations are gendered in many ways, sometimes because women are the target of population policy or more subtly because gender is an important filter for ideas and resources in development. We will explore how gender and gendered models shape policy and how these patterns have become the focus of discussion, action and resistance in communities around the world.
We will also investigate how, across distance and difference, women are exploring their relationship to environment and development (access to natural resources, environmental health risks, creation of sustainable alternatives) and building international ties and solidarity efforts. Our examination will feature women who work across borders to create and sustain movements for social justice; these case studies will likely include women’s resistance to sweatshops in free trade zones, struggles for environmental health in the face of industrial hazards, and campaigns for safe pharmaceuticals. A central focus will be on women’s opposition to militarization in the U.S. and the Middle East, in the context of global militarism and its impacts on women’s lives, work, and health.
Our analysis and experience will be developed as we study various analytic texts, oral histories, public documents, movement writings, and literature. We will work on developing skills in interviewing, expository and creative writing, policy analysis and public interest journalism. We will consult with regional analysts and activists to better understand the potential for advocacy that links a diversity of communities. We will also analyze the role of the United Nations, governments, corporations, the network of non-governmental organizations and cross-border projects, as we work to understand the conditions for and barriers to women’s well-being. Students will be involved in projects connecting them to regional networks and resources.
During winter quarter, students will work on individual or collaborative projects on women’s issues using these skills and/or intern with a women’s organization. Field Trips will include local explorations of women’s and gender-related organizations in Olympia and Seattle.
Program Readings (in order of use)
In order to have successful seminars and program discussions, you must do all the readings in a timely manner, take thoughtful notes, and reflect on the text before class. Please note that you are required to have completed the first text by the first day of class and be prepared to discuss study questions.
Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things (reprinted), Harper Perennial, 1998.
Cynthia Enloe, Bananas, Beaches & Bases, University of CA Press (1989), Updated edition, 2000.
Linda Steet, Veils and Daggers: A Century of National Geographic’s Representation of the Arab
World, Temple University, 2000.
Elizabeth Martinez, De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views for a Multi-Colored Century,
South End Press, 1998.
Bushra Rehman & Daisy Hernandez (eds), Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today’s
Feminism, Seal Press, 2002. (selections)
Women and Environments International Magazine, Eco-Feminism issue, Fall 2001; Order for $3.50 from (416-978-5259); and other selected articles.
Rosalind Petchesky, Global Prescriptions: Gendering Health and Human Rights, Zed Bks, 2003.
Jael Silliman, Marlene Gerber Fried, Loretta Ross, Elena Gutierrez, Undivided Rights: Women of
Color Organize for Reproductive Justice, South End Press, 2004.
Riverbend, Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq, Feminist Press at CUNY, 2005. (Students who have read this are encouraged to read Baghdad Burning II, due out from Feminist Press in Sept. 2006).
Wendy Hesford & Wendy Kozol (eds), Just Advocacy? Women’s Human Rights, Transnational
Feminisms, and the Politics of Representation, Rutgers University Press, 2005.
Guiding Questions
- How do images or representations of women and men serve to justify unequal power relations, reinforce patriarchy, and constrain people’s life choices? How have women used their agency to construct empowering images and narratives of their lives?
- How do we avoid the tendency of some forms of Western feminism to participate in the oppression of other women? In other words, how can we study about, learn from, and engage with other cultures, especially other women, in non-dominating ways?
- How are women’s lives shaped by the intersections of gender, sexuality and sexual orientation, class, nation, race, religion, and ecology? How do women’s responses to these positionings vary across generations?
- What are the roles of capitalist globalization, militarism, and environmental degradation in limiting women’s life choices, family roles, and work? How is gender inequality maintained through violence, structural discrimination, and differential access to power?
- How have women organized, both historically and today, to transform societies and oppressive structures? When has a “gender lens” been at the center of women’s organizing, and when have women prioritized other sites of struggle?
- How do different disciplines, intellectual and cultural traditions, and advocacy practices help us to better understand the multidimensional aspects of women’s lives?
Weekly Schedule
______
TuesdayWednesdayFriday
9:30-12 Presentation 10-1 Workshop9-11:30 Film/Images
Sem 2, E-1105 Sem 2, E-1105Sem 2 A-1105
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1-3 Seminar12:30-2:00 Seminar
Sem 2, C-2107 (Lin) Sem 2, C-2107 (Lin)
Sem 2, C-2109 (Therese)Sem 2, C-2109 (Therese)
2-3 Group synthesis
Sem 2, E-3105
Writing, Research, and Community Work
You will be expected to complete the following writing and production assignments and presentations:
1)A notecard (4 x 6 inches) with a thoughtful response to the week's readings for each seminar. Each notecard should be written in complete sentences and should answer the following questions: 1) What is the hypothesis of the text? 2) How is it supported?
3) What questions are left unanswered? Include two specific page citations from the seminar text. Notecards are due in seminar every Tues.
2) 2 Seminar papers (2-3 pages) and one seminar facilitation: Following the structure above, you will write a short summary/analysis paper of one text and use your insights to help facilitate seminar discussion in a group of 3 (approximately). Summarize a central issue of the text and how the argument is developed, then analyze the strengths and limitations of the argument. Include at least 3 citations from the text. Sign up for your text/facilitation in seminar. You will also write one additional seminar paper for a Friday seminar.
3) Cultivating a Gendered Lens: Synthesizing Fieldnotes, Library Research, and Feminist Theory (5-6 pages). You will be expected to take thorough notes during our week 1 fieldtrip in Olympia, both observational notes and notes on the various presentations. You will then apply Enloe’s “gender lens” through which she views international politics to the local Olympia landscape, making the local/global connection in feminist politics. How well does this gendered lens apply locally? How is gender analysis complicated by positions of class, race/ethnicity, nationality, sexuality in our local community? Which of Enloe’s theories apply to Olympia? Why or why not?
During week 2, you will also conduct Library Research to obtain more information on an issue that emerged during the fieldtrip. In groups, you will be introduced torelevant sources in the library research workshop, then find information to develop a brief presentation to contribute to our studies of women’s lives. This research may be a preliminary investigation of possible research topics that connect local women’s issues to the international context and theories described in Enloe’s Bananas, Beaches, and Bases. You are asked to integrate this research into your essay and to give Brief Group Presentations on Fri. Oct. 6 (specific guidelines will be handed out in class). A draft of your synthesis work is also due that day for writing workshops; Final paper (with draft and group comments) due Wed. Oct. 11.
4) Political Autobiography (3-5 pages) examining your position in relation to gender, sexual orientation, nationality, race, ethnicity, culture, class, environment and health, and/or travel (workshop Oct. 18, Draft due Oct. 20; Final Essay due Wed. Oct. 25).
5) Image & Discourse Analysis essay (5-6 pages). Analyze a specific media image of women and/or gender relations, and the discourse surrounding it. Draw on theories of representation presented in program lectures, articles, and Steet’s Veils and Daggers. You may choose an ad, news photograph and article, or something from a magazine. Incorporate a thoughtful discussion of looking relations, constructions of gender, self/other, and contexts of production and reception. You will be given a series of questions to guide your inquiry. Decoding Images workshop Oct. 25; Drafts due Tues. Oct. 31; Workshop Wed. Nov. 1; final papers due Wed. Nov. 8).
6) Feminisms Research Project and Presentation. The central goal of this quarter-long assignment is to draw connections between local and global gender issues, and to possibly develop a relationship with a community organization that may serve as a base for future work. Optimally, we will organize the projects in working groups of 3-4 students. Each project will be a collaborative effort and will explore a compelling theme or issue of interest. Students may draw upon many different approaches in this project: community-based experience, observation, oral history/interview, policy analysis, public interest science, popular education, public records and data analysis, textual analysis, documentation, artistic and filmic representation. Part of the challenge will be to apply and critically examine the value of the local-to-global (or global-to-local) framework for engaging with feminist analysis and practice. What kinds of geo-political and personal-psychological scales of analysis are part of the local-to-global feminist lens? What works and what doesn’t work in this approach? The final project includes a presentation to our program and a visual display (such as a poster, PowerPoint, performance). Project writing will involve individually written “chapters”, with a collaboratively written introduction. Plan to spend 3-4 hours/week on your research. (Abstract & Bibliography due Wed. Oct. 18; Draft of written portion dueWed. Nov. 15 for writing workshop; workshop on presentation Wed. Nov. 29; Final project due Fri. Dec. 1; Presentations Dec. 5-8)
-All papers must be written in 12 font-size (in Times or equivalent, no larger), double-spaced,with in-text citation references (MLA or Chicago style).
-All of your essays will go through two drafts and a peer review process. Please note the days in the syllabus on which you will exchange papers in advance, read, and comment on them. Bring 4-5 copies of your essay to class on Fri. Oct. 6, Fri. Oct. 20, Tues. Oct. 31, and Tues. Nov. 14, to prepare for peer-review writing groups.
Academic Honesty
The work you submit--in discussion, writing, etc.--must reflect your own ideas. When you incorporate the ideas of others, be those published authors, filmmakers, or classmates, you must acknowledge your sources. While much of the work in this program will be collaborative and the ensuing ideas will reflect the contributions of more than one person, we should get in the habit of acknowledging the people and ideas that have influenced us. Failure to cite copyrighted sources, or presentation of the work of others as one's own, is plagiarism and will be treated in accordance with the provisions of the Social Contract.
Attendance is important in lectures, seminars, and workshops. More than 2 unexcused absences may result in loss of credit. Please contact your seminar faculty if you need to miss class.
Credit Policy: Sixteen quarter hours of credit will be awarded for each quarter to every student who fulfills the requirements:
--submission of all assignments by the deadlines announced in the syllabus unless otherwise agreed upon by the student and faculty member;
--regular attendance at all class activities;
--submission of a portfolio containing all essays, including multiple drafts with peer and/or faculty comments, community and research documentation, video script.
--draft of written self-evaluation and faculty evaluation before evaluation conference.
*Other partial credit or incompletes will be awarded only under exceptional circumstances and with approval of the faculty.
WEEKLY SCHEDULE:
Week One: Women, Community & Place
September 25-28
Reading: Roy’s God of Small Things
9/26 (Tues) Introductions, orientation, discussion; Therese, “Women’s Literature and the Politics of Reception;” Lin, “Kerala: The Politcal-Economic Context”
9/26 Seminar on Roy (all)
9/27 (Wed) Planning for local journey; Video: Roy, “Instant Imperial Mix” (speech); Seminar on Roy (cont.)
9/29 (Fri) Fieldtrip through downtown Olympia, meeting with area women’s organizations
Meet at Seven Oars Park (Harrison & West Bay) at 9:30 am
Suggested Event: An Evening of Peace for Lebanon, United Churches (11th & Capitol), 7:30 pm
Week Two: Gendered Lens on International Politics
October 2-6
Reading: Enloe’s Bananas, Beaches & Bases
10/3 (Tues) Therese, “Feminist Frameworks and Foundations”; Lin, “Feminist Activism & Changing Strategies”
10/3 Seminar on Enloe (xi-150)
10/4 (Wed.) Library Workshop, building our collective knowledge
10/6 (Fri.) Presentations on Library searches; Writing Groups (bring copies of paper); Film: “The Women Outside: Korean Women and the US Millitary,” dirs. J.T. Takagi & Hye Jung Park, Third World Newsreel, 1995 (52 mins.)
10/6 Seminar on Enloe (151-201)
10/6 Closing
Lin is attending Conference on Sustainability and Social Justice at Arizona State University, Phoenix 10/4-10/6.
Week Three: Representing Women & Gender
October 9-13
Reading: Steet’s Veils & Daggers & Intro. to Just Advocacy
10/10 (Tues) Therese, “Feminism, Orientalism, and Colonialist Fantasies”; Film: “Edward Said on Orientalism,” Dir. Sut Jhally, 1998 (40 min.).
10/10 Seminar on Steet (all)
10/11 (Wed) Brief workshop on Abstract writing (10-10:30)
Workshop on Anti-Oppression Communication: Lori Blewett
“Cultivating a Gendered Lens” essay due
10/13 (Fri) Film/Discussion: “On Boys, Girls & the Veil,” Dir. Yousry Nasrallah, Arab Film Distribution, 1990 (72 mins.)
10/13 Seminar on Intro. to Just Advocacy (1-29) and continued discussion of Steet
10/13 Closing: Project Groups
Week Four: Diversity in Feminism/Feminism in the Struggle for Global Justice
October 16-20
Reading: Martinez’ De Colores; selections from Colonize This (TBA)
10/17 (Tues) Class work time (9:30-10:45)
Elizabeth Martinez: “Did Gender Do a Disappearing Act? A Serious Look at Today's Priorities(11-1 in Lecture Hall 1)
10/17 Seminar on Martinez (1:30-3)
10/18 (Wed) Book seminar with Martinez (TBA); Workshop: Writing Political Autobiography
Research Abstract & Bibliography due
10/20 (Fri) Film: “From the Mountains to the Maquiladoras,” (25 min.), The Tennessee Industrial Renewal Network, 1993; Writing workshop—bring copies of political autobiography draft
10/20 Seminar on ColonizeThis! (to page 95) and continued discussion of Martinez
10/20 Closing
Recommended film: My Country, My Country at OFS, Oct. 22-26 (Iraq documentary: 5 pm 10/22; 6:30 10//24 & 10/26; 9 pm 10/23 & 10/25)
Week Five: Women, Land, Water, Sky—Are We Apart or A Part?
October 23-27
Reading: Women & Environments & other selections
10//24 (Tues) Lin: “Representation: Women, Ecology and Science”
10/24 Seminar on Women & Environment
10/25 (Wed) Workshop: Decoding Images, Analyzing Media (bring in images & articles)
Final Political Autobiography essay due
10/27 (Fri) Film: “Rachel’s Daughters: Searching for the Causes of Breast Cancer,” Dir. Allie Light and Irving Saraf, Women Make Movies, 1997 (107 mins.)
10/27 Seminar on W&E and other readings
10/27 Closing
Week Six: Globalizing Body Politics
October 30- November 3
Reading: Petchesky’s Global Prescriptions
10/31 (Tues)Lin, “Politics of Reproduction, Population, Globalization” with film clips
10/31 Seminar on Petchesky (to page 187); exchange drafts of image analysis
11/1 (Wed) Film:
Writing groups on Image & Discourse Analysis
11/2 Recommended Event: “Breaking the Silence: Israeli Soldiers on Occupation” at TESC, 3:30-5 (place TBA)
11/3 (Fri) Workshop: Public Information Systems – Right-to-Know (Lee Mitchell)
11/3 Seminar on Petchesky (188-280)