In this class we will explore the work such reconceptualizations do and how they are the ground upon which academic feminism and other sites of feminist knowledge making build. Women's Studies connects us to feminist communities and practices, within and also beyond the academy. In this course we will see Women's Studies as braided into many movements for social justice, and into alternative communities and visionary actions. Woven together these all constitute feminist reconceptualizations of knowledge, in the academy and in everyday life.
Enjoying epistemologies on the ground – that is, seeing reconceptualizations in action – is one way to describe what we will be doing. Intellectual "fun" is one of the goals of the course! And the topic in the news we will be playing around with are these interesting many debates on gay marriage. We will begin our having fun with making knowledge by starting off with Bechdel's comics, to savor many flavors of feminist communities.
Required Readings (available at Vertigo Books and on reserve at McKeldin):
These are required READINGS. You do have to read them. You do not have to BUY them. I will put them on reserve at McKeldin. Borrow and share with each other. However, do not wait until the last minute (the night before) to discover one is not available on reserve, etc. Be sure you have secured access LONG before we are going to read it in class. You can find out which books are on reserve from the library's web catalog. I have supplied ISBN numbers for you to order books from any source you like.
I have ordered all from Vertigo Books because I want to support the bookstore and help it to survive in College Park! It is on the corner between HW 1 and Knox Rd, across the street from the Cornerstone restaurant: 7346 Baltimore Avenue. The telephone number there is: 301.779.9300. But you need to note that Vertigo is a small independent bookstore and thus cannot issue refunds or accept returns. Their small staff and limited resources simply will not allow them to do so. Supporting them, however, works to counter the large economic consolidations of the publishing industry. They do not buy back books or make refunds. Returns will receive store credit. Any returns must be made within 15 days of purchase. Returned books must be in saleable condition with proof of purchase.
· Bechdel, A. (2005) Invasion of the Dykes to Watch Out For. Alyson. 1555838332
· Chauncey, G. (2004) Why marriage? The history shaping today's debate over gay equality. Basic. 0465009581
· Anzaldua, G. and Keating, A. (2002) This Bridge We Call Home. Routledge. 0415936829
· Weston, K. (2002) Gender in Real Time. Routledge. 0415934532
· Haraway, D. and Goodeve, T. (2000) How Like a Leaf. Routledge. 0415924030
· Duggan, L. (2003) The Twilight of Equality? Beacon. 0807079553
Summary of Assignments
Since this class meets only once a week, the assumption is that you will spend MORE time than usual reading, writing and preparing for class. Ordinarily you should budget 3 hrs of prep time for each hour of class time, so think approximately 9 hrs prep time each week. (Some of which goes into graded assignments. The more you work on these consistently each week too the better you'll be able to budget your time conveniently.)
If you have a laptop feel free to bring it to class. We do have wireless access in the building. (Obviously you don't use cell phones in class, IM on laptops, or anything else that interferes with participation.)
Each assignment is created to provide a specific learning experience. Grades necessarily matter but not as much as the experience does, and won't be emphasized. But you may come to office hours at any time to discuss grades, papers and how you are doing in the class in detail. Also note that you don't get credit for any assignment until it has been contributed on the class blog as either a Post or Comment.
There are three general sorts of learning experiences that you will participate in this semester.
(1) Summarizings:
Throughout the semester you will be working on summarizing exercises for each book. All these need to be printed out and handed in class, and also contributed to the class blog site. The site will start off as public, but soon become private as everyone accepts the Blogger invitation to become an author. You must become an author to get credit for your assignments. Some assignments will be created as Posts, some will be created as Comments. You need to be able to both Post and Comment. This means you must register ASAP at Blogger and accept the invitation to become an author when it arrives in your email. It will be sent to the same address listed for course mail, so check that too.
These summarizing exercises are not graded, but you do get points for them, and points will be deducted if they are late, even with a good excuse. They should be contributed to the blog by 2 p.m. on Wednesdays, before class begins. They won't be handed back; instead come to Katie's office hours (TWTh 11-noon) if you want to discuss them with her individually in addition to talking about them in class. The point of these assignments is to keep folks doing the work week by week, coming faithfully to class, and preparing well. Most every week you will be turning in one or two of these. Bring each of the five 2-page summary papers to class on the day we begin discussion of the book. They should be contributed to the blog by then too and you won't get credit for the assignment until they are up there.
What you do each time: In rotation several people will Post their summaries for each book and the others will post their summaries as Comments. Everyone will have a chance to do both. Sign up for your turn Posting asap. (Posting and commenting are really the same thing in this case. It's just the way it looks on the blog that's different. But you have to be an author to Post.)
Normally, a summary paper will include 3 elements:
(1) a summary of the contents of the book–approximately 3/4-1 page.
(2) insights you gathered about the book from doing specific "How to Read" exercises (from the How to Read handout. (It is also linked to the blog where you can download it in PDF). Tell us which exercises you focused on and what happened as a result.
(3) a list of topics you would like the class to discuss. Among these might be issues that were unclear, opinionated statements about what you liked and didn’t like about the book, and new information/understandings/insights gained from the book. Items 2-3 together should be about a page and need not be written in complete sentences.
Note that we will take more than one class period to discuss a number of these books. You should be able to summarize the whole book on the first day, psyching it out, and reread sections for the other days. We will talk about how to do this more specifically in class.
You will choose two of these summaries to post on Amazon.com as a review of two of our class texts, and document this in your Portfolio.
• Summaries are due: 9/19, 9/26, 10/3, 10/31, 11/5
[All together doing these exercises faithfully and well, and posting them on Amazon, will account for 1/3 of your grade]
(2) Introductions, Violated Assumptions, Group Presentations, Portfolio and Extra Credit:
• You start off the semester with the introduction of yourself. This will be contributed as a comment to the Post marked Introductions. I will start it off with an introduction of myself. You will contribute your comment ASAP. When we shift from public to private you will be asked to add to your introduction. That doesn't mean it has to have private information, it just needs to be more you want to share after meeting everyone and reading their contributions.
• For the first two books, Bechdel and Chauncey, you will formally turn in notes on violated assumptions. We will discuss how to do this in class. They will be added as comments to the Violated Assumptions Post on the blog. From then on you will be expected to add more comments with some violated assumptions for each book as they occur to you. Keep track of what you have done, you will have to turn in tallies at the end in your Portfolio.
• You and a partner will do a presentation on this bridge we call home on one of two days. You need to find a partner right away so you can begin your planning. Each pair will be assigned by lot one section of the book to be responsible for working on. You may use a format similar to the one for summarizing if you like, or you two may come up with an alternative format you think would work even better for presenting these materials to the class. One of you will contribute a Post focusing on discussion questions to the blog, the other will contribute a Comment to that Post, suggesting interesting ways to put everything in context. The two of you will develop a handout for the class and bring copies for everyone on the day of the presentation. You will present for about 10 mins and lead discussion for another 15 mins. We will have as many as 4 presentations on a day.
• You can receive extra credit (2 pts) if you create a blog for yourself when you register on Blogger; and more extra credit (8 pts) if you regularly post on it, link it to our class blog, and document it in your Portfolio.
• As you can see there are lots of different exercises, commenting and posting and presenting and handouts and so on. You will be responsible for keeping track of what needs to be done, what you have done and where it is posted, when it was turned in, presented or whatever. You will turn in this tally and any documentation in a Portfolio at the end of the class along with your Learning Analysis.
• Presentations are due either: 17 October or 24 October
[All together doing these exercises faithfully and well will account for 1/3 of your grade. Add to that any extra credit.]
(3) Learning Analysis:
This is a synthetic assignment, bringing all the learning experiences of the class together. It requires you to describe the argument of the course, report your experience of the course week by week within that argument, compare this class to other women's studies courses, analyze how this class fits into a women's studies curriculum, and to analyze the materials of the course that mattered most to you. The assignment also allows you to give feedback about how well the course worked for you and ways it didn't. / 6-8 pgs.
• The Learning Analysis is due 5 November
[This analysis accounts for 1/3 of your grade]
Wondering how grades are determined? What they mean in relation to your work?
• A work is excellent, unusually creative and/or analytically striking
• B is fine work of high quality, although not as ambitious or skilled, or, if written, as carefully edited as A work is
• C is average work fulfilling the assignment; may be hasty, if written it was probably only drafted once, showing difficulties with grammar, spelling, word choice
• D work is below average or incomplete; shows many difficulties or can't follow instructions
• F work is not sufficient to pass; unwillingness to do the work, or so many difficulties unable to complete
See http://www.womensstudies.umd.edu/wmstfac/kking/teaching/250/grades.html
for more discussion of each grade.
Reading, Writing and Presenting Assignments
Wednesday, 29 August—Introduction to the Class: active reading, feminist politics
• "How to Read" (on the blog, sent by coursemail, handed out in class)
• All the course texts as objects
• Due: contribute Introduction to blog as Comment; accept Author invitation asap
On the first day of class we will discuss all of our class texts as feminist objects circulating in the world. I will have sent out the essay "How to Read" before the first class, and we will try out these active reading suggestions as feminist practices that we will continue throughout the semester.
Wednesday, 5 September—Invasion, invasive, evading: feminist communities
• Bechdel, Invasion
• Due: violated assumptions list #1; Intro done? Author invite? FIND HER WEB SITE!
• FIND PARTNER for presentations
Alison Bechdel is an artist whose medium is comics, or, graphic novels. Her new graphic novel autobiography Fun Home is recently out. We will be reading this latest in her series Dykes to Watch Out For, in which she teases feminists and lesbians and allies of all sorts about how we interact with each other. What should a portal course in a women's studies major do with this kind of feminist art activism? How does Bechdel help us reconceptualize our own feminisms?
Wednesday, 12 September—NO CLASS, Rosh Hashanah Eve.
Wednesday, 19 September—Is Gay Marriage a Feminist Issue? How do you know?
• Chauncey, Why Marriage?
• Due: Summary paper #1 (Chauncey) and violated assumptions list #2
• FINALIZE PARTNER choices; day and section lots drawn
Chauncey is a gay male feminist scholar. This book is an unabashed work of advocacy for gay marriage. He positions gay marriage inside histories of feminism and sexuality. Bechdel clued us into the fact that not all lesbians or feminists or progressive political people are for gay marriage. What motivates differences on this issue? How is Chauncey trying to persuade these folks? What does it take to do so? What new histories did you learn reading this book? What work do you think it does well? What reconceptualizations are produced here?
Wednesday, 26 September—What does "radical" mean? What does "transformation" mean?
• Anzaldua and Keating, this bridge. Preface, Intro, Foreword, #77, #80; Psych it out
• Due: Summary paper #2 (Bridge); from now on just add violated assumptions too
Is feminism "radical"? Does this matter to you? What range of meanings does "radical" have and for whom? Why does this matter generally, or does it? What is the history behind this collection of writings? What are the histories of U.S. feminism and women of color that it includes? What other histories are missing? How does the idea of "inclusion" matter in this collection? in women's studies? in the activisms assumed here? How do you find this sort of thing out? Where are feminist histories and inclusions to be found? How will you and your partner present this material?
Wednesday, 3 October—Gender in Real Time, changes in Gender Studies Today?
• Weston, Real Time. Preface, chaps. 1, 2, 3
• Due: Summary paper #3 (Weston)
Why does Weston use the idea of "Starship Gender"? What sort of "time machine" is this book? Some of the key concepts are "time claims" and "a zero concept of gender." What does terms like this make you think about? Why is she using them? What do we do when we encounter unfamiliar knowledge? How do we cultivate curiosity rather than be intimidated? What resources do we bring to understanding feminist conversations we suddenly find ourselves in the middle of?
Wednesday, 10 October—A Global Economy now, Modern Pasts and Memory
• Weston, Real Time. chaps. 4, 5; psych it out and examine footnotes carefully
How does Weston's book help us think about who we are, who we were, who we are becoming? What tools does she give us for such explorations? Why does this matter in a women's studies curriculum? How does this connect us to other fields of study, other activisms? What does Weston's book do for us when we consider transnational feminisms and intersectional methods and identities?
Wednesday, 17 October—bridge: impact, labels, new issues; First group Presentations
• this bridge, from #1-#37, choose 10; grps do sections 1, 2, 3
• Due: partner presentations for sections 1, 2, 3
Today half of you will present your materials and lead discussion on sections from Anzaldua and Keating. What impact did the original "this bridge" book have? What did it contribute to "inclusion" in women's studies and feminist activisms? How does it connect with intersectionality? What issues do these authors see rising today and how do they suggest we take them up?
Wednesday, 24 October—i am the pivot for transformation; Second group Presentations
• this bridge, from #38-#61, choose 10; grps do sections 4, 5, 6, 7
• Due: partner presentations for sections 4, 5, 6, 7
How do we take up a call to be a pivot for transformation? What roles do women's studies majors play in these visions? How are you a agent for change yourself? What areas of change do you care about the most? What kinds of power do you have to mobilize? With whom do you make alliances for change? What theories, understandings, spiritual resources and intelligences help you?
Wednesday, 31 October—Interdisciplinarity is risky and worldly practices matter
• Haraway, How Like a Leaf
• Due: Summary paper #4 (Haraway); LOOK HER UP ON THE WEB
What do you learn about Haraway from looking her up on the web? How does that knowledge help you put this book in contexts that matter? What are some of those contexts? Compare and contrast this book to the others we have read so far. What do you notice? Why is this an interview? What workk does this book do for our better understandings of feminist theory? Where could it take us?
Wednesday, 7 November—Reconceptualizations and democracy, feminist observations
• Duggan, Equality?
• Due: Summary paper #5 (Duggan); decide which summaries you will post to Amazon
What are the cultural politics Duggan cares about? How does it compare to your own politics and observations? What forms of social justice does Duggan emphasize? How do her understandings help us consider our own desires for social justice? What does Duggan think we should be doing? What would that take? Where do you fit in? Where do you want to be?
Wednesday, 14 November—Portals: opening doors and practicing feminisms
• this bridge, from #62-#80, choose 10; psych it out for an overview; think about LA
How does this collection help us put everything we've read into perspective? What range of politics, theories, political observations, feminist interventions, and women's studies have we encountered in the class? How do we map them all? Where are we on the map? Where are you on your own maps? What analysis of our learning processes and our reconceptualizations are we creating?
Wednesday, 21 November—NO CLASS, THANKSGIVING WEEK
Wednesday, 28 November—LAST CLASS—Everything we know and care about, now more?
• Due: Learning Analysis & Portfolio; YOU MUST COME TO CLASS AND PRESENT your LA to receive your credits for this assignment
What was the argument of the course? Where did you fit into it? What books connected you to it? What happens now?
Wednesday, 5 December—NO CLASS, Hanukkah
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