UGLB 3322

Gender Beyond the West

GLOBAL STUDIES AT THE NEW SCHOOL * Spring 2017

Mon. & Wed. 3:50 - 5:30 p.m. Room 406, 66 W. 12th St.

Geeti Das [email protected] Meetings in person or on Skype by appointment. I’m also almost always available after class.

How do we think about gender beyond the Western canon? This course takes an interdisciplinary approach to question the dominance of Western gender theorizing by analyzing how and where it has been produced, and then looking at how it has been marshaled, critiqued, changed, or ignored by feminists outside “the West”. In staking out a departure from canon, this class also questions the category of “the West”, tracing convergences and solidarities among gender based theories and movements in the global south and indigenous/women of color movements in the USA and northern Europe. Outside the more dominant institutions of knowledge production, what are some ways in which gender is understood, theorized, resisted, and lived? Is the gender binary truly global? How can we think through and learn from non-binary gender based and feminist movements elsewhere? Topics covered include theories of “imperial feminism,” gender in critiques of colonialism, putting the binary in historical context, the relationship between performativity and work, and feminisms in faith-based worldviews outside Judeo-Christian traditions. Most weeks will be structured to put academic texts in conversation with theories and works produced outside the academy. In addition to regular reading responses, the class will include a collaborative project.

Course objectives The goal of this class is to familiarize you with some of the key debates on how colonialism has constructed and shaped gender; to enhance your familiarity with the process and legacies of colonialism and different gender-based interventions that aim to reconcile or subvert these legacies or simply create new ones; to engage you in critical discussion, independent research, and collaborative work; to think through ways to effectively, intentionally, and responsibly do all this; and for you to develop confidence in engaging with unfamiliar sources and regions as well as a nuanced understanding of the complexities and limits to this kind of engagement alongside its productive potential.

Where to Get the Readings All are on CANVAS organized by week under ‘Pages’. A few things to note about the readings: 1. Some of the readings are links to websites. You can generate a print-friendly version of any webpage by entering the url at https://www.printfriendly.com/. 2. Our readings include blog posts by b. binaohan, a self-published writer. While the posts assigned for this class are available online for free, I strongly encourage you to support this work by purchasing the ebook through Amazon ($2.50) at https://goo.gl/w8y16W.

Please do all the readings by Monday each week unless the syllabus specifies otherwise.

Gender Beyond the West - Spring 2017

 

Policies Specific To This Class Policies are practices meant to help facilitate the course, not to create needless difficulties. Pronouns and Pronunciation Please be mindful of everyone’s pronouns and how we pronounce our names, and feel free to point out if we make any mistakes. Cellphones No cellphone use in class, and please put your phone on silent or, if you need to be on call for any reason, put it on vibrate. If you need to call/text, feel free to step out. Laptops & Tablets I’m fine with your using these to take notes or refer to your readings in class, but if they’re becoming a distraction for anyone I will revise this policy. Accommodations I’ve included the university policy on Disabilities and Academic Accommodations at the end of this syllabus. Official channels aside, if you need me to adjust a policy or assignment for you, do bring it up to me as soon as possible we can work something out. Attendance & Lateness Because this class includes presentations and collaborative work, being present and arriving on time is not only respectful but also important for keeping us all on track. Missing Class or Assignments Due to an Emergency If you have an emergency, try to let your Advisor know as soon as possible, even if you don’t have the time to write to all your professors. You can ask your advisor to contact faculty to keep us posted. Communication I am fine with either email or Canvas messaging, so you can use either one to get in touch. I will use your newschool.edu email address to write to you. Posting on CANVAS For the short online assignments and online participation, you’ll find threads under the ‘Discussions’ tab on the left hand side. If you have other sources, news, events, projects, resources, etc. that you’d like to share, you’re more than welcome to start threads too.

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Assignments & Grading One-on-one meeting (ungraded but required) Please make an appointment to meet with me for half an hour either in person or via Skype in Week 7 or 8 (March 6 through 17). No preparation necessary.

Class Participation (20%) This class is a seminar. We will explore the readings together. You are required to do the assigned readings before each meeting and actively take part in class discussions. Participation does not only consist of answering my questions or sharing your thoughts on the general topic of the course, but involves actively listening; being respectful of disagreements; not derailing, interrupting each other or taking up too much space; discussing the readings in clear and focused ways; raising questions; asking for clarification; and being mindful of our focus on contexts and ways of thinking “beyond the West”. I’m happy to entertain alternatives to speaking in class, but please communicate with me if you want to explore this option. Alternatives could include posting relevant discussion points (before class) or links on CANVAS in the ‘Online Participation’ thread.

Two short posts on Canvas (10% each, i.e. 20% total) 1. “Bring something in”, minimum 300 words, due by 8:00 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 8. Think about the themes of the class, look at the syllabus, and write a post introducing something to us – it could be an example, a real world intervention or phenomenon, a way of thinking, an experience – that you think relates to the course. Include at least one relevant link (unless, of course, you’re drawing on personal experience). Don’t summarize it beyond one or two short sentences; focus on using your post to connect it to the course. You can be as formal or informal as you like, as long as you’re clear. 2. Follow-up to the first assignment: due by 8:00 p.m. Monday, Feb. 20. I will post a prompt online in response to your first post.

Joint Reading Presentation (20%) Starting with Week 5, every Monday two people will give a joint presentation on the readings for no more than 10 minutes. This should not be a summary. Pick up one or two tensions or commonalities that you found across the week’s readings, or talk about things that you did or didn’t find persuasive and why. You’ll be evaluated for being on topic and thoughtful, working together, and keeping to the time limit.

Critical Response Paper (15%) due in class Thursday, March 8. A 3-4 page informal critical reflection on at least two and maximum four of the longer readings. They don’t have to be from the same week. Shorter articles/blog posts don’t count towards this limit. If you have any doubts about whether a reading counts, just ask! Your paper should offer a critical examination of the texts, addressing questions that have not already been discussed extensively in class. Don’t summarize; only briefly summarize those arguments that are relevant to your chosen topic or line of questioning. You may use the readings to reflect on a contemporary issue, but you must focus primarily on the readings. Double-spaced, 12-pt. font.

 

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Final project (25%) Throughout the semester, we will set aside time to imagine, decide upon, and put together groups to work on your finals, which can be either a group project or individual projects written through collaboration. You will be graded on the content as well as the process, i.e. how well planned it is, how well it realizes the ideas that animate it, and how well you work together. I will set aside plenty of time for us to discuss this in class periodically and move the projects forward, during which we’ll also talk about reasonable criteria for grading without having to push your projects into unwieldy molds. If at any point you have any questions or concerns, please bring them up, either in class or in private.

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Reading Questions Here are a few questions that may be helpful to think about as you do the readings for each week. You’ll also find these in a discussion thread on CANVAS. Feel free to add or comment. We’ll revisit these questions in our discussions too. The Basics: What, Where, Who, How Who and what is the author writing about? In what context? Are they talking about a broad issue? How do they make their points? What points are they making? What facts and examples and arguments do they use? How would you describe their tone?

The Shadowy Figure of the Author Who is this person doing the writing? What do they tell us about themselves? How much do they make themselves visible? What is their relationship to the what they’re writing about? Are there hints in the reading that give you some insight into who this person is?

Why (for the author)? Why do you think the author is writing this? Are they writing for a cause? Against a cause or trend? Are they responding to something? What is that something?

Who does the author think you are? People have to imagine their readers when they write. Does the author seem to clearly have an intended audience in mind? What do you think the author might be assuming about their readers? (The use of ‘we’ is usually an especially good tip-off.) Do you think you could be one of the readers the author imagined?

Why (for this class)? Why are we reading this for our class? What does it have to do with gender, or “the West”, or “going beyond the West”? Can you think of any reasons why I might have decided to assign this reading along with that other one? Can you think of other things we could have read about instead?

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READING SCHEDULE

I. What does it mean to go beyond? Week 1: Introduction (Jan. 23 & 25) For W ednesday • •

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, “The Danger of a Single Story”. Online at https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en Annia Ciezadlo, ‘Paris is a city. Beirut is a ‘war zone’. Why the way we talk about those places matters.” The Washington Post, 11/17/2015. Online at goo.gl/B4nksl

Week 2: Undefining our terms (Jan. 30 & Feb. 1) •

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Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí. “Conceptualizing Gender: The Eurocentric Foundations of Feminist Concepts and the Challenge of African Epistemologies”. JENdA: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies (1999): 2-5 Uma Narayan. "Undoing The "Package Picture" Of Cultures". Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 25.4 (2000): 1083-1086. Corcoran-Nantes, Lost Voices: Central Asian Women. London: Zed Books (2005). Introduction and Chapter 1 “Seeing Through Western Eyes”.

For W ednesday •

Sally Roesch Wagner. The Untold Story of the Iroquois Influence on Early Feminists. Online at http://www.feminist.com/resources/artspeech/genwom/iroquoisinfluence.html

II. Going beyond what? Week 3: Colonialism and global capitalism (Feb. 6 & 8) • • •

Valentine M. Moghadam. “Gender and Globalization: Female Labor and Women's Mobilization”. Journal of World Systems Research Vol. 2 (1999): 367-388. W. E. B. DuBois. “White Masters of the World”. The World And Africa. New York: International Publ. (1972), pp. 16-43. b. binaohan, Womanist Musings posts, read “Cartesian dualism and the trans* body”.

Canvas Assignment 1 due online 8:00 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 8. Week 4: De-territorialization/Laying claim (Feb. 13 & 15) •

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Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert. “Decolonizing Feminism: The Homegrown Roots of Caribbean Feminism”. In López Springfield, Consuelo, ed. Daughters Of Caliban. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997, pp. 3-17. Ty P. Kawika Tengan. "Of Colonization And Pono In Hawai'i". Peace Review 16.2 (2004): 157-167. Kai Friese, “The Aryan Handshake”. Transition, no. 83 (2000): 4-35. b. binaohan, Womanist Musings posts, read “More on cis and trans* outside of the West.”

Canvas Assignment 2 due online 8:00 p.m. Monday, Feb. 20.

 

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Week 5: Science and Medicalization (Feb. 22 & 24) ***Monday is a holiday. We will have class on Friday to make up for a missed class in May. Details tbd.*** • Zine Magubane. ‘Spectacles And Scholarship: Caster Semenya, Intersex Studies, And The Problem Of Race In Feminist Theory’. Signs 39 no. 3 (2014): 761-785 • Elisabeth Sherif. “Educational Policies and the Under-Representation of Women in Scientific and Technical Disciplines in Niger”. In Catherine Wawasi Kitetu, ed., Gender, Science and Technology: Perspectives from Africa. CODESRIA Gender Series vol. 6 (2008): 49-65. • Omnia El Shakry. “Science: Medicalization, and the Female Body”. In Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures, Vol. 3: Family, Body, Sexuality and Health, ed. S. Joseph, et. al. Leiden: Brill, 2005, pp. 353-359.

III. How to “do” knowledge Week 6: Ways of knowing (Feb. 27 & Mar. 1) • • •

Patricia Hill Collins. "Toward An Afrocentric Feminist Epistemology". Oxford Reader: Feminisms. Sandra Kemp and Judith Squires, eds. Oxford University Press, 1997, pp. 198-206. Smita M. Patil 'Revitalising Dalit feminism: towards reflexive, anti-caste agency of Mang and Mahar women in Maharashtra,' Economic and Political Weekly, vol. xlviii, no. 18 (4 May 2013): 37–43. Activist writings/interviews 1. Thenmozhi Soundarajan, “Still I Rise” https://goo.gl/roCfSp 2. Babytai Kumble interview excerpts: https://goo.gl/Z6vR3e NOTE: Make sure to click the link at the end of the article to read the second part!

Critical Response Paper due at the beginning of class, Wednesday Mar. 1. Week 7: Ways of doing research (Mar. 6 & 8) •

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Filomina Chioma Steady. 'An Investigative Framework for Gender Research in Africa in the New Millennium.' In Signe Arnfred, et. al., African Gender Scholarship: Concepts, Methodologies and Paradigms. Dakar: CODESRIA (2004): 42-60. Nan Wehipeihana, Kataraina Pipi, Vivienne Kennedy, and Kirimatao Paipa. “Hinerauwhariki: Tapestries of Life for Four Maori Women in Evaluation”. In Mertens, Donna M, Fiona Cram, and Bagele Chilisa. Indigenous Pathways Into Social Research. Walnut Creek, Calif.: Left Coast Press (2013): 277-297. Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies. London: Zed Books (1999), selections tbd.

For W ednesday •

Moe Ali Nayel. “Palestinian refugees are not at your service”. Electronic Intifada, 17 May 2013. Online at: https://electronicintifada.net/content/palestinian-refugees-are-not-your-service/12464

One-on-one meetings begin this week.

Week 8: Power in language and translation (Mar. 13 & 15) • • • •

Susan Bassnett and Harish Trivedi. “Introduction: of colonies, cannibals, and vernaculars”. PostColonial Translation. London: Routledge, 2002, pp. 1-18. Wesley Thomas. "Navajo Cultural Constructions Of Gender And Sexuality". Two-Spirit People. SueEllen Jacobs and Sabine Lang, eds. University of Illinois Press, 1997. 156-173. Min Dongchao. "Toward An Alternative Traveling Theory". Signs 39.3 (2014): 584-592. b. binaohan, Womanist Musings posts, read ‘Diaspora and the Loss of Language’.

One-on-one meetings continue this week.

 

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* * * SPRING BREAK (no class Mar. 20 & 22) * * *

IV. Gender in Other Ways Week 9: Looking back (Mar. 27 & 29) • •

John Berger, Ways of Seeing. Watch all four episodes. (YouTube links on CANVAS.) Howard Chiang, “How China became a “castrated civilization” and Eunuchs a “Third Sex””. In Howard Chiang, ed., Transgender China. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan (2014): 23-66.

Week 10: Making/reclaiming histories (Apr. 3 & 5) • • •

Jai Arun Ravine. "Toms And Zees: Locating FTM Identity In Thailand". TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 1.3 (2014): 387-401. Saylesh Wesley. "Twin-Spirited Woman: Sts'iyoye Smestiyexw Slha:Li". TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 1.3 (2014): 338-351. Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí. The Invention Of Women. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997. Selections TBD.

For W ednesday • •

Shaun King. “Dylann Roof’s Journal Shows Danger In Myth Of White Jesus". January 7 2017. NY Daily News. https://goo.gl/Aa7Q2A. Zachary Kussin. "Infamous Botched Jesus Painting Now A Major Tourist Attraction". March 12 2016. New York Post. https://goo.gl/ayhD3E.

Week 11: Performance (Apr. 10 & 12) •

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Karen Nakamura & Hisako Matsuo. “Female masculinity and fantasy spaces: Transcending genders in the Takarazuka Theater and Japanese popular culture”. In Roberson, James E, and Nobue Suzuki. Men And Masculinities In Contemporary Japan. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003, pp. 59-76 Viviane Namaste. "Undoing Theory: The “Transgender Question” And The Epistemic Violence Of Anglo-American Feminist Theory". Hypatia 24.3 (2009): 11-32.

Week 12: Difficult solidarities (Apr. 17 & 19) • • •

Chowdhury, Elora Halim. Transnationalism Reversed: Women Organizing Against Gendered Violence in Bangladesh. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2011. Selections TBD. Seira Tamang. “The Politics of Conflict and Difference or the Difference of Conflict in Politics: The Women’s Movement in Nepal”. Feminist Review 91 (2009): 61-80. Alexandra Oprea. "Romani Feminism In Reactionary Times". Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 38.1 (2012): 11-21.

For W ednesday •

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Susan Muaddi Darraj. “Understanding the Other Sister: The Case of Arab Feminism”. Monthly Review, March 2002. Online at: http://monthlyreview.org/2002/03/01/understanding-the-othersister-the-case-of-arab-feminism/ "Morocco’s Indigenous Amazigh Women Unite Against Islamists And Arab Elites". 24 March 2016. Women In The World In Association With The New York Times - WITW. http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2016/03/24/matriarchal-traditions-in-north-africaunder-threat-from-islamists-and-arab-elites/.

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Week 13: Resistance (Alternative Orders) (Apr. 24) Sylvia Marcos, ‘The Zapatista Women’s Revolutionary law as it is lived today’. openDemocracy, 22 July 2014. • Additional readings TBD ***No class on Wednesday, Apr. 26, as I will be travelling for a conference.*** •

Week 14: Resistance, contd. (Tactics) (May 3) ***No class on Monday, May 1, as I will still be away.*** • Vandana Shiva and J. Bandyopadhyay. "The Evolution, Structure, And Impact Of The Chipko Movement". Mountain Research and Development 6.2 (1986). • Additional readings TBD

Week 15: Presentations (May 8 & 10) ***Course evaluations on Monday. Please bring a suitable device if you can!*** • No readings. In-class informal presentations to share and discuss your final projects. Short media clips. • Course evaluations.

Final Projects due at the beginning of class, Wednesday May 10. Week 16: Wrap-up (May 15) •

Last day of class. No readings.

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Happy summer break!

 

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General University Policies a.k.a. the fine print Your enrollment in this course is taken as tacit agreement with these university policies, whether or not you read them. So please read them! INCOMPLETES No incompletes will be given for this course without a valid medical excuse or documented emergency.

ATTENDANCE AND LATENESS Absences may justify some grade reduction. Four absences mandate a reduction of one letter grade for the course. More than four mandate a failing grade for the course, unless there are extenuating circumstances with documentation, such as extended illness, a family emergency, or a religious holiday. Significant lateness will be counted as an absence.

DISABILITIES In keeping with the University's policy of ensuring equal access for all students, if you have a disability and/or you need academic accommodations, you are welcome to meet with me privately. You will need to contact Student Disability Services (SDS) as well. SDS will conduct an intake and, if appropriate, the Director will provide an academic accommodation notification letter for you to bring to me. At that point, I will review the letter with you and discuss these accommodations in relation to the course. All such conversations will be kept confidential. You can email [email protected] or find SDS online at http://www.newschool.edu/student-disability-services/.

ACADEMIC HONESTY AND INTEGRITY Compromising your academic integrity may lead to serious consequences, including (but not limited to) one or more of the following: failure of the assignment, failure of the course, academic warning, disciplinary probation, suspension from the university, or dismissal from the university. You are responsible for understanding the University’s policy on academic honesty and integrity and you must make use of proper citations of sources for writing papers, creating, presenting, and performing your work, and doing research. It is your responsibility of students to learn the procedures for correctly and appropriately differentiating your own work from that of others. The full text of the university policy, including adjudication procedures, can be found at http://www.newschool.edu/leadership/provost/policies/. The Learning Center has resources on what plagiarism is and how to avoid it, at http://www.newschool.edu/learning- center/virtual-handout-drawer/.

“Oh God, curse the German who invented the car that carried my lover away so far.” - from I Am The Beggar of the World: Landays from Contemporary Afghanistan (2014)

 

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