Description
[cross-listed with SOC 3701; G/C; Social Practice minor] This course is a multidisciplinary study of feminist and gender theory and their methodologies. The central objective of this course is to foster critical reading and thought about gender and the ways it is contingent upon historical, political, cultural, economic and national contexts. We will examine issues that are central to the concerns of gender. Our class will also focus on ways that feminist movements and movements for gender equity have resisted inequalities, dismantled systems of oppression and worked to create new systems. As Maxine Hong Kingston explains, a woman warrior must “make (her) mind large, as the universe is large, so that there is room for paradoxes.” Specific attention will be given to the concept of a gender warrior who confronts and negotiates dualities and inherent paradoxes in order to forge an authentic identity and sense of self.