Proseminar: Multicultural/Transnational Feminisms

The Proseminar: Multicultural/Transnational Feminisms explores the diversity and ambiguity of various feminisms through a number of frames, such as: postcolonialism; critical race theory; queer theory; reproductive rights and practices; environmentalism and ecofeminisms; the places of NGOs within global regimes; and problems of economic development and justice. Regional, national, and local histories, geographies, and literatures will be considered as loci of feminist action and investigation. Questions of women’s agency will be a recurring theme. Readings will be drawn from a variety of disciplines and will include both general theoretical pieces and analyses of particular cases.

Course Requirements:

All students are required to attend class meetings and take part actively in class discussions. Written work will require students to synthesize as well as analyze material. Seminar participants must also read and assimilate assigned readings, and be prepared to discuss the readings on the schedule listed below. Students will submit all assignments on time; late assignments will only be accepted by prior arrangement with the professor.

A Note About Academic Integrity: Integrity is fundamental to the academic enterprise. The sources from which one derives one's ideas, statements, terms, and data must be fully and specifically acknowledged in the appropriate form; failure to do so, intentionally or unintentionally, constitutes plagiarism. Violations of academic integrity may result in failure in the course and in disciplinary actions with penalties such as suspension or dismissal from the University.

Basic Information:

This course meets Mondays from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Graduate Center (Room 5212). Our office hours, held in the American Studies Program office (Room 5109.04), will be by appointment, preferably on Mondays before class; please feel free to make an appointment to meet with either or both of us. Professor Bardsley may be reached via phone at 718-982-3661 or email at bardsley@mail.csi.cuny.edu. Professor Lavender may be reached via phone at 718-982-2869 or email at lavender@mail.csi.cuny.edu. Our mailbox is in the Women's Studies office, Room 5401.

This course is listed under both the Women's Studies and the Lesbian/Gay/Queer Studies Certificate Programs. The Women's Studies Certificate Program and Center for the Study of Women in Society Offices are in Room 5401; the Assistant Program Officer, Elizabeth Small, may be reached at 212-817-8905 or via email at ESmall@gc.cuny.edu, and is usually in the office between 9:30 and 4:30. The LGQ Studies office is in Room 7115; their phone number is 212-817-1955, and they may be reached via email at clags@gc.cuny.edu.

Readings:

• Inderpal Grewal & Caren Kaplan. eds., Scattered Hegemonies: Postmodernity and Transnational Feminist Practices (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994) -- ON RESERVE

• Linda McDowell and Joanne P. Sharp, eds., Space, Gender, Knowledge: Feminist Readings (London: Arnold, 1997) -- ON RESERVE

• Christa Wichterich, Globalized Woman (London: Zed Books, 2000) -- ON RESERVE

• Additional articles (listed below) will be made available on reserve at the Mina Rees Library at the CUNY Graduate Center and will also be distributed as photocopies to the class.

Assignments:

Your final grade for this course will be determined based on three factors: 1) Attendance and participation in course discussions; 2) In-Class Presentations; and 3) A Final essay of approximately 25 pages.

About the Research Paper: The paper you write for this class will reflect both the reading and discussion you have done in seminar, your own interests and concerns, and appropriate academic research. The terms “multicultural and transnational” and “feminisms” obviously give you a lot of latitude in selecting your focus. It may be useful to think of yourself as bringing to bear aspects of the theoretical issues and approaches employed and suggested by your course readings upon a cultural text of your choosing. That text could be anything from a work or works of literature or film, to an industry, a geographical entity, a community, or an institution, public or private. Feel free to employ the strengths of your existing background (are you in healthcare? economics?) or to take this occasion to try something entirely new. Whatever you choose, please be sure to meet with us to discuss your proposed project. Topics should be finalized and approved by Thanksgiving.

Course Topics and Schedule:

M 8/27 -- Week One: Introduction to the Course

M 9/3--CUNY Closed; No Classes

M 9/10 -- Week Two: What is Feminism/U.S. Multicultural Critique?

Readings: • Rosalind Delmar, "What is Feminism," in Juliet Mitchell and Ann Oakley, eds., What Is Feminism: A Re-Examination (New York: Pantheon, 1986), pp. 8-33. • Joan Wallach Scott, "Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis (1986)," in Joan W. Scott, ed., Feminism and History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), pp. 152-80. • bell hooks, "feminist theory: a radical agenda," in Talking Back: thinking feminist, thinking black (Boston: South End Press, 1989), pp. 35-41. • Patricia Hill Collins, "The Politics of Black Feminist Thought," in Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness,and the Politics of Empowerment (New York: Routledge, 1990), pp. 3-40. • Gloria Anzaldúa, "Haciendo caras, una entrada," in Gloria Anzaldúa, ed., Making Face, Making Soul/Haciendo caras: Creative and Critical Perspectives by Feminists of Color (San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 1990), xv-xxviii. • Mitsuye Yamada, "Asian Pacific American Women and Feminism," in Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa, eds., This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (New York: Kitchen Table Press, 1983), pp. 71-75. • Wendy Brown, "The Impossibility of Women's Studies" differences Volume 9, Number 3 (1997): 79-101.

M 9/17 -- CUNY Closed; No Classes

M 9/24 -- Week Three: Transnationalizing Feminist Critiques

Readings: • Chandra Talpade Mohanty, "Under Western Eyes," in Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991), pp. 51-80. • Maria Mies, "Colonization and Housewifization," in Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale (London: Zed Books, 1986), pp. 74-111. • Inderpal Grewal and Caren Kaplan, "Introduction" to Inderpal Grewal & Caren Kaplan. eds., Scattered Hegemonies: Postmodernity and Transnational Feminist Practices (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994), pp. • Millie Thayer, "Transnational Feminism: Reading Joan Scott in the Brazilian sertão," Ethnography Volume 2, No. 2 (June 2001): 243-272.

M 10/1 -- Week Four: Reproduction/Sexuality/Desire/The Body I

Readings: • Natalie Angier, "Default Line: Is The Female Body a Passive Construct?" from Woman: An Intimate Geography (New York: Random House, 1999), pp. 39-61. • Rosemary Tong, "Radical Feminism on Gender and Sexuality" from Feminist Thought: A Comprehensive Introduction (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1989), pp. 95-138. • Gayle Rubin, "Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality" (1984) in Henry Abelove, Michele Aina Barale, David Halperin, eds., The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader (New York: Routledge, 1993), pp. 3-44. • Elizabeth Grosz, "Sexed Bodies," from Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism (Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1994), pp. 187-210. • Judith Butler, "Gender Trouble" in Linda McDowell and Joanne P. Sharp, eds., Space, Gender, Knowledge: Feminist Readings (London: Arnold, 1997), pp. 247-61.

M 10/8 -- CUNY Closed; No Classes; Class will meet on Tuesday, 10/9, This Week

T 10/9 -- Week Five: Reproduction/Sexuality/Desire/The Body II

Readings: • Judith Butler, "Introduction" to Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex" (New York: Routledge, 1993), pp. 1-23. • Pheng Cheah, "Mattering" in Diacritics Vol. 26, No. 1 (1996) 108-139 • Lydia Liu, "The Female Body and Nationalist Discourse: The Field of Life and Death Revisited" in Inderpal Grewal & Caren Kaplan. eds., Scattered Hegemonies: Postmodernity and Transnational Feminist Practices (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994), pp. 37-62. • Rebecca J. Cook, "International Human Rights and Women's Reproductive Health," in Julie Peters and Andrea Wolper, eds., Women's Rights, Human Rights: International Feminist Perspectives (New York : Routledge, 1995), pp. 256-75. • Eve Kosovsky Sedgwick, "Epistemology of the Closet" in Henry Abelove, Michele Aina Barale, and David Halperin, eds., The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader (New York: Routledge, 1993), pp. 45-61. • Biddy Martin, "Sexualities Without Genders and Other Queer Utopias (1992)" in Femininity Played Straight: The Significance of Being Lesbian (New York: Routledge, 1996), pp. 71-94.

M 10/15 -- Week Six: Legal Issues

Readings: • Hilary Charlesworth, Christine Chinkin and Shelley Wright, "Feminist Approaches to International Law" Feminist Legal Theory Volume II (New York: NYU Press, 1995). • Patricia J. Williams, "On Being the Object of Property" Feminist Legal Theory Volume II (New York: NYU Press, 1995). • Kimberle Crenshaw, "Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory, And Antiracist Politics," Feminist Legal Theory Volume I (New York: NYU Press, 1995). • Juanita Diaz Cotto, “Women and Crime in the United States” in Mohanty, Russo and Torres, eds, Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism, pp. 197-214. • Malika Dutt, "Reclaiming a Human Rights Culture" in Ella Shohat, ed., Talking Visions (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2000). • Aihwa Ong, "Flexible Citizenship among Chinese Cosmopolitans" in Pheng Cheah and Bruce Robbins, eds., Cosmopolitics: Thinking and Feeling Beyond the Nation (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998). pp. 131-62.

M 10/22 -- Week Seven: Globalization

Readings: • Zillah Eisenstein, Global Obscenities: Patriarchy, Captialism, and the Lure of Cyberfantasy (New York: NYU Press, 1998), chapters 4 and 5. • Cynthia Enloe Bananas, Beaches & Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), Chapters 7-8. • J.K Gibson-Graham, “Querying Globalization” and “Waiting for the Revolution” in The End of Capitalism (as we knew it): A Feminist Critique of Poltical Economy (New York: Blackwell, 1996), pp. 120-147 and 251-265. • Christa Wichterich, The Globalized Woman: Reports from a Future of Inequality (London: Zed Books 2000), chs. 1-4. • Chandra Mohanty, “Women workers and Capitalist Scripts,” in Feminist Genealogies, Colonial Legacies, Democratic Futures ed Mohanty and Alexander (New York: Routledge, 1997).

M 10/29 -- Week Eight: Critiques of Imperialism

Readings: • Inderpal Grewal and Caren Kaplan, "Abstract" for "Postcolonial Studies and Transnational Feminist Practices," Jouvert: A Journal of Post-Colonial Studies, Volume 5, Issue 1 (Autumn 2000). • Ranjana Khanna, "Ethical Ambiguities and Specters of Colonialism: Futures of Transnational Feminism," in Elisabeth Bronfen and Misha Kavka, eds., Feminist Consequences: Theory for the New Century (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001), pp. 101-125. • Ann L. Stoler, "Making Empire Respectable: The Politics of Race and Sexual Morality in 20th-Century Colonial Cultures," American Ethnologist 16(4) (1989): 634-660. • Sally Engle Merry, "Wife Battering and The Ambiguities of Rights," in Identities, Politics, and Rights, ed. Austin Sarat and Thomas R. Kearns (University of Michigan Press, 1995), pp. 271-306. • Susan Pedersen, "National Bodies, Unspeakable Acts: The Sexual Politics of Colonial Policy-Making," Journal of Modern History 63 (December 1991): 647-680.

M 11/5 -- Week Nine: Critiques of Nationalism

Readings: • Julia Kristeva, selections from Nations Without Nationalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 1-47. • Daiva Stasiulis, "Relational Positionalities of Nationalisms, Racisms, and Feminisms" in Caren Kaplan, Norma Alarcón, and Minoo Moallem, eds., Between Woman and Nation: Nationalisms, Transnational Feminisms, and the State (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999). • Nira Yuval-Davis, "Gender and Nation" (1993), in Linda McDowell and Joanne P. Sharp, eds., Space, Gender, Knowledge: Feminist Readings (London: Arnold, 1997), pp. 403-408. • Anne McClintock, "No Longer in a Future Heaven: Gender Race and Nationalism" (1994), in Linda McDowell and Joanne P. Sharp, eds., Space, Gender, Knowledge: Feminist Readings (London: Arnold, 1997), pp. 409-424.

M 11/12 -- Week Ten: Issues in Development

Readings: • Martha Chen, "A Matter of Survival: Women's Right to Employment in India and Bangladesh," in Martha C. Nussbaum and Jonathan Glover, eds., Women, Culture, and Development: A Study of Human Capabilities (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995). • Martha Nussbaum, "Introduction" (excerpts) in Martha C. Nussbaum and Jonathan Glover, eds., Women, Culture, and Development: A Study of Human Capabilities (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995). • Marianne H. Marchand and Jane L. Parpart, "Exploding the Canon: An Introduction/Conclusion" in Marianne H. Marchand and Jane L. Parpart, eds., Feminism/Postmodernism/Development (New York: Routledge, 1995), pp. 1-41 • Drucilla Barker, “Dualisms, Discourse, and Development” in Decentering the Center: Philosophy for a Multtcultural, Postcolonial, and Femimist World eds. Uma Narayan and Sandra Harding (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000).

M 11/19 -- Week Eleven: Ecofeminism

Readings: • Joni Seager, "The Earth is Not Your Mother" in Linda McDowell and Joanne P. Sharp, eds., Space, Gender, Knowledge: Feminist Readings (London: Arnold, 1997), pp. 171-73. • Vandana Shiva, "Women in Nature" in Linda McDowell and Joanne P. Sharp, eds., Space, Gender, Knowledge: Feminist Readings (London: Arnold, 1997), pp. 174-176. • Caroline New, "Man Bad, Woman Good? Essentialisms and Ecofeminisms" in Linda McDowell and Joanne P. Sharp, eds., Space, Gender, Knowledge: Feminist Readings (London: Arnold, 1997), pp. 177-92. • Huey-li Li, "A Cross-Cultural Critique of Ecofeminism," in Greta Gaard, ed., Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993), pp. 272-94. • Arisika Razak, "Toward a Womanist Analysis of Birth," in Irene Diamond and Gloria Feman Orenstein, eds., Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1990), pp. 165-72. • Vera Norwood, "Writing Animal Presence: Nature in Euro-American, African American, and American Indian Fiction," from Made From This Earth: American Women and Nature (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993), pp. 172-208.

M 11/26 -- Week Twelve: Moving out of the Academy I: Bearing Witness

Readings: • Harriet Lyons, "Anthropologists, Moralities, and Relativities: The Problem of Genital Mutilations," Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology 18(4) (1981): 499-518. • Vicki Kirby, "On the Cutting Edge: Feminism and Clitoridectomy," Australian Feminist Studies 5 (Summer 1987): 35-55. • Lynn M. Thomas, "`Ngaitana (I will circumcise myself)': The Gender and Generational Politics of the 1956 Ban on Clitoridectomy in Meru, Kenya," Gender and History 8(3) (November 1996): 338-363. • Claire Robertson, "Grassroots in Kenya: Women, Genital Mutilation, and Collective Action, 1920-1990," Signs 21(3) (1996): 615-642. • Christine J.Walley, "Searching for `Voices': Feminism, Anthropology, and the Global Debate Over Female Genital Operations," Cultural Anthropology 12(3) (1997): 405-438. • Nahid Toubia, "Female Genital Mutilation," in Julie Peters and Andrea Wolper, eds., Women's Rights, Human Rights: International Feminist Perspectives (New York : Routledge, 1995), pp. 224-237. • Alice Walker, Possessing the Secret of Joy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), pp. 57-67, 115-123, 173-82, 185-90, 217-25, 274-81.

M 12/3 -- Week Thirteen: Moving out of the Academy II: Alternative Institutions

Readings: • Alice Yun Chai, "Integrative Feminist Politics in the Republic of Korea," in Lois A. West, ed., Feminist Nationalism (New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 169-186. • Haunani-Kay Trask, "Feminism and Indigenous Hawaiian Nationalism," in Lois A. West, ed., Feminist Nationalism (New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 187-198. • Eudine Barriteau, "Postmodernist Feminist Theorizing and Development Policy and Practice in the Anglophone Caribbean," in Marianne H. Marchand and Jane L. Parpart, eds., Feminism/Postmodernism/Development (New York: Routledge, 1995), pp. 142-158. • Mariana Mora, "Zapatismo: Gender, Power and Social Transformation” in The Women and War Reader (New York: NYU Press, 1998): 164-176. • Alicia Schmidt Camacho, “On the Borders of Solidarity: Race and Gender Contradictions in the "New Voice" Platform of the AFL-CIO“ Social Justice (Fall 1999) v26 i3, p. 79ff. • Christa Wichterich, “Globalization of the Women’s Movements” in Globalized Woman (London: Zed Books, 2000), chapter 6.

M 12/10 -- Week Fourteen: Final Papers Presentations