Feminist Theory

Important Notes:

 

2. Please be advised that the Meyers book, Feminist Social Thought, is not available for purchase at Ellipse. Students will have to order the book online.
3.  
4. Please note that there has been a room change for the Feminist Theories Course. The class will be held on Wednesdays at 16:15 in Rigot 3.

 

2. The articles and Excerpts will no longer be put in a reader but will be placed online. Also, the readings for the next two weeks will also be placed online.

 

1. Please note that 10 copies of the 3 mandatory books for Feminist Theory course have been ordered through Ellipse bookshop (www.ellipse.ch im Pâquis-Viertel, Rue Rousseau 14, # 022 909 89 89). Students may stop by Ellipse to get the books or can order them online. In either case students are expected to have these books prior to the start of classes, and have read the required readings. If Students do not have the books by the beginning of October, they are expected to read them on reserve in the library.

 

2. Articles for September 23 and 30 will be available as copies by September 16, 2009.

  

PROFESSOR

 

Elisabeth Prügl

elisabeth.pruegl@graduateinstitute.ch

+41 22 908 59 36

 

Office hours:

Mondays 16:00-18:00

Wednesdays 14:00-16:00

 

ASSISTANT

 

Jovana Carapic

jovana.carapic@graduateinstitute.ch

+41 22 908 59 47

 

Office hours:

Wednesdays 14:00-16:00

(Rigot 37)

Course Syllabus

Download Syllabus

Syllabus

Requirements

Class Report/Discussion (20%): Seminar participants will be asked to choose a set of one seminar questions (noted for each week on the syllabus below) and to prepare a 10 minute presentation on it, in conjunction with the readings for that seminar. The object of the presentation is to introduce a point of view on the questions in order to stimulate class discussion.

Three Essays (20% each): These essays take the form of take-home exams that respond to questions asking you to integrate several weeks of class readings. Questions will be provide a week before the exams are due.

Participation (20%): Students are expected to have done assigned readings and participate in class discussions in an informed manner.

Required Readings:

Books

Please note that these books are mandatory and it is the students’ responsibility to obtain these books by themselves (e.g. via Amazon) and read the required readings before the scheduled class.

Diana Tietjens Meyers, ed. Feminist Social Thought (Routledge, 1997)

Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity (Duke University Press, 2003)

Judith Butler, Undoing Gender (Routledge 2004) 

Articles and Excerpts

Articles will Excertps will be available online.

Oystein Gullvag Holter, Social Theories for Researching Men and Masculinities: Direct Gender Hierarchy and Structural Inequality. In Handbook of Studies on Men and Masculinities, eds. Michael Kimmel, Jeff Hearn, and Robert Connell, pp. 14-34. Sage, 2004.

Donna Haraway, Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective. Feminist Studies 14, 3 (Fall 1988): 575-599.

Laurel Weldon, Inclusion and Understanding: A Collective Methodology for Feminist International Relations. In Feminist Methodologies for International Relations, eds. Brooke A. Ackerly, Maria Stern, and Jacqui True, pp. 62-87.  Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Iris Marion Young, Social Difference as a Political Resource. In Inclusion and Democracy by I.M. Young. Oxford University Press, 2000.

Cynthia Enloe, Margins, Silences, and Bottom Rungs: How to Overcome the Underestimation of Power in the Study of International Relations. In The Curious Feminist by C. Enloe. University of California Press, 2004.

J. Ann Tickner, Gendering a Discipline: Some Feminist Methodological Contributions to International Relations. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 30, 4 (2005): 2173-2188.

Martha C. Nussbaum, Human Capabilities, Female Human Beings. (With comment by Susan Wolf.) In Women, Development and Culture: A Study of Human Capabilities, eds. M. Nussbaum and J. Glover, pp. 61-115. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Seyla Benhabib, Cultural Complexity, Moral Interdependence, and the Global Dialogical Community. In Women, Development and Culture: A Study of Human Capabilities, eds. M. Nussbaum and J. Glover, pp. 235-255. Oxford: Clarendon Press.