Syllabi and Assignments

This course (Psychology and Women’s Studies) focuses on two aspects of social change through the lenses of gender and global feminisms. First, students consider how individuals generally, and feminists in particular, are shaped by changing political and economic conditions, especially during times of upheaval and rapid social transformation. Second, students examine how and why some individuals become engaged in creating social change (and others do not). The course draws on theoretical literature in feminist theory and in the social sciences and on studies of the impact of social events on individuals and the role of individuals in creating social change; it also incorporates extensively the interviews from the GFP archive.

Prof. Habarth taught this introductory composition class in Winter 2008 and assigned the Sista II Sista video and excerpts of the transcript (pp. 1-8 and 18-21) to introduce students to the concept of intersectionality, about mid-way through the semester. Prof. Habarth asked the students to think about how race, gender, and class contribute to the two women’s identities.

This course is for graduating seniors in Women’s Studies and encourages students to examine their training in feminist theory in relation to life beyond graduation. Prof. Keller-Cohen pairs the video of Grace Lee Boggs with a reading from Shulamit Reinharz’s Feminist Methods in Social Research (1992). See January 25th topic.

Prof. Ko taught this upper-level history seminar in 2007. The course examines the entanglements between discourses of feminism and modernity in China, building on the premise that these divergent conversations are worth listening to, but that to do so the historian needs to retrain her ears. The reading list is comprised almost exclusively of writings by Chinese scholars, some originally presented in English and others in translation. The challenge the course presents is to confront their unfamiliarity or even illegibility, to place them in proper historical contexts, and to tune in to their absences (what they have deliberately or inadvertently left out). As such, this seminar is an exercise in sympathetic listening coupled with analytic distance. In the first two weeks, the course uses the ten China interviews to introduce students to this notion of listening to the materials with a different sensibility.

This course in sociology, first taught in 2004, charts feminist approaches to scholarship in the social sciences. It is designed to familiarize graduate students with the methodologies that have been deployed in the process of researching questions of gender across the social science disciplines, as well as to understand the linkages between core theoretical movements (such as poststructuralism, postmodernism, and postcolonialism) that have affected feminist thinking over the past two decades, and the challenges that they pose for the practice of feminist inquiry in the social sciences. Prof. Lal used the video of Neera Desai’s interview in conjunction with writings by Desai about feminism in India (see March 8th).

This history course uses interviews from across the four original country sites (China, India, Poland, and the USA) to reflect on a comparative approach to the investigation of particular historical processes of women’s movements in the three countries, the United States, India, and China. Focusing on the feminist activism in the three countries, this course attempts to ground our understanding of globalization in local history, and to present in a concrete way that feminisms have histories and meanings that extend far beyond the North American continent. By comparison, we also hope to illuminate the cultural parameters of each location that have shaped various feminist practices.

This course teaches students to make evidence-based arguments about gender and sex while situating lived experiences of women and sexual minorities in context, gain media literacy in examining examples from pop culture, understand the role of heteropatriarchal and racist ideologies and institutions in social inequity, and learn to think and write critically about gender in its social, cultural, historical and political context.

Have you ever encountered a feminist activist from a foreign country? Why have some women decided to take actions to make a difference in their societies? Feminist activism has long been a global phenomenon but our knowledge of feminists in diverse regions is very limited. This course introduces you to some feminist activists in Brazil, China, India, Nicaragua, Poland as well as the US by studying their life stories collected by the pioneering UM interdisciplinary and transnational oral history project – Global Feminisms Project. No prior knowledge of the history of these countries is required, although the course will introduce these activists against their specific historical and cultural settings. The purpose of the course is to expand students’ intellectual horizon with a global perspective and to prepare students for an academic life in college by introducing some analytical skills, such as historical analysis and close reading of texts in both written and visual forms. The course will also highlight oral history as a research method for producing new knowledge.

Over the past decade, there has been an explosion of feminist mobilization in Latin America, punctuated by massive marches throughout the region to protest violence against women. This mobilization might seem to be unprecedented. Indeed, stereotypes of Latin America that circulate in the United States often depict it through the trope of machismo—a Spanish word that connotes clownish male chauvinism, sexism, and homophobia paired with female submissiveness. The reality of gender inequality and violence in the region was brought to public attention in the United States in 2018, when then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions banned immigration judges from considering the threat of domestic violence as a basis for refugee status for battered women from Central America. Sessions’ order was later overturned and the issue remains controversial. What went unremarked during this controversy is the role Latin American feminists played in identifying, denouncing, and combatting gender-based violence and inequality, and in making visible the intricate connections between the violation of women’s rights and other forms of social or political persecution. This feminist activity did not appear suddenly, but developed throughout the history of Latin American women’s activism over more than 100 years.

What is political? How do we acquire political knowledge? How is political understanding shaped across generations? What is the relationship between power, gender, race, and politics? Why do people participate in social movements? What is a “peaceful protest”? In this course we will examine the interplay between people, power, and politics. We will consider participation in some large-scale social movements in the U.S. including the Civil Rights Movement, Women’s Liberation Movement, pro-choice and pro-life movements, gay, lesbian, and transgender rights, and white nationalist movements. We will use these movements as examples to examine how individuals shaped social structures, political systems, culture and history, while being shaped by them. This course will give you some familiarity with important classical and modern psychological and sociological theories relevant to politics and the functioning of political systems, as well as a sense of how social science research can be used evaluate theories and generate new knowledge. At the same time, the course emphasizes the need to take into account differences in the social contexts (cultures, nations, social classes, historical eras) when theorizing or doing research.

Intersectionality has become a buzzword. But, what does it really mean? Where are the roots of intersectional thinking? How do we use it today? In this course, we will trace back the history of Intersectionality as a theory and practice within Black Feminist Thought and Movement, then learn how it traveled into psychology and how it is used in research today. In the first third of the semester we will study original texts by Combahee River Collective and Black Feminists, Third World Women’s Alliance, and Chicana Feminists. Next, we will examine intersectionality as a developing theoretical framework since the 1990s in broader feminist social scientific imagination. And lastly, we will focus on how intersectionality traveled into psychology in the early 2000s and how it is used in research today. We will also touch on a wide range of ways of “doing intersectional scholarship,” including qualitative analysis, visual arts, ethnography, archival research, and quantitative analysis. Our goal in this course is to center Black Feminist Thought in assessing the how intersectionality is used in scientific research, in particular in psychological research. While doing this, we will pay attention to a broad range of multiple social locations we each occupy in categories such as race, gender, sexuality, class, ethnicity, religion, nation, language, ability.

Exploration. Search for and observe an example of feminist activism in practice. You may go to a rally or demonstration (as an observer), attend a meeting of a group, or watch a videotaped interview with an activist (Global Feminisms). You will then write a 3-page response paper for your experience describing:

• How does the group or the activist conceptualize the problem they aim to address?
• What are their goals?
• What strategies/tactics does the group use to achieve its goals?
• How does the activist or group address the ways that gender intersects with other statuses such as race, class, sexual orientation, etc.?
   

Choose a life narrative of one activist from each site and compare the narratives by focusing either on specific themes or major life events. Using an intersectionality perspective, discuss how various intersecting identities (e.g., culture, generational, social class, and sexuality) shaped the lives of these four activists. In the final section of the paper, reflect on the ways you could relate or find any overlap between your personal life and the four life histories you analyzed. 
 

Your final paper will be based on the Global Feminisms Project, which is a collaborative international project that examines the history of feminist activism, women’s movements, and academic women’s studies around the globe. You have several options for how you might use the data in this archive:

1. You can do a cultural comparison – variation across cultures in terms of how women from these four countries negotiated patriarchal norms, political socialization, and resilience.
2. You could examine how cultures and social structures shape empowerment strategies. For instance, the women activists’ narratives from China focus on how these activists negotiated gender within their party expectations. They discuss gender with reference to communist party. Choose 4 different narratives to compare.
3. You could focus on intra-cultural variations in the narratives. India and USA are good examples.
4. You could examine generational shifts in women’s narratives. For example Grace Lee Boggs (USA site) was one of the oldest people in the group (she was 88 when interviewed for the project in 2003, and died at 100 years old in 2015).
5. The transcripts are also coded thematically. You could do a comparative study using the themes. For example, you may choose to do a context analysis across country sites. Choose a topic (e.g., sexual identity development, activist identity, motives of leaders) and use one of the GFP interviews for a content analysis.

In this assignment you are expected demonstrate your understanding of intersectionality, apply your knowledge of the concept in interpreting real-life examples, examine gender in its situated context (in relation to race, gender, ethnicity, class, sexuality, ability and other relevant identities).

Steps:

1. Indicate your choices about topics of interest and country to me, and work with me to identify the interviews that serve best to your interests.
2. Turn your interest of topic into a research question. What would you be looking to answer for from the Global Feminism Interviews?
3. Read the two interviews we identified together, think about the connections between the interviews and the class content as well as the gaps in your knowledge.
4. Do further research to close the gaps in your knowledge (i.e., find scholarly articles and books to help you write the paper).
5. Synthesize the knowledge you gained from the interviews with the literature you identified to write your paper. Use quotes from the interviews when necessary to develop your arguments.

For this project, you will conduct online archival research on a course-related theme or concept through UM’s Global Feminisms Project. The Global Feminisms Project archives interviews with feminist scholars and activists from around the world. You will explore the archive and choose an interview to analyze. You will then complete a project that draws from your archival research. Projects will be completed in groups (3-4 students). If you prefer to do this project on your own, please reach out to your GSI. Each group member must analyze at least one archived interview.