Phone: 745-5787 or 745-6477
Office Hours: by appointment, any day
Office Location: Women’s Studies Center (1532 State Street)
Email: jane.olmsted@wku.edu
Personal Webpage: www.wku.edu/~jane.olmsted
Texts:
Feminist Thought, Josephine Donovan
Feminism & the Body, Londa Schiebinger
This Bridge We Call Home, Gloria Anzaldua & Analouise Keating
Feminist Theory Reader, Carole McCann and Seung-Kyung Kim
Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, bell hooks
Course Description:
This is an online course. As such, we will not meet face-to-face, except by choice. Beginning with ground-breaking "second wave" feminist theories, then turning to a range of contemporary theorists, we will explore in depth how gender, race, and class are socially constructed elements of identity and important categories of analysis. Readings and discussion will reach beyond national concerns to include some postcolonial critiques and theoretical perspectives. Theories will be evaluated for their practical application as well as their location within broad social and historical frameworks.
About Women’s Studies: Western Kentucky University has a strong and growing Women’s Studies Program. We offer courses that are cross-listed in over eleven other departments. Undergraduates can minor in women’s studies, and graduate students can earn a graduate certificate. Every semester the program sponsors several on-campus events, including films and speakers. Taking women’s studies courses and attending our events is a great way for both women and men to become part of a smaller community of interesting and intelligent people at the university. If you are interested in learning more about women’s studies at WKU, check out our website, at http://www.wku.edu/womensstudies
Course Objectives:
Successful completion of this course will be demonstrated if, by the end of the semester, you are able to
1. Identify the major categories of feminist thought.
2. Explain the ways in which gender, race, and class impact women’s
lives.
3. Critique various theoretical approaches to gender, race, and class.
4. Integrate theoretical material with your own cultural criticism.
Requirements:
Participation
Discussions of readings and responses to others’ comments are the most important ongoing requirement of this course. The readings are challenging, so the discussion board is the place for asking questions, responding to writers' arguments and content, and making connections among the readings. Each week (a week always begins on Monday at 12 a.m. and ends on Sunday at 12 p.m.) you should plan on making two original comments and at least two responses to others. An original comment means that you're starting a new thread, raising a new issue, responding to a new reading; the length should be at least 250 words. A response means that you are responding to another person's questions or comments; the length is open, though it will likely range from 100-250 words. See the section on participation requirements. . . . 30%
Synthesis Paper
Using one of the three anthologies, find three articles that you find compelling and write an essay that synthesizes them. For guidelines, you may visit my online hand-out, at http://www.wku.edu/~jane.olmsted/eng.critresponse.html. . . 20%
Mapping
Each of you is responsible for creating one "map" of a week’s reading (select a text that you’re not writing an abstract for). This map is a visualization of the theoretical issues, problems, dimensions raised in the reading, accompanied by a written description of how the map is to be read. . . . 20%
Seminar Paper Cultural criticism.
Due at the end of the semester, this essay should offer a theoretical analysis of a topic of your choice. What works well? What is "cultural criticism"? Loosely defined, it’s analysis of a "text" (print, visual, ritual, event, institution) that occurs in a particular cultural context. . . . 30%
Note: Students with disabilities who require accommodations (academic adjustments and/or auxiliary aids or services) for this course must contact the Office for Student Disability Services, Room 101, Garrett Hall. The OFSDS telephone number is (270) 745-5004.
8/18-8/24 First day of classes; introductions
8/25-8/31 Donovan: "Enlightenment Liberal"
and "Radical" Feminisms
9/1-9/7 Donovan:
"Marxist" and "Existentialist" Feminisms
9/8-9/14 Donovan: "20th Century
Cultural Feminism" and "21st Century"
9/15-9/21 McCann/Kim: Selections from
Section I: Definitions and Movements
9/22-9/28 McCann/Kim: Selections from
Section II: Intersecting Identities
9/29-10/5 McCann/Kim: reduced selections
from II/III; Fall break 10/3-10/4
10/6-10/12 McCann/Kim: Selections from Section III:
Agency and Politics
10/13-10/19 Synthesis paper due; discussion of film: Thelma and
Louise
10/20-10/26 Schiebinger: Selections from Part I-II
10/27-11/2 Schiebinger: Selections from Part IV-V
11/3-11/9 hooks
11/10-11/16 Anzaldua/Keating:
11/17-11/23 Anzaldua/Keating:
11/24-11/25 Discussion of film: Rosewood
11/26-12/7 Anzaldua/Keating:
12/12
Seminar paper due