Office: 316 Muller
Office Hours: Tues.-Thurs. 12:00-1:00; Wed. 1:00-3:00

This course will explore the discussions taking place today, across the globe, about the meanings of feminisms. We will explore the tensions which exist about the term itself as well as the possibilities for an inclusive embrace of its meaning. In order to do this we will explore feminisms and women's struggles in the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, in the rape camps of Bosnia, Islam and feminism in Algeria, Africana womanism, and…. And we will position these concerns particularly within the post-sept. 11th dialogues between u.s. feminism and Afghan women's understanding of their own struggles.

The purpose of the course is to both interrogate and theorize the notion of feminisms itself AS WELL AS THE IDEA THAT FEMINISM IS WESTERN. The course readings are committed to developing a more inclusive understanding of the varieties that exist within the ideas of women's equality, sexual freedom and rights, colonialism and economic exploitation. Our scope is broad in the sense we are looking for a variety of diverse meanings from multiple locations. As a result, the course will traverse different and sometimes conflicting notions of feminisms.

We will explore key controversies within feminist theory in order to better theorize the notion of feminism(s) itself. The course readings are committed to developing a more inclusive understanding of the varieties that exist within the ideas of women's equality and/or self-determination. Our scope will be broad and comparative in the sense we are looking for a variety of diverse meanings from multiple locations. As a result, the course will traverse different and sometimes conflicting notions of feminism.

Key concepts that we will interrogate are: color and race, sex and gender, sameness and difference, polyversality, nationalism, cultural identities, refugees, religious fundamentalism, democracy, `the' west, and so on. We examine these concepts through a multiplicity of lenses that are global and multicultural/multiracial.

There will be two analytic/theoretical papers that deal with the readings of the course.

Texts:

Please read the following books, one each week. The books are at the IC bookstore. The course packets-there are two--are available from the department secretary.

1. Uma Narayan and Sandra Harding, eds., DECENTERING THE CENTER
Read: Introd., Chapters 2, 5, 8, 9, 11, 12, 15
2. Zillah Eisenstein. HATREDS

3. C. Mohanty, A. Russo and L. Torres, eds. THIRD WORLD WOMEN AND THE POLITICS OF FEMINISM
Read: preface, introd., pp. 51-80. 133-52, 251-270, 297-313, 314-327
Also read from course packet: J.Alexander and C. Mohanty,"Genealogies, Legacies, Movements"

4. Alexandra Stiglmayer. MASS RAPE
Also read from packet: Julie Mertus, "Women in Kosovo"

5. Tamar Mayer, ed. WOMEN AND THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION

6. Clenora Hudson-Weems. AFRICANA WOMANISM

7. Deborah Gray White. AR'N'T I A WOMAN?
Also read from course packet: bell hooks, "Marching for Justice"

8. Zillah Eisenstein. GLOBAL OBSCENITIES

9. Khalida Messaoudi. UNBOWED, AN ALGERIAN WOMAN CONFRONTS ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISM

10. Miriam Cooke. WOMEN CLAIM ISLAM
Also read Leila Ahmed in course packet.

11. Alice Walker. SENT BY EARTH
Also read from the packet THE AFTERMATH OF SEPT. 11
authors: L. Ahmed, Bat Shalom, A. Rashid, Z. Eisenstein, A. Roy, K. Sharma, RAWA statement and dialogue.

12. Z. Eisenstein, Read from course packet: "Feminisms 2000 And" from book in progress, "WHO IS THE WEST? FEMINISMS, SLAVERIES, AND DEMOCRACIES

Possible internet sites:
www.whrnet.org
www.rawa.org
http:1163.111.42.146/home/NOW
http://www.batshalom.org
see additional page attached