By Chandra Talpade Mohanty
Published by Duke University Press, 2003
ISBN 0822330210
Bringing together classic and new writings of the trailblazing feminist theorist Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Feminism without Borders addresses some of the most pressing and complex issues facing contemporary feminism. Forging vital links between daily life and collective action and between theory and pedagogy, Mohanty has been at the vanguard of Third World and international feminist thought and activism for nearly two decades. This collection highlights the concerns running throughout her pioneering work: the politics of difference and solidarity, decolonizing and democratizing feminist practice, the crossing of borders, and the relation of feminist knowledge and scholarship to organizing and social movements. Mohanty offers here a sustained critique of globalization and urges a reorientation of transnational feminist practice toward anti-capitalist struggles.
By Patricia Hill Collins
Published by Routledge, 2000
ISBN 0415924847
In Black Feminist Thought, Patricia Hill Collins explores the words and ideas of Black feminist intellectuals as well as those African-American women outside academe. She not only provides an interpretive framework for the work of such prominent Black feminist thinkers as Angela Davis, Alice Walker, and Audre Lorde, but she shows the importance of self-defined knowledge for group empowerment. In the tenth anniversary edition of this award-winning work, Patricia Hill Collins expands the basic arguments of the first edition by adding several important new themes. A new discussion of heterosexism as a system of power, an expanded treatment of images of Black womanhood, U.S. Black feminism's connections to Black Diasporic feminisms, and more attention to the importance of social class and nationalism all appear in the new edition.
By Melody Berger
Contributor Melody Berger
Published by Seal Press, 2006
ISBN 1580051820
An analysis of issues shaping the feminist movement today, told through a collection of essays by young activists, explores such topics as the commonalities shared by feminists of all ages, abuse against women, and the ways in which the feminist label has been maligned.
An analysis of issues shaping the feminist movement today, told through a collection of essays by young activists, explores such topics as the commonalities shared by feminists of all ages, abuse against women, and the ways in which the feminist label has been maligned.
By Incite! Women of Color Against Violence, Incite! Women of Color Against Violence
Published by South End Press, 2007
ISBN 0896087662
A $1.3 trillion industry, the US nonprofit sector is the world's seventh largest economy. From art museums and university hospitals to think tanks and church charities, over 1.5 million organizations of staggering diversity share the tax-exempt 501(c)(3) designation, if little else. Many social justice organizations have joined this world, often blunting political goals to satisfy government and foundation mandates. But even as funding shrinks and government surveillance rises, many activists often find it difficult to imagine movement-building outside the nonprofit model. The Revolution Will Not Be Funded gathers original essays by radical activists from around the globe who are critically rethinking the long-term consequences of this investment. Together with educators and nonprofit staff they finally name the "nonprofit industrial complex" and ask hard questions....
Here is our Preliminary Syllabus as of 1 Sept. 08. It will be completed asap. But this gives you some idea of where we are going.
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http://femtheoumd.blogspot.com/
theories of feminism, thinking and action
WMST 400, Fall 2008 UMD
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30 pm – 1:45 pm at HBK 0103
PREREQUISITES: designed for upper division undergraduates who have taken at least one feminist course, preferably from the women's studies department. Some other courses may be used to satisfy this prerequisite, but need approval. Email Katie King for interview if necessary.
Professor: Katie King
Office: 2101F Woods Hall, University of Maryland, College Park
Katie’s office hours: 2:30-3:30 pm T & W
Office phone: 301.405.7294 (voice mail)
Email: katking@umd.edu
Homepage: http://www.womensstudies.umd.edu/wmstfac/kking/
Class Blog at: http:// femtheoumd.blogspot.com/
ELMS login at: https://elms.umd.edu/
course description
it's all about thinking about thinking.
Does that mean it's not also about action? Well, that's one of the controversies of feminist theory -- how do thinking and acting connect? How can we describe and enact the ways they create each other?
How we see the world, what we do in it, what we can imagine changing and moving and shaking and shifting....
theory makes worlds. let's do it now, together, in this class and in the world.
This course is required for all women's studies majors, minors and certificate students. At the same time it tends to attract folks for whom women's studies is not their primary field. For the purposes of this pivotal class in women's studies you are invited, no matter what your primary field is, to make feminist theory central to all your work, be it academic, practical, theoretical, activist. But understand that the course is also properly and primarily geared to open upon some of the technical aspects of women's studies and feminist theory for our majors. Still, women's studies strives to create open communities of use. Ours here is an active and ambitious learning community for theory.
To create our own community of theorists and activists, we want to all get to know each other and work with each other. All students please do come to office hours to just talk. I want to get to know each of you personally!
We are also lucky to have an undergraduate teaching assistant for this course, Renee Davidson, a women's studies major who loves feminist theory and loves sharing it. Renee will be working with our on-going book groups. We be talking more about this in class, but basically everyone will belong to book groups over the semester and will work in them to help each other read, understand, and think about how to use the course books and any other reading, research or activist materials. Renee will be the team leader advising book groups and sharing her skills and knowledges about how to read feminist theory, how to approach a women's studies course, and how to connect the scholarly aspects of the class to the many political, personal and social change goals feminists have.
Both Renee and I want to know how the class is working for you, what touches and excites you, how your projects are going. Let me know in office hours or after class when you need help, or any special accommodations, the sooner the better.
Folks with disabilities or who need time from class to observe religious holidays, please contact Katie ASAP to make any arrangements necessary.
we will have a class blog as well as use course mail, so be sure you have access to internet resources, perhaps in labs across campus. Come and talk to me if you are having difficulties getting access to these resources. Plan on visiting our blog site and reading email at the very least twice a week, and not just a few minutes before class. You are encouraged to bring laptops to class and to use the campus wireless network. We want to include new media skills as elements in our learning community, and teach each other the best ways to use them for academic work.
required readings (also on reserve at McKeldin):
For your convenience I have ordered all the course textbooks for purchase at the campus book store. But, remember that while you are required to READ them, you are not required to BUY them. I have also requested them all on reserve at McKeldin Library Reserves (at the Circulation Desk) for any of you to use for 24 hrs at a time. You could read them there or at any library you can get them from, taking good notes; you could xerox parts for yourself; you can share books with each other; and you can buy them anywhere you can find them including online used, or order them individually anywhere as you like. So, borrow and share with each other, or find them anyway you can. However, do not wait until the last minute (the night before) to discover one is not available on reserve (it does happen even if I've requested it, and often if someone else is using it), at any bookstore, online, etc. Be sure you have secured access LONG before we are going to read it. Finding a copy to read is part of your job in the class!
In the past I ordered all course books from Vertigo Books, a wonderful independent bookstore located on the edge of campus, because I wanted to support the bookstore and help it to survive in College Park. It is such a contribution to the community life of College Park and our university! Supporting them, I felt, works to counter the large economic consolidations of the publishing industry; it's a way of using your economic power to promote good feminist political practice. However, university rules have made this option unfeasible, for classes and for Vertigo too. Still, I would like to encourage you to check the place out anyway. When you go there, be sure to sign up for notice of when authors come to talk about their books. Vertigo regularly has exciting events of this sort. The bookstore is on the corner between HW 1 and Knox Rd, across the street from the Cornerstone restaurant: 7346 Baltimore Avenue. The telephone number there is: 301.779.9300.
Here's the book list with ISBN numbers to make it easier for you to order them yourselves if you want to do that: do get the 10th anniversary edition of Black Feminist Thought if possible; however the older editions are usable in the course too. Otherwise, any edition is fine:
required:
• Melody Berger. 2006. We Don't Need Another Wave. Seal Press. 1580051820
• Patricia Hill Collins. 2000. Black Feminist Thought. Routledge. 0415924847
• Donna Haraway. 2003. The Companion Species Manifesto. Prickly Paradigm. 0971757585
• Incite! Women of Color Against Violence. 2007. The Revolution Will Not be Funded. South End. 0896087662
• Chandra Talpade Mohanty. 2003. Feminism Without Borders. Duke. 0822330210
recommended and also on reserve at McKeldin:
TRANSNATIONAL AMERICA 978-0-8-2233544-3 GREWAL
SEPARATE ROADS TO FEMINISM 978-0-5-2152972-3 ROTH
assignments and class organization, in the context of the pleasures of a learning community
learning communities
In this course you are not just learning what others know, but, in the intellectual traditions of women's studies, you too are creating new knowledge, in your own research, activities and synthesis! Our objective in this course is together to create a vibrant learning community. This is an exciting responsibility – we have obligations to each other in a learning community, but even more, we keep close to the whole point of belonging to knowledge worlds: making, sharing, using, demonstrating and patterning knowledge.
In this spirit, each assignment is created to provide a specific learning experience. Grades matter but not as much as the experience does. Grades will be distributed and papers returned twice during the semester in order to emphasize the learning process itself. But you may come to office hours with Katie at any time to discuss grades, papers and how you are doing in the class in detail.
Keeping up with assignments, carefully preparing for class, participating in discussion and in analysis, and opening up to the implications of what we come to know in the course, these are all elements of a leaning community that we will sometimes talk about as well as implement. This is an important way to get to know others too. Intellectual friendship is one of the great enjoyments that college offers, sometimes lasting throughout one's life. This could be a place where you make life-long friends and learn skills and pleasures you will find valuable for many years. This is where we want to put our intentions, motivations and energies.
Half the assignments will be written and half will be presentations. Some people are better at one or the other. Encourage yourself to work with the sort you usually find harder. And encourage others who may have different skills and pleasures than you do, sharing with them what makes it easier or more fun for you. It may seem rather silly to call class work fun, and admittedly it may not be especially relaxing or recreational. But I am the sort of person who finds intellectual work fun; that's why I am a professor of women's studies. And I would like to share with you as much I can what this kind of fun is about, how to cultivate it and recognize it, and how to carry it with you throughout your life.
finding and reading
So the fun of it all starts with finding interesting stuff. One place is the library. Before the Web, the library was usually the very best place. Today the Web is also a great place, and some stuff is in both places. But some stuff is only in the library. We will be doing a lot of work on the Web, especially in the beginning, and the lecture part of the class will run from there. But having intellectual fun requires coming to enjoy libraries. While our library is good in many ways, I admit it's not the most fun library I have ever used. Over your life, find libraries that are. And do get into using ours, even if it is a bit confusing in organization and is not as comfortable or attractive as would be nicer. It does have open stacks, which are great for finding things unexpectedly. It does have a wonderful staff that will guide you in learning research skills and maybe pleasures. And it has many electronic resources that will help you learn to use the Web too more effectively.
The biggest piece for class however will be the reading. We are deliberately reading things that are not all alike, but are all forms in which feminist theory is shared. Some readings are more difficult than others, some are more immediately accessible than others, some have technical or scholarly bits that will require careful close attention. All of them are fun for someone, whether or not they are, at least immediately, fun for you. Getting a sense of the range of feminist theory means learning to read difficult scholarly material without being intimidated by it. None of our books are among the very most difficult stuff. Even the most difficult of our books are, relatively speaking, carefully written to be shared as widely as possible. But they are not necessarily specifically written for an undergraduate women's studies class in feminist theory. They are not textbooks in that sense. They are written for some group or groups of feminist theorists. You may or may not be a member of those groups. Learning to read these things is a skill we will address directly in class. But here are a few points to keep in mind:
• First, be willing to REread, perhaps many times. Especially so if you find this book valuable.
Don't assume any book can be understood in one reading, or that it is the author's job to make this book something easy to consume. Be realistic about how much one can understand on first reading a book, even on first working with a book over several readings.
• Second, that means, don't be intimidated.
Books of real importance introduce us to questions that no one has easy answers to. Think instead of being invited into the most interesting concerns that humans have had over long stretches of time. Now it's your turn to take up these issues and come to care about them, to add your bit to the range of collective human knowledge, to learn how to create knowledge, to share it, to show others how to use it, to be savvy in what you do with it yourself.
• Third, work with the book in layers: notice what's easy and get that first.
Only after getting the first easiest layer do you take up the next level of difficulty or confusion. When you do, pick out the most interesting bit of it next. See what connects to that, and work out where this might take you. Add in bits and layers, reading, checking the web, talking to others, then re-reading. Real reading happens in bits and bursts; it is highly interactive and it takes time.
• Finally, if it is hard and confusing, swim around in the difficulty and the chaos a bit
-- without that stage of engagement as well, you cannot really believe in the depth of these human concerns and why all this matters. Enjoy the spaces of non-knowing and the excitements of learning yet to happen. Have some trust, as well as willingness to be in the spaces of not-yet-knowing. This can be an intellectual, emotional, spiritual and political experience of importance. Check it out.
how the class will be organized
On Tuesdays we will have some lecturing time. Some days this will take up the whole class period. Other times it will take up a big chuck of it. Thursdays we will be mostly discussing together or presenting to each other. In other words, Tuesdays will be more about taking things in, absorbing them and learning to put them in context. Thursdays will be more about actively using what we come to know, sharing it others, thinking on one's feet, brainstorming and speculating, figuring out how it all fits together. Both require careful preparation before class, the most important being keeping up with the reading. You won't get as much from the lecturing part if you haven't read the stuff, and you certainly will have a hard time participating and discussing something you haven't read. Some educators call these forms passive and active learning. One can take in and absorb more complicated stuff than one can work with and work out, at least at first. We do both in the class, but we also realize that active learning requires patience and imagination, a bit of courage to try things out without knowing something for sure yet, and a willingness to play around with being right and wrong, guessing and redoing.
The on-going book groups will usually meet for about 25 mins on Thursdays at the beginning of class, when together they will fill out the book group sheet to help collect and organize thoughts about the materials. You can always do this individually before class too. Occasionally the groups will meet just before we end on Tuesdays. So you really do need to have done the reading by Tuesday properly speaking, and then probably do re-reading for Thursday.
assignments
everyone will contribute to on-going book group work: summary sheets, learning analysis, log book.
• Participating actively in book group, turning in summary sheets and other preparations.
For example, what are three important points from the reading? How do you outline the argument? Name a key term. These and other questions are part of the summary sheets you will fill out for each week's reading. Group work will include comments on who does what. Everyone will fill out sheet in class (and maybe before); one person will turn one in during class; that person will need a xerox of someone else's sheet for their use through the course. The final week of class will be devoted to the learning analysis, which is the culminating book group activity. And a log book of assignments completed, dates turned in, and so on, will be collected 3 times during the semester, and will be considered part of this on-going summarizing. 1/3 of your grade comes from summary sheets, learning analysis, and log book submissions.
everyone will also do a paper and a presentation.
Both will require additional research as well as keeping up with class readings. Much of the research will emerge out of lectures and their resources, so attending lectures faithfully and taking good notes will make this work a lot easier.
• Forms in which feminist theory is shared and ways of classifying feminist theories.
Standpoint theory? Black feminist thought? Postmodernism and posthumanism? How do we describe the varieties of feminist theories and the forms they take? You and a partner will take up some of these issues, decided in consultation with Katie, in either a presentation for the class, or, a week later, in a shared paper. Whether you do a presentation or a paper will be determined by lot. 1/3 of your grade.
• A project in making or using feminist theory with attention to histories of feminist movements.
How did second wave feminists produce theory in CR groups? What happens when you work in a similar group? How did the separate routes to feminism taken by some identity groups affect what counts as theory and how we understand social change? What does globalization have to do with feminist practices? These and similar projects with attention to histories of feminist movements will focus this assignment. Katie and Renee will help you figure out which issues you want to think and know more about in either a presentation for the class, or, a week later, in a paper. Whether you do a presentation or a paper will be determined by lot. 1/3 of your grade.
SUMMARY OF GRADED MATERIALS:
• grps and preps: 1/3 grade: 7 summary sheets, 4 submissions logbooks, 1 learning analysis
• paper: 1/3 grade
• presentation: 1/3 grade
SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR WOMEN'S STUDIES MAJORS, MINORS AND CERTIFICATE STUDENTS! IN ADDITION you should turn in a hard copy of all graded written assignments for ALL women's studies courses to Laura Nichols, your women's studies advisor. RECORD THIS IN YOUR LOGBOOK! After verifying whether you are a major, minor or certificate student, all identifying information will be removed. These papers are collected so that our department can assess how we are doing in getting across concepts, skills, and approaches from this field of women's studies to our students. This is not an assessment of students, but another way to assess our department's work. YOUR COOPERATION IS ESSENTIAL. Please take this need seriously and help us collect this data. All departments are required to conduct these assessments now and in our department we want to make ours as women's studies friendly as possible!
Wondering how grades are determined? What they mean on your paper?
• A work is excellent, unusually creative and/or analytically striking
• B is fine work of high quality, though not as skilled, ambitious, or carefully edited as A
• C is average work fulfilling the assignment; may be hasty, drafted once, showing difficulties with grammar, spelling, word choice
• D work is below average or incomplete; shows many difficulties or can't follow instructions
• F work is not sufficient to pass; unwillingness to do the work, or so many difficulties unable to complete
See http://www.womensstudies.umd.edu/wmstfac/kking/teaching/250/grades.html
for more discussion of each grade.
Class Blogs and Coursemail
When you registered for this course the email address that you gave to Testudo will be the place where you will receive announcements for the class on coursemail. If you have not already gotten such coursemail then you are not regularly checking that particular address and are using another email location as your preferred address. YOU ARE REQUIRED to regularly view coursemail, at least twice a week. Any announcements about cancellations due to weather or other considerations, and general class requirements will be sent out on coursemail and you need to see them quickly. So, either make a point of checking THAT email address, or redirect or seek help to redirect this mail to your preferred email address. To get help go to OIT's Help Desk at the Computer Center.
the blog for our entire class is located at: http:// femtheoumd.blogspot.com/
This is where graphics, lecture materials and notes, communications and assignment help, and other vital class information and presentations are displayed. This too needs to be regularly checked out. Your assignments will be easier to do if you stay very familiar with this website.
We will also have an ELMS class site. We will probably be using this only occasionally. Check in there, note the first announcement (about the blog address), and keep your connection handy. Probably we will be using this site to keep track of your assignments. If so, you will turn in hard copy and also upload assignments here. You would not receive credit for any assignment until BOTH of these versions are submitted. If you have any difficulties with this, come to office hours for help.
what to do when you miss class:
• TALK TO AT LEAST TWO CLASS BUDDIES IMMEDIATELY. Before you even come back to class, call them up or email them and find out if any special assignments are due the day you return, and make sure that you know about any changes in the syllabus. Try to have done the reading and be as prepared as possible to participate in class when you return.
• MAKE A DATE TO MEET WITH CLASS BUDDY TO GET NOTES AND DISCUSS WHAT WENT ON IN CLASS WHILE YOU WERE GONE. You are responsible for what happened in class while you were gone. As soon as possible, get caught up with notes, with discussions with buddies and finally with all the readings and assignments. Always talk with class buddies first.
• AFTER YOU HAVE GOTTEN CLASS NOTES AND TALKED ABOUT WHAT WENT ON IN CLASS WITH BUDDIES, THEN MAKE APPOINTMENT TO SEE KATIE. If you just miss one class, getting the notes and such should be enough. But if you've been absent for more than a week, be sure you make an appointment with Katie, and come in and discuss what is going on. She wants to know how you are doing and how she can help. Or, while you are out, if it's as long as a week, send Katie email at katking@umd.edu and let her know what is happening with you, so she can figure out what sort of help is needed.
• BE SURE TO CHECK IN WITH OUR UTA, Renee Davidson. Her email is: rdavidsn@umd.edu. She also wants to help you out, and needs to understand why you were absent, since work with your book group will be part of your grade. She will ask who you've been getting notes from and so on, so have done that already if at all possible.
• IF YOU ARE OUT FOR ANY EXTENDED TIME be sure you contact both Katie and Renee. Keep them up to date on what is happening, so that any arrangements necessary can be made. If you miss too much class you will have to retake the course at another time. But if you keep in contact, depending on the situation, perhaps accommodations can be made. Since attendance is crucial for almost all assignments and thus for your final grade, don't leave this until the end. LET US KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING so that we can help as much and as soon as possible.
Check our blog and http://www.womensstudies.umd.edu/wmstfac/kking/teaching/250/missmore250.html
for these instructions.
Reading, Writing & Web Assignments
Readings are of several sorts: some will be discussed in depth in class, others are background reading to enrich discussion and class and research experiences.
Generally speaking with some exceptions, Tuesdays are lecture days, Thursdays are discussion days. Attendance both days is essential.
AN INTRODUCTION TO THEORY, FEMINISMS, AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
Tuesday, 2 September—Welcome to Our Course!
• HANDOUTS: syllabus, histories and documents handout, two summary sheets
What do we know coming to the class?
Thursday, 4 September—Theory makes worlds
• read the syllabus carefully, come to know it thoroughly
What will we do in this feminist theory class? a focus on creating a learning community to share our feminist knowledge worlds and participate in social change.
Tuesday, 9 September—Worlds feminisms made historically: waves, generations, social movements
• read: Berger, WAVE; everyone should read the first three essays; from the remaining thirty choose ten that interest or inspire you most; be ready to say how you chose them. For the next class you will do some web work on feminist historical sources and will fill out your first summary sheet to make connections between the web sources and this reading. You may wish to work on these at the same time, starting now. So look at the next class assignments too to see how to do this.
Feminist historians and social movement theorists have worked hard to demonstrate how feminist theory is directly created within and for social movements. Kinds of feminisms have different historical trajectories and produce a range of forms in which feminist theory is created, used and shared.
Thursday, 11 September—Feminist historical sources and web worlds
• web action: historical sources, read and analyze 3 to talk about and share; one you know already but add to, two you don't so much; see handouts and assignment links on blog
• DUE: summary sheet 1, completed before and with book group; this one is slightly modified for our first assignment connecting readings and web sources.
Feminist theory emerges from concrete complexities and historically active social movements. Why do we need to know about these histories? Take some time to notice how some learning also requires unlearning.
THE MATRIX OF DOMINATION, STANDPOINT THEORY, AND INTERSECTIONALITY
Tuesday, 16 September—What it takes to create knowledges: standpoint theory and identity politics
• read: Collins, Prefaces, Acknowledgements, Parts 1 and 3, Glossary: pp. vi-44; 227-290; 298-301.
Collins' matrix of domination brings together marxist standpoint theories and postmodern theories of subjectivity and positionality to create an afro-centric feminism. In the years in which Black Feminist Thought becomes very influential, a range of identity-based feminisms assert their histories and disciplinarities. Legal studies produce critical race theory. Intersectionality becomes both an umbrella term for many theories of political subjectivity, and also a new social science based methodology across disciplines.
Thursday, 18 September—Beginning in the Middle
• DUE: summary sheet 2, completed before and with book group.
How do we learn to put in context many theories all at once? There is no "beginning" to start from really, although histories help to track developments. Feminist generations keep recreating their own beginning, but at some point have to come to terms with feminisms that are already at work. How does one be simultaneously an initiator, a founder, a joiner and a sustainer? How do you do this yourself?
Tuesday, 23 September—Revising Oneself: critique and criticism-self-criticism
• read: Mohanty, Introduction, Chaps. 1 & 9: Under Western Eyes, and Revisited (pp. 1-42; 221-252)
The second wave in the US is known for its practice of critique, its histories of sectarian politics, and its conflict and confrontations. "Under Western Eyes" works critique in transnational terms in which the US as center of feminist theory comes under scrutiny.
Thursday, 25 September—Accountabilities
• DUE: summary sheet 3, completed before and with book group.
What does one use critique for? how do we connect and reflect on critique, debunking, critical thinking, revisioning, self-criticism?
Tuesday, 30 September—NO CLASS, Rosh Hashanah
THOUGHT AND CORE THEMES FOR FEMINISTS
Thursday, 2 October—Moving among knowledge worlds
• read: Collins, Part 2: choose at least three of the seven chapters to read carefully. Pick at least one that is something you know very little about experientially.
How do Collins' revisions from a transnational perspective alter the core themes of Black Feminist Thought? Why are these the core themes? When are they specific to Black feminism and when are they generalizable?
Tuesday, 7 October—Images, oppressions, relationships, self-definitions
• DUE: summary sheet 4, completed before and with book group; turn in logbook for the first time.
How do images travel and why? How do oppressions relate across differences? What relationships need to be nurtured by feminism and have nurtured it in various identity groupings? Why does self-definition matter?
Thursday, 9 October—NO CLASS, Yom Kippur
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MUSIC:
Le Tigre. "Dyke March 2001." Feminist Sweepstakes. 2003.
Toshi Reagon. "Have You Heard?" from album Have You Heard? 2005.
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A $1.3 trillion industry, the US nonprofit sector is the world's seventh largest economy. From art museums and university hospitals to think tanks and church charities, over 1.5 million organizations of staggering diversity share the tax-exempt 501(c)(3) designation, if little else. Many social justice organizations have joined this world, often blunting political goals to satisfy government and foundation mandates. But even as funding shrinks and government surveillance rises, many activists often find it difficult to imagine movement-building outside the nonprofit model. The Revolution Will Not Be Funded gathers original essays by radical activists from around the globe who are critically rethinking the long-term consequences of this investment. Together with educators and nonprofit staff they finally name the "nonprofit industrial complex" and ask hard questions....
By Donna Jeanne Haraway
Published by Prickly Paradigm Press, 2003
ISBN 0971757585
from Amazon:
The Companion Species Manifesto is about the implosion of nature and culture in the joint lives of dogs and people, who are bonded in "significant otherness." In all their historical complexity, Donna Haraway tells us, dogs matter. They are not just surrogates for theory, she says; they are not here just to think with. Neither are they just an alibi for other themes; dogs are fleshly material-semiotic presences in the body of technoscience. They are here to live with. Partners in the crime of human evolution, they are in the garden from the get-go, wily as Coyote. This pamphlet is Haraway's answer to her own Cyborg Manifesto, where the slogan for living on the edge of global war has to be not just "cyborgs for earthly survival" but also, in a more doggish idiom, "shut up and train."
====from Amazon:
The Companion Species Manifesto is about the implosion of nature and culture in the joint lives of dogs and people, who are bonded in "significant otherness." In all their historical complexity, Donna Haraway tells us, dogs matter. They are not just surrogates for theory, she says; they are not here just to think with. Neither are they just an alibi for other themes; dogs are fleshly material-semiotic presences in the body of technoscience. They are here to live with. Partners in the crime of human evolution, they are in the garden from the get-go, wily as Coyote. This pamphlet is Haraway's answer to her own Cyborg Manifesto, where the slogan for living on the edge of global war has to be not just "cyborgs for earthly survival" but also, in a more doggish idiom, "shut up and train."
Here is our Preliminary Syllabus as of 1 Sept. 08. It will be completed asap. But this gives you some idea of where we are going.
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http://femtheoumd.blogspot.com/
theories of feminism, thinking and action
WMST 400, Fall 2008 UMD
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30 pm – 1:45 pm at HBK 0103
PREREQUISITES: designed for upper division undergraduates who have taken at least one feminist course, preferably from the women's studies department. Some other courses may be used to satisfy this prerequisite, but need approval. Email Katie King for interview if necessary.
Professor: Katie King
Office: 2101F Woods Hall, University of Maryland, College Park
Katie’s office hours: 2:30-3:30 pm T & W
Office phone: 301.405.7294 (voice mail)
Email: katking@umd.edu
Homepage: http://www.womensstudies.umd.edu/wmstfac/kking/
Class Blog at: http:// femtheoumd.blogspot.com/
ELMS login at: https://elms.umd.edu/
course description
it's all about thinking about thinking.
Does that mean it's not also about action? Well, that's one of the controversies of feminist theory -- how do thinking and acting connect? How can we describe and enact the ways they create each other?
How we see the world, what we do in it, what we can imagine changing and moving and shaking and shifting....
theory makes worlds. let's do it now, together, in this class and in the world.
This course is required for all women's studies majors, minors and certificate students. At the same time it tends to attract folks for whom women's studies is not their primary field. For the purposes of this pivotal class in women's studies you are invited, no matter what your primary field is, to make feminist theory central to all your work, be it academic, practical, theoretical, activist. But understand that the course is also properly and primarily geared to open upon some of the technical aspects of women's studies and feminist theory for our majors. Still, women's studies strives to create open communities of use. Ours here is an active and ambitious learning community for theory.
To create our own community of theorists and activists, we want to all get to know each other and work with each other. All students please do come to office hours to just talk. I want to get to know each of you personally!
We are also lucky to have an undergraduate teaching assistant for this course, Renee Davidson, a women's studies major who loves feminist theory and loves sharing it. Renee will be working with our on-going book groups. We be talking more about this in class, but basically everyone will belong to book groups over the semester and will work in them to help each other read, understand, and think about how to use the course books and any other reading, research or activist materials. Renee will be the team leader advising book groups and sharing her skills and knowledges about how to read feminist theory, how to approach a women's studies course, and how to connect the scholarly aspects of the class to the many political, personal and social change goals feminists have.
Both Renee and I want to know how the class is working for you, what touches and excites you, how your projects are going. Let me know in office hours or after class when you need help, or any special accommodations, the sooner the better.
Folks with disabilities or who need time from class to observe religious holidays, please contact Katie ASAP to make any arrangements necessary.
we will have a class blog as well as use course mail, so be sure you have access to internet resources, perhaps in labs across campus. Come and talk to me if you are having difficulties getting access to these resources. Plan on visiting our blog site and reading email at the very least twice a week, and not just a few minutes before class. You are encouraged to bring laptops to class and to use the campus wireless network. We want to include new media skills as elements in our learning community, and teach each other the best ways to use them for academic work.
required readings (also on reserve at McKeldin):
For your convenience I have ordered all the course textbooks for purchase at the campus book store. But, remember that while you are required to READ them, you are not required to BUY them. I have also requested them all on reserve at McKeldin Library Reserves (at the Circulation Desk) for any of you to use for 24 hrs at a time. You could read them there or at any library you can get them from, taking good notes; you could xerox parts for yourself; you can share books with each other; and you can buy them anywhere you can find them including online used, or order them individually anywhere as you like. So, borrow and share with each other, or find them anyway you can. However, do not wait until the last minute (the night before) to discover one is not available on reserve (it does happen even if I've requested it, and often if someone else is using it), at any bookstore, online, etc. Be sure you have secured access LONG before we are going to read it. Finding a copy to read is part of your job in the class!
In the past I ordered all course books from Vertigo Books, a wonderful independent bookstore located on the edge of campus, because I wanted to support the bookstore and help it to survive in College Park. It is such a contribution to the community life of College Park and our university! Supporting them, I felt, works to counter the large economic consolidations of the publishing industry; it's a way of using your economic power to promote good feminist political practice. However, university rules have made this option unfeasible, for classes and for Vertigo too. Still, I would like to encourage you to check the place out anyway. When you go there, be sure to sign up for notice of when authors come to talk about their books. Vertigo regularly has exciting events of this sort. The bookstore is on the corner between HW 1 and Knox Rd, across the street from the Cornerstone restaurant: 7346 Baltimore Avenue. The telephone number there is: 301.779.9300.
Here's the book list with ISBN numbers to make it easier for you to order them yourselves if you want to do that: do get the 10th anniversary edition of Black Feminist Thought if possible; however the older editions are usable in the course too. Otherwise, any edition is fine:
required:
• Melody Berger. 2006. We Don't Need Another Wave. Seal Press. 1580051820
• Patricia Hill Collins. 2000. Black Feminist Thought. Routledge. 0415924847
• Donna Haraway. 2003. The Companion Species Manifesto. Prickly Paradigm. 0971757585
• Incite! Women of Color Against Violence. 2007. The Revolution Will Not be Funded. South End. 0896087662
• Chandra Talpade Mohanty. 2003. Feminism Without Borders. Duke. 0822330210
recommended and also on reserve at McKeldin:
TRANSNATIONAL AMERICA 978-0-8-2233544-3 GREWAL
SEPARATE ROADS TO FEMINISM 978-0-5-2152972-3 ROTH
assignments and class organization, in the context of the pleasures of a learning community
learning communities
In this course you are not just learning what others know, but, in the intellectual traditions of women's studies, you too are creating new knowledge, in your own research, activities and synthesis! Our objective in this course is together to create a vibrant learning community. This is an exciting responsibility – we have obligations to each other in a learning community, but even more, we keep close to the whole point of belonging to knowledge worlds: making, sharing, using, demonstrating and patterning knowledge.
In this spirit, each assignment is created to provide a specific learning experience. Grades matter but not as much as the experience does. Grades will be distributed and papers returned twice during the semester in order to emphasize the learning process itself. But you may come to office hours with Katie at any time to discuss grades, papers and how you are doing in the class in detail.
Keeping up with assignments, carefully preparing for class, participating in discussion and in analysis, and opening up to the implications of what we come to know in the course, these are all elements of a leaning community that we will sometimes talk about as well as implement. This is an important way to get to know others too. Intellectual friendship is one of the great enjoyments that college offers, sometimes lasting throughout one's life. This could be a place where you make life-long friends and learn skills and pleasures you will find valuable for many years. This is where we want to put our intentions, motivations and energies.
Half the assignments will be written and half will be presentations. Some people are better at one or the other. Encourage yourself to work with the sort you usually find harder. And encourage others who may have different skills and pleasures than you do, sharing with them what makes it easier or more fun for you. It may seem rather silly to call class work fun, and admittedly it may not be especially relaxing or recreational. But I am the sort of person who finds intellectual work fun; that's why I am a professor of women's studies. And I would like to share with you as much I can what this kind of fun is about, how to cultivate it and recognize it, and how to carry it with you throughout your life.
finding and reading
So the fun of it all starts with finding interesting stuff. One place is the library. Before the Web, the library was usually the very best place. Today the Web is also a great place, and some stuff is in both places. But some stuff is only in the library. We will be doing a lot of work on the Web, especially in the beginning, and the lecture part of the class will run from there. But having intellectual fun requires coming to enjoy libraries. While our library is good in many ways, I admit it's not the most fun library I have ever used. Over your life, find libraries that are. And do get into using ours, even if it is a bit confusing in organization and is not as comfortable or attractive as would be nicer. It does have open stacks, which are great for finding things unexpectedly. It does have a wonderful staff that will guide you in learning research skills and maybe pleasures. And it has many electronic resources that will help you learn to use the Web too more effectively.
The biggest piece for class however will be the reading. We are deliberately reading things that are not all alike, but are all forms in which feminist theory is shared. Some readings are more difficult than others, some are more immediately accessible than others, some have technical or scholarly bits that will require careful close attention. All of them are fun for someone, whether or not they are, at least immediately, fun for you. Getting a sense of the range of feminist theory means learning to read difficult scholarly material without being intimidated by it. None of our books are among the very most difficult stuff. Even the most difficult of our books are, relatively speaking, carefully written to be shared as widely as possible. But they are not necessarily specifically written for an undergraduate women's studies class in feminist theory. They are not textbooks in that sense. They are written for some group or groups of feminist theorists. You may or may not be a member of those groups. Learning to read these things is a skill we will address directly in class. But here are a few points to keep in mind:
• First, be willing to REread, perhaps many times. Especially so if you find this book valuable.
Don't assume any book can be understood in one reading, or that it is the author's job to make this book something easy to consume. Be realistic about how much one can understand on first reading a book, even on first working with a book over several readings.
• Second, that means, don't be intimidated.
Books of real importance introduce us to questions that no one has easy answers to. Think instead of being invited into the most interesting concerns that humans have had over long stretches of time. Now it's your turn to take up these issues and come to care about them, to add your bit to the range of collective human knowledge, to learn how to create knowledge, to share it, to show others how to use it, to be savvy in what you do with it yourself.
• Third, work with the book in layers: notice what's easy and get that first.
Only after getting the first easiest layer do you take up the next level of difficulty or confusion. When you do, pick out the most interesting bit of it next. See what connects to that, and work out where this might take you. Add in bits and layers, reading, checking the web, talking to others, then re-reading. Real reading happens in bits and bursts; it is highly interactive and it takes time.
• Finally, if it is hard and confusing, swim around in the difficulty and the chaos a bit
-- without that stage of engagement as well, you cannot really believe in the depth of these human concerns and why all this matters. Enjoy the spaces of non-knowing and the excitements of learning yet to happen. Have some trust, as well as willingness to be in the spaces of not-yet-knowing. This can be an intellectual, emotional, spiritual and political experience of importance. Check it out.
how the class will be organized
On Tuesdays we will have some lecturing time. Some days this will take up the whole class period. Other times it will take up a big chuck of it. Thursdays we will be mostly discussing together or presenting to each other. In other words, Tuesdays will be more about taking things in, absorbing them and learning to put them in context. Thursdays will be more about actively using what we come to know, sharing it others, thinking on one's feet, brainstorming and speculating, figuring out how it all fits together. Both require careful preparation before class, the most important being keeping up with the reading. You won't get as much from the lecturing part if you haven't read the stuff, and you certainly will have a hard time participating and discussing something you haven't read. Some educators call these forms passive and active learning. One can take in and absorb more complicated stuff than one can work with and work out, at least at first. We do both in the class, but we also realize that active learning requires patience and imagination, a bit of courage to try things out without knowing something for sure yet, and a willingness to play around with being right and wrong, guessing and redoing.
The on-going book groups will usually meet for about 25 mins on Thursdays at the beginning of class, when together they will fill out the book group sheet to help collect and organize thoughts about the materials. You can always do this individually before class too. Occasionally the groups will meet just before we end on Tuesdays. So you really do need to have done the reading by Tuesday properly speaking, and then probably do re-reading for Thursday.
assignments
everyone will contribute to on-going book group work: summary sheets, learning analysis, log book.
• Participating actively in book group, turning in summary sheets and other preparations.
For example, what are three important points from the reading? How do you outline the argument? Name a key term. These and other questions are part of the summary sheets you will fill out for each week's reading. Group work will include comments on who does what. Everyone will fill out sheet in class (and maybe before); one person will turn one in during class; that person will need a xerox of someone else's sheet for their use through the course. The final week of class will be devoted to the learning analysis, which is the culminating book group activity. And a log book of assignments completed, dates turned in, and so on, will be collected 3 times during the semester, and will be considered part of this on-going summarizing. 1/3 of your grade comes from summary sheets, learning analysis, and log book submissions.
everyone will also do a paper and a presentation.
Both will require additional research as well as keeping up with class readings. Much of the research will emerge out of lectures and their resources, so attending lectures faithfully and taking good notes will make this work a lot easier.
• Forms in which feminist theory is shared and ways of classifying feminist theories.
Standpoint theory? Black feminist thought? Postmodernism and posthumanism? How do we describe the varieties of feminist theories and the forms they take? You and a partner will take up some of these issues, decided in consultation with Katie, in either a presentation for the class, or, a week later, in a shared paper. Whether you do a presentation or a paper will be determined by lot. 1/3 of your grade.
• A project in making or using feminist theory with attention to histories of feminist movements.
How did second wave feminists produce theory in CR groups? What happens when you work in a similar group? How did the separate routes to feminism taken by some identity groups affect what counts as theory and how we understand social change? What does globalization have to do with feminist practices? These and similar projects with attention to histories of feminist movements will focus this assignment. Katie and Renee will help you figure out which issues you want to think and know more about in either a presentation for the class, or, a week later, in a paper. Whether you do a presentation or a paper will be determined by lot. 1/3 of your grade.
SUMMARY OF GRADED MATERIALS:
• grps and preps: 1/3 grade: 7 summary sheets, 4 submissions logbooks, 1 learning analysis
• paper: 1/3 grade
• presentation: 1/3 grade
SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR WOMEN'S STUDIES MAJORS, MINORS AND CERTIFICATE STUDENTS! IN ADDITION you should turn in a hard copy of all graded written assignments for ALL women's studies courses to Laura Nichols, your women's studies advisor. RECORD THIS IN YOUR LOGBOOK! After verifying whether you are a major, minor or certificate student, all identifying information will be removed. These papers are collected so that our department can assess how we are doing in getting across concepts, skills, and approaches from this field of women's studies to our students. This is not an assessment of students, but another way to assess our department's work. YOUR COOPERATION IS ESSENTIAL. Please take this need seriously and help us collect this data. All departments are required to conduct these assessments now and in our department we want to make ours as women's studies friendly as possible!
Wondering how grades are determined? What they mean on your paper?
• A work is excellent, unusually creative and/or analytically striking
• B is fine work of high quality, though not as skilled, ambitious, or carefully edited as A
• C is average work fulfilling the assignment; may be hasty, drafted once, showing difficulties with grammar, spelling, word choice
• D work is below average or incomplete; shows many difficulties or can't follow instructions
• F work is not sufficient to pass; unwillingness to do the work, or so many difficulties unable to complete
See http://www.womensstudies.umd.edu/wmstfac/kking/teaching/250/grades.html
for more discussion of each grade.
Class Blogs and Coursemail
When you registered for this course the email address that you gave to Testudo will be the place where you will receive announcements for the class on coursemail. If you have not already gotten such coursemail then you are not regularly checking that particular address and are using another email location as your preferred address. YOU ARE REQUIRED to regularly view coursemail, at least twice a week. Any announcements about cancellations due to weather or other considerations, and general class requirements will be sent out on coursemail and you need to see them quickly. So, either make a point of checking THAT email address, or redirect or seek help to redirect this mail to your preferred email address. To get help go to OIT's Help Desk at the Computer Center.
the blog for our entire class is located at: http:// femtheoumd.blogspot.com/
This is where graphics, lecture materials and notes, communications and assignment help, and other vital class information and presentations are displayed. This too needs to be regularly checked out. Your assignments will be easier to do if you stay very familiar with this website.
We will also have an ELMS class site. We will probably be using this only occasionally. Check in there, note the first announcement (about the blog address), and keep your connection handy. Probably we will be using this site to keep track of your assignments. If so, you will turn in hard copy and also upload assignments here. You would not receive credit for any assignment until BOTH of these versions are submitted. If you have any difficulties with this, come to office hours for help.
what to do when you miss class:
• TALK TO AT LEAST TWO CLASS BUDDIES IMMEDIATELY. Before you even come back to class, call them up or email them and find out if any special assignments are due the day you return, and make sure that you know about any changes in the syllabus. Try to have done the reading and be as prepared as possible to participate in class when you return.
• MAKE A DATE TO MEET WITH CLASS BUDDY TO GET NOTES AND DISCUSS WHAT WENT ON IN CLASS WHILE YOU WERE GONE. You are responsible for what happened in class while you were gone. As soon as possible, get caught up with notes, with discussions with buddies and finally with all the readings and assignments. Always talk with class buddies first.
• AFTER YOU HAVE GOTTEN CLASS NOTES AND TALKED ABOUT WHAT WENT ON IN CLASS WITH BUDDIES, THEN MAKE APPOINTMENT TO SEE KATIE. If you just miss one class, getting the notes and such should be enough. But if you've been absent for more than a week, be sure you make an appointment with Katie, and come in and discuss what is going on. She wants to know how you are doing and how she can help. Or, while you are out, if it's as long as a week, send Katie email at katking@umd.edu and let her know what is happening with you, so she can figure out what sort of help is needed.
• BE SURE TO CHECK IN WITH OUR UTA, Renee Davidson. Her email is: rdavidsn@umd.edu. She also wants to help you out, and needs to understand why you were absent, since work with your book group will be part of your grade. She will ask who you've been getting notes from and so on, so have done that already if at all possible.
• IF YOU ARE OUT FOR ANY EXTENDED TIME be sure you contact both Katie and Renee. Keep them up to date on what is happening, so that any arrangements necessary can be made. If you miss too much class you will have to retake the course at another time. But if you keep in contact, depending on the situation, perhaps accommodations can be made. Since attendance is crucial for almost all assignments and thus for your final grade, don't leave this until the end. LET US KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING so that we can help as much and as soon as possible.
Check our blog and http://www.womensstudies.umd.edu/wmstfac/kking/teaching/250/missmore250.html
for these instructions.
Reading, Writing & Web Assignments
Readings are of several sorts: some will be discussed in depth in class, others are background reading to enrich discussion and class and research experiences.
Generally speaking with some exceptions, Tuesdays are lecture days, Thursdays are discussion days. Attendance both days is essential.
AN INTRODUCTION TO THEORY, FEMINISMS, AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
Tuesday, 2 September—Welcome to Our Course!
• HANDOUTS: syllabus, histories and documents handout, two summary sheets
What do we know coming to the class?
Thursday, 4 September—Theory makes worlds
• read the syllabus carefully, come to know it thoroughly
What will we do in this feminist theory class? a focus on creating a learning community to share our feminist knowledge worlds and participate in social change.
Tuesday, 9 September—Worlds feminisms made historically: waves, generations, social movements
• read: Berger, WAVE; everyone should read the first three essays; from the remaining thirty choose ten that interest or inspire you most; be ready to say how you chose them. For the next class you will do some web work on feminist historical sources and will fill out your first summary sheet to make connections between the web sources and this reading. You may wish to work on these at the same time, starting now. So look at the next class assignments too to see how to do this.
Feminist historians and social movement theorists have worked hard to demonstrate how feminist theory is directly created within and for social movements. Kinds of feminisms have different historical trajectories and produce a range of forms in which feminist theory is created, used and shared.
Thursday, 11 September—Feminist historical sources and web worlds
• web action: historical sources, read and analyze 3 to talk about and share; one you know already but add to, two you don't so much; see handouts and assignment links on blog
• DUE: summary sheet 1, completed before and with book group; this one is slightly modified for our first assignment connecting readings and web sources.
Feminist theory emerges from concrete complexities and historically active social movements. Why do we need to know about these histories? Take some time to notice how some learning also requires unlearning.
THE MATRIX OF DOMINATION, STANDPOINT THEORY, AND INTERSECTIONALITY
Tuesday, 16 September—What it takes to create knowledges: standpoint theory and identity politics
• read: Collins, Prefaces, Acknowledgements, Parts 1 and 3, Glossary: pp. vi-44; 227-290; 298-301.
Collins' matrix of domination brings together marxist standpoint theories and postmodern theories of subjectivity and positionality to create an afro-centric feminism. In the years in which Black Feminist Thought becomes very influential, a range of identity-based feminisms assert their histories and disciplinarities. Legal studies produce critical race theory. Intersectionality becomes both an umbrella term for many theories of political subjectivity, and also a new social science based methodology across disciplines.
Thursday, 18 September—Beginning in the Middle
• DUE: summary sheet 2, completed before and with book group.
How do we learn to put in context many theories all at once? There is no "beginning" to start from really, although histories help to track developments. Feminist generations keep recreating their own beginning, but at some point have to come to terms with feminisms that are already at work. How does one be simultaneously an initiator, a founder, a joiner and a sustainer? How do you do this yourself?
Tuesday, 23 September—Revising Oneself: critique and criticism-self-criticism
• read: Mohanty, Introduction, Chaps. 1 & 9: Under Western Eyes, and Revisited (pp. 1-42; 221-252)
The second wave in the US is known for its practice of critique, its histories of sectarian politics, and its conflict and confrontations. "Under Western Eyes" works critique in transnational terms in which the US as center of feminist theory comes under scrutiny.
Thursday, 25 September—Accountabilities
• DUE: summary sheet 3, completed before and with book group.
What does one use critique for? how do we connect and reflect on critique, debunking, critical thinking, revisioning, self-criticism?
Tuesday, 30 September—NO CLASS, Rosh Hashanah
THOUGHT AND CORE THEMES FOR FEMINISTS
Thursday, 2 October—Moving among knowledge worlds
• read: Collins, Part 2: choose at least three of the seven chapters to read carefully. Pick at least one that is something you know very little about experientially.
How do Collins' revisions from a transnational perspective alter the core themes of Black Feminist Thought? Why are these the core themes? When are they specific to Black feminism and when are they generalizable?
Tuesday, 7 October—Images, oppressions, relationships, self-definitions
• DUE: summary sheet 4, completed before and with book group; turn in logbook for the first time.
How do images travel and why? How do oppressions relate across differences? What relationships need to be nurtured by feminism and have nurtured it in various identity groupings? Why does self-definition matter?
Thursday, 9 October—NO CLASS, Yom Kippur
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MUSIC:
Le Tigre. "Dyke March 2001." Feminist Sweepstakes. 2003.
Toshi Reagon. "Have You Heard?" from album Have You Heard? 2005.
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