Politics of Protest and Gender

Catalog description

This course investigates perceptions of protest and gender in politics, drawing on insights from international relations and human rights history to study gendered conceptualizations of peace as “feminine” and assumptions that militarism and war are historically “masculine.” The chronology of the course begins with Bertha von Suttner’s pacifist novel Lay Down your Arms! (1889) and ends in the present day. Through primary and secondary research, students will evaluate the importance of gender analysis in the study of war and its opponents. In particular, this course emphasizes the various roles of men and women participating in protest events and the spaces they choose to occupy. The course fosters a transnational perspective, highlighting different historical and geographical contexts such as 19th- century nationalism in Europe, the experience and aftermath of World War I, international debates around disarmament including nuclear disarmament, gendered violence during the dirty wars in Latin America, and more recent mass transnational protest events such as the Women’s March on Washington and the Occupy Movement. Finally, this course explores the role of public humanities projects in acts of protest. Digital Humanities: This course includes a digital humanities component that emphasizes transferable historical thinking and digital literacy skills. Each student will construct a historical case study on the relationships between gender and protest in various national and/or transnational contexts for publication on the course digital platform. No previous digital experience is required for this course.