Global South Feminisms and Social Justice Movements

Catalog description

This course is about contemporary feminist movements in parts of the world that are often overlooked or labeled as “primitive”. With a particular, though not exclusive, focus on parts of South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh), north Africa (Egypt, Tunisia, etc.,) and countries of the Persian Gulf (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Yemen, etc.,), we will explore how women are social justice leaders in their daily lives, in individual and collective acts of resistance, in local communities as well as transnationally. We will examine some of the significant issues that poor women, women of color, racialized immigrant women, incarcerated women, confront and resist around the world. Rather than understand feminism as emanating from the “West” or the global north, this course focuses instead on what the “West” or the global north has yet to learn from feminist movements from other parts of the world. We will examine recent social movement histories, as well as considers contemporary social justice issues that impact, and are impacted by, multiple genders (with a particular though not exclusive focus on women and queer peoples), through various means of resistance and grassroots community organizing. These include organizing against reproductive rights abuses, globalization, and for immigrant, labor, and civil rights. Satisfies South Asian Studies minor requirement Satisfies Social-Scientific Thought Ways of Knowing requirement Satisfies Justice, Equality, and Community requirement