First-Year Research Seminar: Feminist Cultures of the US, 1960s-Present

Catalog description

This course will explore some of the major strands of feminism in the United States since the beginning of the so-called "second wave" in the 1960s. While tracing the variegated history of feminism as a social and political movement and mapping out major areas of political and theoretical debate, we will pay particular attention to feminist cultural production"literature, film, visual art, performance, and music"and how this has played a crucial role in defining what feminism is and advancing its demands. Among our guiding questions will be: What issues have been most influential in shaping feminist movements? How have feminists grappled with questions around race, class, gender identity, and sexuality? What cultural practices and spaces have helped foster feminism? Are there recognizable feminist aesthetics? What legacies of earlier feminist thought and art resonate most strongly today? "Course materials may include readings by Gloria Anzaldúa, Judith Butler, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Angela Davis, Andrea Dworkin, Alice Echols, Audre Lorde, Laura Mulvey, Jennifer C. Nash, Linda Nochlin, and Adrienne Rich; films directed by Lizzie Borden, Cheryl Dunye, and Barbara Hammer; and a wide selection of visual art and recordings of performances and music. To the extent possible, students will also be expected to take advantage of some of the feminist cultural resources that New York City has to offer, including the Riot Grrrl Collection at NYU"s Fales Library, the Barnard Zine Library, the expansive collection of feminist art at the Brooklyn Museum, and the WOW Café Theatre in the East Village.