Global Feminisms

Catalog description

This course introduces students to the complexity of feminisms in the context of contemporary globalization. Much of the course focuses on the variety of feminist movement transnationally, particularly as those movements respond to not only local culture and politics, but also to global politics, and as such it touches again and again on the history of power. Explorations of the interanimating systems of power in a given area or region includes attention to ideologies of gender, race, sexuality, colonialism, imperialism, health and welfare, any or all of which are either supported or disrupted by globalism. The course holds a feminist lens to issues such as: gender and sexualities; the politics of the body; ongoing effects of colonialism-in theory and practice-on women worldwide; women's health; women and the environment; women's labor; political economy; transnational migrations; global class relations; women and/in the media; violence against women; women and war; the global sex/human trafficking trades; silence and marginalization; citizenship politics; women in politics and activism around the globe. The course examines contemporary feminist theory in the Global North and the Global South, highlighting the ways in which the term "feminism" continues to be contested. Given that we no longer talk about "feminism" in the singular in the United States, lack of agreement on the priorities of feminists worldwide is even more acute, given diverse cultural, political and economic positions of women around the globe. Thus the course also asks students to resist the kinds of generalizations that have led to inadequate feminist response to urgent challenges faced by women around the world. At the same time, the course will ask what kinds of connections can be made between local feminisms, and transnational feminist movement.