What Is Global About Gender?

Semester and Year	SP 2012
Course Number	iDSEM-UG1682
Section	001
Instructor	Ritty Lukose
Days	Thu
Time	3:30 PM - 6:10 PM
Units	4.0
Level	U
Foundation Requirement	SOC, GLOBAL

Description

This interdisciplinary seminar will explore the ways in which cross-cultural, transnational, global and international perspectives on women, gender and sexuality are imagined and struggled over by scholars, social movements, and activists in a variety of contemporary locations, both within and outside the Euro-American context. Such efforts are intended to forge politically enabling alliances and solidarities yet must navigate cultural and national differences, hierarchies within a global world order and complex histories of colonialism and imperialism. Beginning with histories and genealogies of feminist movements around the world, the course will first explore the links forged by colonialism, gender and sexuality with the expansion of Western imperialism. We will pay particular attention to the rise of anti-colonial nationalisms and the role of women, gender and sexuality within these formations. In the second part of the course, we will explore the rise of a new post-war international order centered on human rights and the UN system in the period of third world decolonization. Within this context, we will explore the ways in which women and girls, gender and sexuality become objects of development programs and initiatives, anti-violence and sex-trafficking campaigns, war and conflict resolution, among other issues. We will pay particular attention to the ways these international efforts and mobilizations intersect with national and local initiatives and the rise of NGOs as crucial mediators between international and local communities. Finally, we will examine how globalization and transnationalism have shaped frameworks for the study of gender and sexuality within the US context, paying particular attention to how solidarities and differences are imagined and struggled over. It is hoped that this course will help students to critically engage the complex terrain of forging global alliances and solidarities. Readings will include Kumari Jayawardena’s Feminism and Third World Nationalism , Afsaneh Najmabadi’s Women with Mustaches and Men with Beards , Lila Abu-Lughod (ed) Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East , Aiwa Ong and Michael Peletz, Bewitching Women and Pious Men: Gender and Body Politics in Southeast Asia,  “Thinking Sexuality Transnationally” by Elizabeth Povinelli and George Chauncy, Recasting Women: Essays in Colonial History  by Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid, Human Rights and Gender Violence by Sally Merry, Scattered Hegemonies  by Inderpal Grewal and Caren Kaplan, Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity by Chandra Mohanty.

Course Type

Interdisciplinary Seminars (iDSEM-UG)