WGST
330
Global Feminisms:
Women in War and Peacemaking
Spring 2002
Introduction
What does "feminism" mean in nonwestern cultures, and how have local movements and international agencies addressed gendered oppression around the world? Within the framework of global concern for women's rights and social justice set by the Beijing Platform of 1995, this course explores how the analysis of gender applies to defining and addressing critical social issues. This semester we will concentrate on what women do and what happens to women during armed conflicts, as well as women's roles in working toward nonviolent resolutions of conflict. During the last half of the semester, we will concentrate closely on women of Afghanistan and the historical and cultural circumstances surrounding the current crisis.The workshop-style class structure—in which everyone’s active participation is vital to the learning process—will include a variety of kinds of activities. We will use in-class writing about images and news items to focus class discussion on specific illustrations of the course content, with student news bureaus choosing the items and leading discussion. Early in the semester, with the aid of peer critiques, students will develop concept papers that will serve as a guide for their further work. Next, each student will define a research question to develop in stages over the course of the semester.
In all of these activities, we will aim to create a culture of dialogue where participants will be challenged to clarify and inform their positions on controversial topics while engaging respectfully with others with whom they disagree.
Required Texts
Lois Ann Lorentzen and Jennifer Turpin, eds. The Women and War Reader. New York University Press, 1998.
Eve Ensler. Necessary Targets: A Story of Women and War. Villard, 2001.
Home page of the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan.
Other readings will be available online or in duplicated packets to be purchased from the instructor.
Home page for Women in War and Peacemaking