WMST 101: Women in the World--
Introduction to Women's
Studies
Requirements | Syllabus | Links
White Camellia by Georgia O'Keefe
Professor Moira P. Baker
406 Young Hall
831-5352 (Office) 731-4104 (Home)
Office Hours:
T,W,R: 5:00-6:15 and by
appointment
To e-mail the class, click on our mailbox to right:
Radford University
Women’s History Month Calendar of Events—March 2007
"Most of
all, I have tried to understand the politics of they, why human beings
fear and stigmatize the different while secretly dreading that they might be
one of the different themselves. Class,
race, sexuality, gender--and all the categories by which we categorize and
dismiss each other--need to be excavated from the inside. [...] To resist
destruction, self-hatred, or life-long hopelessness, we have to throw off the
conditioning of being despised, the fear of becoming the they that is
talked about so dismissively, to refuse lying myths and easy moralities, to see
ourselves as human, flawed, and extraordinary.
All of us--extraordinary."
from Dorothy
Allison, "A Question of Class" (Skin 35-36)
Course
Description, Policies and Required Texts:
What is Women's
Studies? What, for that matter, is a
"woman"? What is feminism--or
should that be feminisms? How do
cultural assumptions about gender shape both female and male individuals? How
do a culture's belief systems, unexamined assumptions, and social institutions
justify the oppression of women? How do assumptions about race, social class,
nationality, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, and physical ability intersect
in women's lives to render more complex the discrimination they face each
day? How might we be unconsciously complicit
in institutions that benefit ourselves at the expense of other women and
men? How do global and multicultural
perspectives affect our understanding of all these questions?
This course sets out, rather
ambitiously, to ask these questions, recognizing that there are as many answers
to them as there are feminist scholars and activists working in the field of
Women's Studies. The course readings, activities, films, and discussions offer
myriad perspectives on such issues as the social shaping of gender and gender
identity; the construction of knowledge within academic disciplines; the body,
sexuality, and sexual politics; the consequences of economic institutions on
women's lives; and the impact of a globalized economy on women. The feminist scholars and activists whom we
will read may differ in their conclusions about these concerns because of their
varying experiences of social class, race, ethnicity, nationality, sexual
orientation, or physical ability. The
conviction that unites them, however, is that all women--indeed all people--have
the right to live with dignity and self-determination. The commitment they
share is that academic work--the work of the classroom, and the library, and
the laboratory--should make the world a more just and humane place.
I would like to invite you
to join in dialogue with these scholars and activists as they both challenge
and confirm some of your own beliefs. As in all academic disciplines, the work in
Women's Studies is rigorous and demanding.
You should plan to spend about six hours each week outside of class
preparing your assignments for the next week and working on your major papers
and projects. I ask you to open
yourselves to the ideas of others and to respect the many differences that we
will find among ourselves. In this way,
we can participate in the construction of feminist knowledge aimed at
understanding all women's positions in the world in the interest of justice and
equality.
WMST 101, Women in the
World, serves as the required foundational course for the minor in Women's
Studies. Because of its
interdisciplinary nature and its concern with gender issues from multicultural
and global perspectives, it is of interest to students in a variety of fields,
such as nursing and allied health fields, education, sociology, psychology,
criminal justice, history, English, foreign languages and literatures, media
studies, visual and performing arts, political science, communication sciences
and disorders, physical and health education, recreation and tourism, biology,
and a number of concentrations in business.
This course fulfills the
general education requirement in Area Five:
International and Multicultural Studies.
The
Minor in Women's Studies
The minor in Women's Studies
offers students a range of courses forming a program with an interdisciplinary
emphasis on women, the contributions they have made to society, and the effects
of gender inequality. The program
provides opportunities to become acquainted with the scholarship that has
developed during the last twenty-five years focusing on both the specifics of
women's lives and gender as a category of analysis. For information about the
minor in Women's Studies, visit
The
Center for Gender Studies
Located on the lower level
of
Course Policies:
Lively,
Respectful Dialogue
Dialogue and collaboration are
the heart of a feminist pedagogy aimed at the empowerment of all students. Our
work together relies upon an honest, open, and respectful dialogue so that all
students feel free to express their views. Here are just a few guidelines to
facilitate our conversations each week:
1) Be willing to share your ideas and
experiences with others, even though you may feel your ideas are
"different."
2) Don't EVER think that what you have to say is
stupid, dumb, silly, or, well, whatever ...
3) If you are a reserved person who finds
conversing in a group difficult, force yourself to join the dialogue.
4) Be respectful of the ideas and experiences of
others, even though you feel they are "different" from your own.
5) Listen respectfully, not interrupting, and
reserving judgment until you have attempted to hear what another has to say.
6) If you are an outgoing person, who finds
conversing in a group relatively easy, hold back a little and give others a
chance to speak
7) If you find yourself dominating the
conversation, speaking repeatedly to "win your point" while most of
the others in the class remain silent, remember that our purpose is not to
"win" debates but to openly air differing ideas and to learn from
each other.
8) Don't assume that because people are quiet
they have nothing to say and that you have to "fill the gap" by
speaking. The best way to fill an
uncomfortable gap is to ask others what they think.
9) Don't assume that silences are
unproductive. Give people time to
think. If you're uncomfortable with
silences, remember that others need more time to formulate their ideas--or to
dare to speak up.
The main watchwords to guide our dialogue are: respect for the ideas of others and regard
for their feelings. It is possible to be
honest with others without doing violence to their feelings. There will be many times when we disagree
with each other in this course. That's
an essential part of the learning process.
But let us resolve to both agree and disagree with each other respectfully,
with a deep concern for the thoughts, feelings, and dignity of others.
Attendance
Regular attendance and
thoughtful participation in class discussion are essential not only to your
individual performance, but also to the success of this course. Collaboration in every phase of the course is
essential if we are to form an intellectual community whose insights and power
surpass those of any one of us working on our own. We are all subjects who share the
responsibilities of teaching and learning in this class. Each of us has a responsibility to the group
and to the learning that goes on in class.
Therefore, more than 1 absence
will affect the final grade adversely.
More than three absences will result in automatic failure of the
course.
Late
Work and Requests for Extensions
I do not accept late Dialogue
Logs; however, if you miss a class, I will accept your dialogue log for that
class at our next class meeting but no later
Late submission of the Oral
History or Final Reflection essay will result in a lowering of the letter grade
by .5 for every day beyond the due date.
Failure to participate in the
Group Project for which you volunteer will result in a failure on that
assignment.
In
the event of extreme circumstances, such as sickness, family tragedy, or
an emergency, I can be reasonable about deadlines and the possibility of
extensions. But you must request an extension on your work
prior to the due date. I may grant an extension provided you
have a legitimate reason. You can
contact me via e-mail or phone. I will not grant any extensions of deadlines
if you do not request one prior to the due date.
Plagiarism
The University Affairs Council
has asked all faculty members to include the following statement in our course
policies:
"By accepting admission to
Plagiarism--including the use
of work submitted to another course without the consent of both instructors,
the use of work by another person, or the use of someone else's words, ideas,
or arrangement of ideas without giving proper reference to the author--is a
serious violation of the Honor Code.
This applies to all electronic web sites found on the Worldwide Web or
on amy on-line databases such as those available through McConnell Library
(InfoTrac, JStor, Project Muse). Please
see the section on plagiarism in your Student Handbook. Do not use Cliffs Notes or Spark Notes for
any of the texts assigned for class.
Your dialogue logs should reflect your own ideas in your own words. The same is true of your Oral History Essay
and your Final Reflection essay.
Required Texts:
Allison, Dorothy. Bastard Out of
Menchu,
Rigoberta. I, Rigoberta Menchu.
Kesselman, Amy, Lily McNair and
Nancy Schniedewind. Women: Images and Realities. 4th Edition.
Mayfield,
2007.
Requirements | Syllabus | Links