Derived primarily from the field of anthropology, sociology, and literary and cultural studies, these questions will guide our examination of how feminist research has shaped and shapes its practices and methodologies. Readings will address the international scope of feminist inquiry and its fundamental engagement with the intersections of gender, race, and class issues. In the first weeks we will look at the potential of interdisciplinarity as feminist method and at the ways some early feminist writers in Britain and the US exemplify the problems in defining terms, issues, and audiences that continue to inform discourses of difference to the present day. The course then examines these tensions in the development of theoretical paradigms and research practices that have been central to feminist inquiry in its global context. The final weeks focus on specific issues in feminist research and the practical or policy implications they delineate.
Students present their own work in the last class meeting.
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman Seminar reader. Anthology of course readings. Texts may be purchased at New Words Bookstore , Inman Square, Cambridge. Each week a team of 2 or more students from different disciplines will present a selection form the readings to the class. In preparing a 1-2 page written summary of key issues, the team also should reflect on the collaborative process and pose questions generated by interdisciplinary method.