[The image in the header is "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" (2019) by Bisa Butler. Like many of her other pieces, this work is a quilt based on a black and white photograph of real people, in this case four young students at Atlanta University circa 1900. If you, like me, enjoy color and fabric, please check out other examples of her extraordinary work, visible here by clicking on the thumbnails. I like the idea of us working through this syllabus together under the gaze of these four confident and capable students.]
Week 1
Monday, August 30 - INTRODUCTION: WHY STUDY GENDER?
No reading due
Wednesday, September 1 - THE SEX / GENDER SYSTEM
Roy Richard Grinker. 1997. "Houses in the Rainforest: Gender and Ethnicity among the Lese and Efe in Zaire." In Perspectives on Africa. R. Grinker and C. Steiner, eds. Cambridge: Blackwell. Pages: 228-245.
Discussion Questions are due at noon.
Friday, September 3
Weekly writing due at 5pm
Week 2
Monday, September 6 - LABOR DAY
No class meeting.
Wednesday, September 8 - SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION
Anne Fausto-Sterling. 2000. "Dueling Dualisms." In her, Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality. New York: Basic Books. Pages: 1-29.
Discussion Questions are due at noon.
Friday, September 10
Weekly writing due at 5pm
Week 3
Monday, September 13 - NATURALIZING POWER
Emily Martin. 1991. "The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles." Signs 16(3): 485-501.
Wednesday, September 15 - INTERSECTIONS
Kate Rushin. 1981. “The Bridge Poem.” From This Bridge Called My Back. Albany: SUNY Press. Pages: xxxiii-xxxiv.
Audre Lorde. 1984. “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House.” From her Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Berkeley: Crossing Press. Pages: 110-113.
Cherríe Moraga. 1981. “La Güera.” From This Bridge Called My Back. Albany: SUNY Press. Pages: 22-29.
Mitsuye Yamada. 1981. “Invisibility is an Unnatural Disaster: Reflections of an Asian American Woman.” From This Bridge Called My Back. Albany: SUNY Press. Pages: 30-35.
Audre Lorde. “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action.” From her Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Berkeley: Crossing Press. Pages: 40-44
Discussion Questions are due at noon.
Friday, September 17
Weekly writing due at 5pm
Week 4
Monday, September 20 - QUEERING THE WORLD
Dredge Byung'chu Käng. 2014. "Idols of Development: Transnational Transgender Performance in Thai K-Pop Cover Dance." TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 1(4): 559-571.
Dr. Käng-Nguyễn very generously shared some example performances from Boys Generation, which are on the lecture Canvas / Media Gallery. By comparison, here is a Girls' Generation video.
Wednesday, September 22 - EMBODIMENT
Susan Stryker. 2007. "Transgender Feminism: Queering the Woman Question.” In Third Wave Feminism: A Critical Exploration, edited by Stacy Gillis, Gillian Howie, and Rebecca Munford. London: Palgrave Mcmillan. Pages: 59-70.
Discussion Questions are due at noon.
Friday, September 24
Weekly writing due at 5pm
Week 5
Monday, September 27 - BLACK FEMINISMS
Tressie McMillan Cottom. 2019. "Thick" and "Dying to be Competent." From her, Thick: And Other Essays. New York: The New Press. Pages: 1-32 and 73-98. *PDF will be added soon.*
Wednesday, September 29 - SUFFRAGE
Martha S. Jones. 2019. "The Politics of Black Womanhood, 1848–2008." From Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence, edited by Kate Clark Lemay. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Pages: 29-48.
Mikki Kendall and A. D'Amico. "Suffrage and Suffering: Women Fight for Freedom." From their Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists: A Graphic History of Women's Fight for Their Rights. 10 Speed Press. Pages: 70-103.
Discussion Questions are due at noon.
Friday, October 1
Weekly writing due at 5pm
Week 6
Monday, October 4 - ABILITY AND ABLEISM
Keah Brown. 2019. "Introduction," "Is This Thing On?," "Pop Culture & Me" and "The Pretty One." From her The Pretty One: On Life, Pop Culture, Disability and Other Reasons to Fall in Love with Me. New York: Atria. Pages: 1-10, 51-89, and 127-146.
Wednesday, October 6 - MOBILITY IN A "MALE" PRISON
Macario Garcia. 2019. "Preface" and "Masculine Hysteria: Dirty Work and Gendered Touch." From his Sensing Incarceration: Mobility, Animacy, Becoming Human. Pages: ii-iii and 46-77. *Please don't be worried about the length of the PDF. It includes the full bibliography, too, just in case you want to explore any texts Dr. Garcia mentions.
Discussion Questions are due at noon.
Friday, October 8
Weekly writing due at 5pm
Week 7
Monday, October 11 - ABILITY AND ABLEISM
No new reading due. The lecture will refer to Keah Brown's chapters you read in Week 6.
Wednesday, October 13 - POP CULTURE & GAZES
This Film Is Not Yet Rated. 2006. Director: Kirby Dick. 98 minutes. Content warning: This documentary film discusses the film rating system in the US using clips from many movies, which include sexual situations, violence, and sexual violence. As always, please follow your own needs and feel free to stop the film or not watch it. If you'd prefer, reach out to Prof. Alexy and she will tell you more details or can explain the film's points.
Bechdel, Alison. 1985. "The Test." From her Dykes to Watch Out For. Now collected in The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Discussion Questions are due at noon.
Friday, October 15
Weekly writing due at 5pm
Week 8
Monday, October 18 - FALL BREAK
No class meeting.
Wednesday, October 20 - CAPITALISM
The Dream (podcast). 2018. Listen to Season 1 Episode 2 "Women's Work" (39 minutes) and Episode 6 "How A Dream Becomes A Nightmare" (42 minutes). Definitely listen to episode 2 first.
Discussion Questions are due at noon.
Friday, October 22
No writing due this week.
Week 9
Monday, October 25 - RELIGION
Lila Abu-Lughod. 2008. "Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others." American Anthropologist 104(3): 783-790.
Wednesday, October 27 - INTIMACY
Seeking Asian Female. 2013. Director: Debbie Lum. 82 minutes.
Discussion Questions are due at noon.
Friday, October 29
Weekly writing due at 5pm
Week 10
Monday, November 1 - BINARIES
Cathy Park Hong. 2020. Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning. New York: Penguin Random House. Pages: 3-109.
Wednesday, November 3 - DIFFICULT TRUTHS
Cathy Park Hong. 2020. Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning. New York: Penguin Random House. Pages: 110-204.
Discussion Questions are due at noon.
Friday, November 5
No writing due this week.
Week 11
Monday, November 8 - NEOLIBERALISM
L. Ayu Saraswati. 2021. "Making Gold Out of It: rupi kaur's Poem, Pain, and Phantasmagoria." In her Pain Generation: Social Media, Feminist Activism, and the Neoliberal Selfie. New York: New York University Press. Pages: 30-68.
Wednesday, November 10 - HORMONES
Man Made. (film) 2018. Director: T Cooper. 93 minutes.
Discussion Questions are due at noon.
Friday, November 12
No writing due this week.
Week 12
No lectures or discussion sections this week.
Please use this time to work on your final projects, meet with your GSIs, and / or talk with your project team members. Keep in mind that a substantial rough draft of your final project is due in two weeks.
Friday, November 19
Weekly writing due at 5pm
Week 13
Monday, November 22 - REFUSALS
Zora's Daughters (podcast). 2021. "Keep Nope Alive."
Ayesha Faines. 2021. "The Audacity of Nope." Zora.
Wednesday, November 24 - THANKSGIVING BREAK
No class meeting.
Sections do not meet this week, you do not need to submit discussion questions, and there is no writing due.
Week 14
Monday, November 29 - TRAUMA
Jennifer Hirsch and Shamus Khan. 2020. Sexual Citizens: A Landmark Study of Sex, Power, and Assault on Campus. New York: Norton. Pages: ix-85 which run from the very start of the book to the end of chapter 3.
Trigger warning: This entire book deals explicitly with sexual assault and rape. If these are not topics you can engage at this moment, please tell either Prof. Alexy or your GSI and we are happy to provide alternative readings. All readers should be aware that Chapter 1 "Sexual Assaults" contains back-to-back narratives of rape and assault. If you can read the book but need to skip that chapter, that is also fine. Please reach out to Prof. Alexy or your GSI with any questions or concerns. You should feel no shame if / when you know the limits of what topics you can engage.
Wednesday, December 1 - POWER AND CONTROL
Jennifer Hirsch and Shamus Khan. 2020. Sexual Citizens: A Landmark Study of Sex, Power, and Assault on Campus. New York: Norton. Pages: 86-198; Chapters 4, 5, 6, and 7.
Discussion Questions are due at noon.
Friday, December 3
Weekly writing due at 5pm
Week 15
Monday, December 6 - JUSTICE
Jennifer Hirsch and Shamus Khan. 2020. Sexual Citizens: A Landmark Study of Sex, Power, and Assault on Campus. New York: Norton. Pages: 199-274; Chapters 8 and 9, and the Conclusions.
Weekly writing due at 5pm
*Please notice the unusual day!
Wednesday, December 8 - FINAL THOUGHTS AND FUTURE QUESTIONS
No reading due.
Sections do not meet this week. No discussion questions are due.
Finals
Friday, December 17
Final Project due to Canvas by 5pm.
This course does not have a final exam.
Week 1
Monday, August 30 - INTRODUCTION: WHY STUDY GENDER?
No reading due
Wednesday, September 1 - THE SEX / GENDER SYSTEM
Roy Richard Grinker. 1997. "Houses in the Rainforest: Gender and Ethnicity among the Lese and Efe in Zaire." In Perspectives on Africa. R. Grinker and C. Steiner, eds. Cambridge: Blackwell. Pages: 228-245.
Discussion Questions are due at noon.
Friday, September 3
Weekly writing due at 5pm
Week 2
Monday, September 6 - LABOR DAY
No class meeting.
Wednesday, September 8 - SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION
Anne Fausto-Sterling. 2000. "Dueling Dualisms." In her, Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality. New York: Basic Books. Pages: 1-29.
Discussion Questions are due at noon.
Friday, September 10
Weekly writing due at 5pm
Week 3
Monday, September 13 - NATURALIZING POWER
Emily Martin. 1991. "The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles." Signs 16(3): 485-501.
Wednesday, September 15 - INTERSECTIONS
Kate Rushin. 1981. “The Bridge Poem.” From This Bridge Called My Back. Albany: SUNY Press. Pages: xxxiii-xxxiv.
Audre Lorde. 1984. “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House.” From her Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Berkeley: Crossing Press. Pages: 110-113.
Cherríe Moraga. 1981. “La Güera.” From This Bridge Called My Back. Albany: SUNY Press. Pages: 22-29.
Mitsuye Yamada. 1981. “Invisibility is an Unnatural Disaster: Reflections of an Asian American Woman.” From This Bridge Called My Back. Albany: SUNY Press. Pages: 30-35.
Audre Lorde. “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action.” From her Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Berkeley: Crossing Press. Pages: 40-44
Discussion Questions are due at noon.
Friday, September 17
Weekly writing due at 5pm
Week 4
Monday, September 20 - QUEERING THE WORLD
Dredge Byung'chu Käng. 2014. "Idols of Development: Transnational Transgender Performance in Thai K-Pop Cover Dance." TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 1(4): 559-571.
Dr. Käng-Nguyễn very generously shared some example performances from Boys Generation, which are on the lecture Canvas / Media Gallery. By comparison, here is a Girls' Generation video.
Wednesday, September 22 - EMBODIMENT
Susan Stryker. 2007. "Transgender Feminism: Queering the Woman Question.” In Third Wave Feminism: A Critical Exploration, edited by Stacy Gillis, Gillian Howie, and Rebecca Munford. London: Palgrave Mcmillan. Pages: 59-70.
Discussion Questions are due at noon.
Friday, September 24
Weekly writing due at 5pm
Week 5
Monday, September 27 - BLACK FEMINISMS
Tressie McMillan Cottom. 2019. "Thick" and "Dying to be Competent." From her, Thick: And Other Essays. New York: The New Press. Pages: 1-32 and 73-98. *PDF will be added soon.*
Wednesday, September 29 - SUFFRAGE
Martha S. Jones. 2019. "The Politics of Black Womanhood, 1848–2008." From Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence, edited by Kate Clark Lemay. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Pages: 29-48.
Mikki Kendall and A. D'Amico. "Suffrage and Suffering: Women Fight for Freedom." From their Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists: A Graphic History of Women's Fight for Their Rights. 10 Speed Press. Pages: 70-103.
Discussion Questions are due at noon.
Friday, October 1
Weekly writing due at 5pm
Week 6
Monday, October 4 - ABILITY AND ABLEISM
Keah Brown. 2019. "Introduction," "Is This Thing On?," "Pop Culture & Me" and "The Pretty One." From her The Pretty One: On Life, Pop Culture, Disability and Other Reasons to Fall in Love with Me. New York: Atria. Pages: 1-10, 51-89, and 127-146.
Wednesday, October 6 - MOBILITY IN A "MALE" PRISON
Macario Garcia. 2019. "Preface" and "Masculine Hysteria: Dirty Work and Gendered Touch." From his Sensing Incarceration: Mobility, Animacy, Becoming Human. Pages: ii-iii and 46-77. *Please don't be worried about the length of the PDF. It includes the full bibliography, too, just in case you want to explore any texts Dr. Garcia mentions.
Discussion Questions are due at noon.
Friday, October 8
Weekly writing due at 5pm
Week 7
Monday, October 11 - ABILITY AND ABLEISM
No new reading due. The lecture will refer to Keah Brown's chapters you read in Week 6.
Wednesday, October 13 - POP CULTURE & GAZES
This Film Is Not Yet Rated. 2006. Director: Kirby Dick. 98 minutes. Content warning: This documentary film discusses the film rating system in the US using clips from many movies, which include sexual situations, violence, and sexual violence. As always, please follow your own needs and feel free to stop the film or not watch it. If you'd prefer, reach out to Prof. Alexy and she will tell you more details or can explain the film's points.
Bechdel, Alison. 1985. "The Test." From her Dykes to Watch Out For. Now collected in The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Discussion Questions are due at noon.
Friday, October 15
Weekly writing due at 5pm
Week 8
Monday, October 18 - FALL BREAK
No class meeting.
Wednesday, October 20 - CAPITALISM
The Dream (podcast). 2018. Listen to Season 1 Episode 2 "Women's Work" (39 minutes) and Episode 6 "How A Dream Becomes A Nightmare" (42 minutes). Definitely listen to episode 2 first.
Discussion Questions are due at noon.
Friday, October 22
No writing due this week.
Week 9
Monday, October 25 - RELIGION
Lila Abu-Lughod. 2008. "Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others." American Anthropologist 104(3): 783-790.
Wednesday, October 27 - INTIMACY
Seeking Asian Female. 2013. Director: Debbie Lum. 82 minutes.
Discussion Questions are due at noon.
Friday, October 29
Weekly writing due at 5pm
Week 10
Monday, November 1 - BINARIES
Cathy Park Hong. 2020. Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning. New York: Penguin Random House. Pages: 3-109.
Wednesday, November 3 - DIFFICULT TRUTHS
Cathy Park Hong. 2020. Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning. New York: Penguin Random House. Pages: 110-204.
Discussion Questions are due at noon.
Friday, November 5
No writing due this week.
Week 11
Monday, November 8 - NEOLIBERALISM
L. Ayu Saraswati. 2021. "Making Gold Out of It: rupi kaur's Poem, Pain, and Phantasmagoria." In her Pain Generation: Social Media, Feminist Activism, and the Neoliberal Selfie. New York: New York University Press. Pages: 30-68.
Wednesday, November 10 - HORMONES
Man Made. (film) 2018. Director: T Cooper. 93 minutes.
Discussion Questions are due at noon.
Friday, November 12
No writing due this week.
Week 12
No lectures or discussion sections this week.
Please use this time to work on your final projects, meet with your GSIs, and / or talk with your project team members. Keep in mind that a substantial rough draft of your final project is due in two weeks.
Friday, November 19
Weekly writing due at 5pm
Week 13
Monday, November 22 - REFUSALS
Zora's Daughters (podcast). 2021. "Keep Nope Alive."
Ayesha Faines. 2021. "The Audacity of Nope." Zora.
Wednesday, November 24 - THANKSGIVING BREAK
No class meeting.
Sections do not meet this week, you do not need to submit discussion questions, and there is no writing due.
Week 14
Monday, November 29 - TRAUMA
Jennifer Hirsch and Shamus Khan. 2020. Sexual Citizens: A Landmark Study of Sex, Power, and Assault on Campus. New York: Norton. Pages: ix-85 which run from the very start of the book to the end of chapter 3.
Trigger warning: This entire book deals explicitly with sexual assault and rape. If these are not topics you can engage at this moment, please tell either Prof. Alexy or your GSI and we are happy to provide alternative readings. All readers should be aware that Chapter 1 "Sexual Assaults" contains back-to-back narratives of rape and assault. If you can read the book but need to skip that chapter, that is also fine. Please reach out to Prof. Alexy or your GSI with any questions or concerns. You should feel no shame if / when you know the limits of what topics you can engage.
Wednesday, December 1 - POWER AND CONTROL
Jennifer Hirsch and Shamus Khan. 2020. Sexual Citizens: A Landmark Study of Sex, Power, and Assault on Campus. New York: Norton. Pages: 86-198; Chapters 4, 5, 6, and 7.
Discussion Questions are due at noon.
Friday, December 3
Weekly writing due at 5pm
Week 15
Monday, December 6 - JUSTICE
Jennifer Hirsch and Shamus Khan. 2020. Sexual Citizens: A Landmark Study of Sex, Power, and Assault on Campus. New York: Norton. Pages: 199-274; Chapters 8 and 9, and the Conclusions.
Weekly writing due at 5pm
*Please notice the unusual day!
Wednesday, December 8 - FINAL THOUGHTS AND FUTURE QUESTIONS
No reading due.
Sections do not meet this week. No discussion questions are due.
Finals
Friday, December 17
Final Project due to Canvas by 5pm.
This course does not have a final exam.