La Casa Hispanica (La Casa for short) course is focused on the Latinx experience in the United States. We will delve into various topic and research areas that will specifically inform LATINX students of the rich identity, culture, history, politics, socio economic realities (and more!) that will help students grapple with what it means to be a Latinx woman in the U.S. We will explore collectively and individually current research and books in the academy focused on feminism and powerful movements made by Latinx women and leaders that will help us understand (through a deeper feminist lens) the lived experiences of Latinx people in the U.S. and abroad. **Latina/o/x/e are gender neutral terms to be inclusive of all folks who come from Latin American/Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries.

The Global Village is a Living-Learning Community that seeks to develop language skills, intercultural appreciation, global awareness, and a sense of community among participating students. This unique environment combines activities in and outside of the classroom, all of which are designed to strengthen the community. Engagement in all these activities is an essential part of this experience and, as such, it is important to recognize that what happens in the living community (for example, the residence halls, your rooms, the dining halls) shapes what happens in the classroom—vice versa. Respect for others in the community, as well as adhering both to the guidelines of your residence hall and the mission of Douglass Residential College, are essential to being an engaged member of the Global Village.

This semester we will examine the relationship between feminist pedagogical theory and feminist practice in the college classroom. We will begin with a brief overview of feminist epistemology starting from the premise that feminist epistemology informs feminist pedagogy. We will critique how we know what we know to be able to formulate practices that subvert gendered paradigms. We will also explore the meaning of women’s leadership, knowledge, and power through the mentor experience. We will accomplish this by examining texts that provide a framework for exploring different ways to construct definitions of knowledge and power. Your classroom experiences, in both your mentor seminar and the first-year Douglass Course, will give you a practical opportunity to examine the issues we will be raising this semester. In addition to our examination of feminist theory and practice, we will also be looking at the role that gender plays in our understanding of knowledge and power at a women’s college to challenge the orthodoxies surrounding conceptions of leadership.

This course tracks the various developments within the history of feminist theory. It begins with its emergence in and out of liberal, psychoanalytic, and Marxist conceptualizations of the subject. We consider the vexed and paradoxical nature of feminism’s relationship to these theories—they are what originally makes feminist theories thinkable in the West, yet at the same time, are what must be critique, resisted, reimagined, or altogether abandoned, according to many feminist theorists, as they insufficient and limited by their patriarchal, phallocentric, sexist, and often homophobic logics and dispositions. This first half culminates by examining how these critiques, anxieties, and discontents come to (in)form what is termed radical feminism. The second half of the course maps the interventions of a number of other feminist interventions, which critique and build off of these foundational theories, including: ecofeminism, care-focused feminism, black feminism, postcolonial and transnational feminism, queer and trans feminism, and feminist disability studies. Prerequisite: 01:988:101 or 201 or 202 or 235 or by special permission. 

Introduction to basic concepts central to contemporary feminist thought; exploration of the critical, productive relationship between feminist and patriarchal theory.
Prerequisite: 01:988:101 or 201 or 202 or 235 or by special permission.

Compares the development of feminist writing in several historical periods across different cultures. Prerequisite: 01:988:101 or 201 or 202 or 235 or by special permission.

Areas of law that regulate the position of women, including birth control, abortion, marriage, alimony, child support and custody, childcare, education, employment, criminal law (including rape, prostitution, women in prison, and the juvenile justice system), and constitutional rights. Readings in court decisions, statutes, and supplementary materials.

History of women and gender relations in the Islamic Middle East: origins of gender inequalities, women's functioning within society, reality versus literary depictions, recent transformations.

Women's activism in South Asia in autonomous feminist movements, as participants in organized political movements, and in family and community.Credit not given for both this course and 01:925:310.

Examines visual culture, especially Hollywood cinema and television, in light of the economic structure of neoliberalism. Race, gender, and sexuality as sites of power; visual texts; connections between culture and politics.

This course is an in-depth examination of diverse critical approaches to the development of feminism in Africa. Students will also build critical understanding of gender dialogues within African societies as experienced in their historical, cultural, social and economic contexts. Through readings, class discussions and written assignments, students will develop critical thinking, analytical, writing and speaking skills. Prerequisite: 01:988:101 or 235. Credit not given for both this course and 01:016:312. 

This course is designed to provide students with a comprehensive overview of the emergence and development of fiction written by Arab women. Emphasis will be laid on differences and similarities between Western and Arab feminist theories and identity issues as reflected in their literature. The course will provide a general understanding of modernist Arabic poetics, and the emergence and development of new literary genres of Arabic writing in the 19th and 20th centuries. Students will become familiar with the development and transformation of literary language, structures and imagery as embodied in selected texts by leading authors. Students will explore processes of change and the search for personal and cultural identity on the literary level in relation to the political and social spheres.

Introduces feminist approaches to consumption through readings that examine the relation of consumption to body, race, nation, and sex work. Prerequisite: 01:988:101 or 201 or 235 or permission of instructor.

**FALL 2020 COURSE DESCRIPTION**

Explores the processes by which the body is gendered in different cultures. How is the relationship between physical body, gender, and sexuality forged?

Cultural construction and representation of same-sex desire in Western societies. Debates about identity, subjectivity, and the uses of experience included.