Theory and Critical Research

4 credits · Graduate

This course will provide an opportunity for the examination of diverse feminist theories produced in different disciplines and across disciplines. The course will ground contemporary philosophical and theoretical developments in the study of gender to specific histories of class, race, ethnicity, nation, and sexuality. Participants in the class will be urged to draw upon their own disciplinary and interdisciplinary backgrounds and interests to produce multifaceted analyses of how feminist theory has acted to delimit the study of women in some instances as well as how it may be used critically and imaginatively to open the field in complex and dynamic ways. Graduate students research and write a substantial (25-50 page) paper for the course. They will also participate in organizing and leading class discussion on a rotating basis.