everything.study
WOME 3356

Feminist Engagement with the Law

0.5 credits · Undergraduate

Fall 2023

Readings

  • Required: Rahki Ruperalia, “Legal Feminism and the Post-Racism Fantasy”, Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 26 (1) (2016), 81.
  • Required: Emily Snyder, Val Napoleon, and John Borrows, “Gender and Violence: Drawing on Indigenous Legal Resources”, UBC Law Review 48 (2) (2015), 593.
  • Recommended: Katharine Bartlett, “Feminist Legal Methods”, Harvard Law Review 103 (1990)
  • Recommended: Emily Snyder, “Indigenous Legal Feminist Theory”, Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 26 (2) (2014), 365.
  • Required: The Facts About Gender Based Violence: facts/sexual-assault-harassment/.
  • Required: The Law of Consent in Sexual Assault: sexual-assault
  • Required: Sexual Violence Myths and Misconceptions: domestic-violence/sexual-violence-myths-misconceptions/.
  • Required: End Rape on Campus:
  • Required: Breaking the Binary: Working Towards an Inclusive Understanding of Sexual Violence: understanding-of-sexual-violence/.
  • Required: S. Matsuzaka and D.E. Koch, “Trans feminine sexual violence experiences: The intersection of transphobia and misogyny”, Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work 34 (1) (2019), 28-47.
  • Recommended: Debra Ferreday, “Game of Thrones, Rape Culture and Feminist Fandom” Australian Feminist Studies 30 (83) (2015), 21-36.
  • Recommended: D.J. Angelone, Damon Mitchell and Laura Grossi, “Men’s Perceptions of an Acquaintance Rape: The Role of Relationship Length, Victim Resistance and Gender Role Attitudes” Journal of Interpersonal Violence 30 (12) (2014), 2278
  • Recommended: Shannon Sampert, “Let Me Tell You a Story: English Canadian Newspapers and Sexual Assault Myths”, Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 22 (2) (2010), 301-328.
  • Recommended: Kyle Kirkup, “Sex, Gender Identity and Strip Searches in Canadian Criminal Law”, Canadian Journal of Law and Society 24 (2009), 107-125.
  • Recommended: The Hunting Ground, directed by Kirby Dick (2015).
  • Recommended: BBC, After: Surviving Sexual Assault:
  • Required: Holly Johnson, “Why Doesn’t She Just Report It? Apprehensions and Contradictions for Women Who Report Sexual Assault to the Police”, Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 29 (1) (2017), 36-59.
  • Required: Jodie Murphy, Lori Chambers, Karen McQueen, Alexa Hiebert, and Ainsley Miller, “Sexual Assault: Indigenous Women’s Experiences of Being Disbelieved by Police”, Violence Against Women, April 14, 2021. DOI:
  • Required: Constance Backhouse, “The chilly climate for women judges: Reflections on the backlash from the Ewanchuk case”, Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 15 (1)
  • Recommended: Unbelievable, Netflix, particularly episodes one and two.
  • Recommended: Jodie Murphy, Lori Chambers, Karen McQueen, and Ainsley Miller, “Investigative Challenges: Police Experiences of Responding to Sexual Assault”, Police Practice and Research, (forthcoming 2023).
  • Recommended: T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong, Unbelievable (Broadway Books, 2015).
  • Recommended: Margaret McGregor, Ellen Wiebe, Stephen Marion and Cathy Livingstone, “Why Don’t More Women Report Sexual Assault to the Police?” (Research Letter), Canadian Medical Association Journal (2000), 659-662.
  • Recommended: Jane Doe, The Story of Jane Doe: A Book About Rape (Vintage Books, 2004).
  • Recommended: #AllisNotLost – Part 1 and Part 2: assault-awareness and awareness.
  • Recommended: R. v. Ewanchuk [1999] 1 SCR 330.
  • Recommended: Elaine Craig, “The Ethical Obligations of Defense Counsel in Sexual Assault Cases”, Osgoode Hall Law Journal 51 (2) (2014), 427-467.
  • Recommended: J. W. Shultz, “Supporting transmasculine survivors of sexual assault and intimate partner violence: Reflections from peer support facilitation”, Sociological Inquiry 90
  • Recommended: (2) (2020), 293–315.
  • Recommended: Janine Benedet, “The Sexual Assault of Intoxicated Women”, 22 (2010) Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 22 (2) (2010), 435-461.
  • Recommended: Ruthy Lazar, “Negotiating Sex: The Legal Construct of Consent in Cases of Wife Rape in Ontario, Canada”, Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 22 (2) (2010), 329-396.
  • Recommended: Tamara Small and Kate Puddister, “Play-by-Play Justice: Tweeting Criminal Trials in the Digital Age”, Canadian Journal of Law and Society 35 (1) (2020), 1-22.
  • Recommended: Isabel Grant and Janine Benedet, “The ‘Statutory Rape’ Myth: A Case Law Study of Sexual Assaults against Adolescent Girls”, Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 31 (2) (2019), 266-292.
  • Recommended: Janine Benedet and Isabel Grant, “Breaking the Silence of Father-Daughter Sexual Abuse of Adolescent Girls: A Case Law Study”, Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 32 (2) (2020), 239-287.
  • Recommended: Sarah Swan, “Triangulating Rape”, New York University Review of Law and Social Change 37 (2013), 403.
  • Recommended: The Accused, directed by Jonathon Kaplan (1988).
  • Recommended: Angela Onwuachi-Willig, “What About #UsToo? The Invisibility of Race in the #MeToo Movement”, Yale Law Journal Forum 128 (2018-2019), 105.
  • Recommended: Aliosha Hurry, “Defamation as a Sword: The Weaponization of Civil Liability Against Sexual Assault Survivors in the Post #MeToo Era”, Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 34 (1) (2022), 82-108.
  • Recommended: Morgan PettyJohn, Finneran Muzzy, Megan Maas, and Heather McCauley, “#HowIWillChange: Engaging Men and Boys in the #MeToo Movement”, Psychology of Men and Masculinities 20 (4) (2019), 612-622.
  • Recommended: Kristen Yule and John Grych, “College Students’ Perceptions of Barriers to Bystander Intervention”, Journal of Interpersonal Violence 35 (15-16) (2020), 2971
  • Recommended: Elaine Craig, Putting Trials on Trial: Sexual Assault and the Failure of the Legal Profession (McGill Queen’s University Press, 2018).
  • Recommended: Chanel Miller, Know My Name: A Memoir (Viking Press, 2019).
  • Recommended: Amber Smith, The Way I Used to Be (Margaret McElderry Books, 2016).
  • Recommended: Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Penguin, 2008).
  • Recommended: Emma Donoghue, Room (Harper Collins, 2010).
  • Recommended: Chris Lynch, Inexcusable (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2007).
  • Recommended: Lady Gaga, “Til It Happens To You”, (2015).
  • Recommended: Petrol Girls, “Touch Me Again”, (2016).
  • Recommended: Angel Haze, “Cleaning Out My Closet”, (2012).
  • Recommended: The Raincoats, “Off Duty Trip”, (1979). NOTE: Book or film review is due today.
  • Required: Fact sheet: Intimate partner violence - Women and Gender Equality Canada
  • Required: Fact Sheet: Violence Against Aboriginal Women:
  • Recommended: J. B. Kelly, and Michael Johnson, “Differentiation among types of intimate partner violence: Research update and implications for interventions”, Family Court Review 46 (3) (2008), 476-499.
  • Recommended: Evan Stark, “Re-Presenting Women Battering: From Battered Woman Syndrome to Coercive Control”, Alberta Law Review 58 (4) (1994-1995), 973.
  • Recommended: Delanie Wooklock, “The Abuse of Technology in Domestic Violence and Stalking”, Violence Against Women 23 (5) (2017), 584-602.
  • Recommended: Lesley Laing, “Secondary Victimization: Domestic Violence Survivors Negotiating the Family Law System”, Violence Against Women 23 (11) (2017), 73.
  • Recommended: Lisa Young Larance, Leigh Goodmark, Susan Miller and Shamita Das Dasgupta, “Understanding and Addressing Women’s Use of Force in Intimate Relationships: A Retrospective”, Violence Against Women 25 (1) (2019), 56-80.
  • Recommended: Mo Blackwell, Targeted: True Crime, Domestic Violence:
  • Required: Lori Chambers and Nadia Verrelli, “A Missed Opportunity: The Investigation of the RCMP in Matters Related to R. v. Ryan”, Canadian Journal of Law and Society, 32 (1) (spring 2017), 117-136.
  • Required: Lori Chambers, Deb Zweep, and Nadia Verrelli, “Paternal Filicide and Coercive Control: A Review of the Evidence in Cotton v. Berry”, University of British Columbia Law Review 51 (3) (2018), 671-704.
  • Recommended: Karen Dubinsky and Franca Iacovetta, “Murder, Womanly Virtue and Motherhood: The Case of Angelina Napolitano, 1911-1922”, Canadian Historical Review 72 (1991), 505-531.
  • Recommended: Nadia Verrelli and Lori Chambers, “R. v. Whynot (Stafford): The Forgotten Predecessor to R. v. Lavallee”, in Rethinking Feminist History and Theory, ed. Julia Smith and Lisa Paseolli (Toronto: University of Toronto Press).
  • Recommended: R. v. Lavallee [1990] 1 SCR 852.
  • Recommended: Jane Goodman-Delahunty and Anna Corbo Crehan, “Enhancing Police Responses to Domestic Violence Incidents: Reports from Client Advocates in New South Wales”, Violence Against Women 22 (8) (2016), 895-922.
  • Recommended: Marianne Hester, “Portrayal of Women as Intimate Partner Domestic Violence Perpetrators”, Violence Against Women 18 (9) (2012), 1071.
  • Recommended: Nadia Verrelli and Lori Chambers, No Legal Way Out: R. v Ryan, Domestic Abuse, and the Defence of Duress (University of British Columbia Press, Landmark Cases in Canadian Law Series, 2021).
  • Recommended: Jason MacLean, Nadia Verrelli and Lori Chambers, “Battered Women under Duress: The Supreme Court of Canada’s Abandonment of Context and Purpose in R. v. Ryan”, Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 29 (1) (2017), 60-82.
  • Recommended: Elizabeth Sheehy, Defending Battered Women on Trial: Lessons from the Transcripts (University of British Columbia Press, 2014).
  • Recommended: Bailey Gerrits, Nadia Verrelli, and Lori Chambers, “From Pride to Lies: English- Language Print Media Coverage of Supreme Court of Canada Decisions on Women’s Defensive Violence”, Journal of Canadian Studies, (forthcoming
  • Recommended: Jennifer Koshan, “Challenging Myths and Stereotypes in Domestic Violence Cases”, Canadian Journal of Family Law 35 (1) (2023), 33-81.
  • Recommended: Wendy Chan and Rebecca Lennox, “This Isn’t Justice: Abused Women Navigate Family Law in Greater Vancouver”, Canadian Journal of Family Law 35 (1)
  • Recommended: Wanda Wiegers, “The Intersection of Child Protection and Family Law Systems in Cases of Domestic Violence”, Canadian Journal of Family Law 35 (1) (2023), 183-240.
  • Required: Donna Coker, “Domestic Violence and Social Justice: A Structural, Intersectional Framework for Teaching About Domestic Violence”, Violence Against Women 22
  • Required: (12) (2016), 1419-1425.
  • Required: Stephanie Ehret, “
  • Recommended: Nancy Janovicek, No Place to Go: Local Histories of the Battered Women’s Shelter Movement (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2007).
  • Recommended: Liane Moriarty, Big Little Lies (Penguin Books, 2014).
  • Recommended: Anna Quindlen, Black and Blue (Delta Fiction, 1998).
  • Recommended: Paula Hawkins, The Girl on the Train (Riverhead Books, 2015).
  • Recommended: Colleen Hoover, It Ends With Us (Atria Books, 2016).
  • Recommended: Jane Harper, The Lost Man (Flatiron Books, 2018).
  • Recommended: The Burning Bed, directed by Robert Greenwald (1984).
  • Recommended: Fried Green Tomatoes, directed by Jon Avnet (1991).
  • Recommended: Maid, directed by Molly Smith Metzler (Netflix, 2021).
  • Recommended: Killer Sally, directed by Nanette Burnstein (Netflix, 2022).
  • Recommended: I Just Killed My Dad, directed by Skye Borgman (Netflix, 2022).
  • Recommended: Tracy Chapman, “Behind the Wall” (1987).
  • Recommended: Eminem (with Rihanna), “Love the Way You Lie” (2009).
  • Recommended: Dixie Chicks (now Chicks), “Goodbye Earl” (2004).
  • Required: Amnesty International, “Stolen Sisters”:
  • Required: Missing White Women Syndrome, and why it never goes away — The Big Story (thebigstorypodcast.ca)
  • Recommended: Joan Sangster, “Criminalizing the Colonized: Ontario Native Women Confront the Criminal Justice System, 1920-1960”, Canadian Historical Review 80 (1) (March
  • Recommended: Yasmin Jiwani and Mary Lynn Young, “Missing and Murdered Women: Reproducing Marginality in News Discourse”, Canadian Journal of Communication 31 (4) (2006).
  • Recommended: Shiri Pasternak, Sue Collins, and Tia Dafnos, “Criminalization at Tyendinaga: Securing Canada’s Colonial Property Regime through Specific Land Claims”, Canadian Journal of Law and Society 28 (1) (2013), 65-82.
  • Recommended: Kristen Gilchrist, “Newsworthy Victims? Exploring differences in Canadian local press coverage of missing/murdered Aboriginal and white women”, Feminist Media Studies 10 (4) (2010), 373-390.
  • Recommended: Karen Stote, “The Coercive Sterilization of Aboriginal Women in Canada”, American Indian Journal of Culture and Research 36 (3) (2012), 117-150.
  • Recommended: Gwen Brodsky, “Indian Act Sex Discrimination: Enough Inquiry Already, Just Fix It”, Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 28 (2) (2016), 314-320.
  • Recommended: Jane Bailey and Sara Shayan, “Missing and Murdered Women Crisis: Technological Dimensions”, Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 28 (2) (2016), 321-341. NOTE: Unit review assignment is due today.
  • Required: Sherene Razack, “Gendered Violence and Spacialized Justice”, Canadian Journal of Law and Society 15 92) (2000), 91-130.
  • Required: Pamela Palmater, “Shining Light on the Dark Places: Addressing Police Racism and Sexualized Violence against Indigenous Women and Girls in the National Inquiry”, Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 28 (2) (2016), 253-284.
  • Recommended: Sherene Razack, “Gendering Disposability”, Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 28 (2) (2016), 285-307.
  • Recommended: Sherene Razack, “’It Happened More than Once’: Freezing Deaths in Saskatchewan”, Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 26 (1) (2014), 51-80.
  • Recommended: Katherine Morton, “Hitchhiking and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Billboards on the Highway of Tears”, The Canadian Journal of Sociology 41 (3) (2016), 299-326.
  • Recommended: Sherene Razack, Dying from Improvement: Inquests and Inquiries into Indigenous Deaths in Custody (University of Toronto Pres, 2015).
  • Recommended: Tanya Talaga, Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Deaths and Hard Truths in a Northern City (House of Anansi Press, 2017).
  • Recommended: Kent Roach, Canadian Justice, Indigenous Injustice: The Gerald Stanley and Colten Boushie Case (McGill Queen’s University Press, 2019).
  • Recommended: Jessica McDiarmid, Highway of Tears (Penguin, 2019).
  • Required: Josephine Savarese, “Challenging Colonial Norms and Attending to Presencing in Stories of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women”, Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 29 (1) (2017), 157.
  • Recommended: Finding Dawn, directed by Christine Welsh (2006).
  • Recommended: The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open, directed by Kathleen Hepburn and Elle-Maija Tailfeathers (2019).
  • Recommended: Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance 3rd edition (University of Minnesota Press, 2017).
  • Recommended: Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Dancing on the Turtle’s Back (ARP Press, 2011).
  • Recommended: Katherena Vermette, The Break (House of Anansi, 2016).
  • Recommended: Gregory Scofield, Witness, I Am (Nightwood Editions, 2016).
  • Recommended: Amber Dean, Remembering Vancouver’s Disappeared Women: Settler Colonialism and the Difficulty of Inheritance (University of Toronto Press, 2015).
  • Recommended: Maggie De Vries, Missing Sarah: A Vancouver Woman Remembers Her Vanished Sister (Penguin, 2003).
  • Recommended: Kim Anderson, Maria Campbell and Christi Belcourt, eds., Keetsahnak: Our Missing and Murdered Indigenous Sisters (University of Alberta Press, 2018).
  • Recommended: Elizabeth Kalbfleisch, “Bordering on Feminism: Space, Solidarity, and Transnationalism in Rebecca Belmore’s Vigil”, in Cheryl Suzack, Shari Huhndorf, Jeanne Perrault and Jean Barman, eds., Indigenous Women and Feminism:
  • Recommended: Politics, Activism, Culture (University of British Columbia Press, 2010), 278-297.
  • Recommended: Shelly Johnson and Alessandra Santos, “REDressing Invisibility and Marking Violence Against Indigenous Women in the Americas through Art, Activism and Advocacy”, First People Child and Family Review 7 (2) (2013), 97-111.
  • Recommended: Rachel Ariss, “Bearing Witness: Creating the Conditions of Justice for First Nations Children”, Canadian Journal of Law and Society 36 (1) (2021), 113-133.
  • Recommended: Nipawistamasowin: We Will Stand Up, directed by Tasha Hubbard (2019).
  • Recommended: CBC, Missing and Murdered:
Sources