Provincializing Feminism

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Mainstream American narratives about feminism and women's rights often assume that the varied social movements gathered under the label "feminism" first emerged in Western Europe and the United States, spreading outwards over the course of the 20th and 21st century. However, scholars have long critiqued this story. In this course, we will read texts from gender studies, history, anthropology, and women's rights activists around the world that complicate this narrative, showing that global feminisms have many roots and many branches. In turn, we will explore how these alternate genealogies complicate how we think about the concepts that have historically been central to feminism, including gender, rights, equality, independence, freedom, and agency.