Learned Women: Spaces of Knowledge, Self-Actualization, and Power

Undergraduate / Graduate

The hegemonic narrative of knowledge production in the Iberian Peninsula has historically centered on male writers, thus excluding contributions of women. This seminar will explore the intellectual interventions of medieval and early modern Iberian poets, professors, encyclopedists, and theologians who also happened to be women. Did these women present a perspective on knowledge-making different than their male counterparts? More importantly, what were the paths to knowledge that were available to them in a society that offered women limited social and intellectual roles? In this class we will be reading sources by Florencia Pinar, Teresa de Cartagena, Leonor López de Córdoba, Oliva Sabuco, among others; and critical pieces by Judith Butler, Andrea Dworkin, Silvia Federici, Luce Irigaray, and Sophie Lewis.