Transnational Feminisms

3 units

This course examines contemporary feminist movements and theories in a global context. Through engagement with key works of feminist and queer theory, political manifestos, and cultural production, we will explore how transnational feminist and queer alliances and coalitions have contested gendered, racialized and class-based forms of exploitation and violence, building alternative futures. We will interrogate the meaning of “global” and “transnational” as a descriptor for a variety of practices and processes from a geographically diverse set of places, and as an analytic to understand the gendered, racialized, colonial, and classed impact of these practices. We will trace how thinkers and activists from various locations and time periods have forged solidarities across physical and ideational borders. The thinkers/organizers/activists we read trace the role of difference in navigating global solidarity and resistance; the potentials and limitations of human rights frameworks in fostering political transformation; capitalism, anti-capitalist mobilizations, "women's" work and the building of alternative economies; movement-building in the age of social media and financialization; LGBTQ politics; and the politics of borders and migration. Our discussions will explore the gray areas existing in between and beyond binaries such as feminist/anti-feminist; local/global; home/away; Global South/North; and domination/dependency. Throughout the semester, we will ask how processes of knowledge production take shape within various (mutually non-exclusive) intellectual and political movements.