WGS.615 Feminist Inquiry
Spring 2016
Instructors: Linda Blum, Kj Surkan
GCWS Program Manager: Andrea R Sutton
Lecture: T EVE (5.30-8.30 PM) (56-154)
Course Description:
This course investigates theories and practices of feminist inquiry across a range of disciplines by studying a series of pairings of humanist and social science works by feminist scholars. It is not intended as a survey course on feminist theory, although students will recognize many pivotal thinkers included in our reading list. As an interdisciplinary course, Feminist Inquiry also cannot offer a strict "how-to" approach to research, but instead will engage students in questioning disciplinary assumptions and methodologies, seeking new ways to frame scholarly questions, and reconsidering the relationship between subjects and objects of study. Feminist Inquiry is simultaneously challenging and creative, as disciplines are revised by the analysis of gender, race, class, and sexual orientation, both embedded within and shaping particular historical, national, and cultural contexts. Students will also have the opportunity to engage in two "hands on" research inquiries of their own.
This course will proceed, after a brief framing of the issues, by
closely analyzing pairings of humanist and social science
"case studies" of feminist scholars and their work.
Several of these feminist scholars will visit the class or speak
with us remotely during the semester. Our aim is to allow seminar
participants to think deeply about specific theoretical and
methodological choices as these are evidenced in practice. We will
also reflect on the ways that feminist inquiry/ies transform
knowledge and inform varied forms of activism.
FACULTY
Linda M. Blum is Associate Professor of Sociology at Northeastern University. She is the author of Between Feminism and Labor: The Significance of the Comparable Worth Movement, At the Breast: Ideologies of Breastfeeding and Motherhood in the Contemporary United States, and Raising Generation Rx: Mothering Kids with Invisible Disabilities in an Age of Inequality.
Karl Surkan has taught in the Women's and Gender Studies
Program at
MIT since 2005. Dr. Surkan does interdisciplinary work
in queer,
feminist, and new media studies with a humanities focus,
and is currently
writing a series of articles on technology and the
(trans)gendered body.
Announcements
MotherBoard Prize! Submit if you can!
***Deadline Sunday, May 1st! ***
The GCWS 2016 Mother Board Writing Prize Call for Submissions!
This prize is an annual award honoring graduate student research
and writing in the field of Women’s and Gender Studies. One student
will be recognized each year with an award for unpublished written
work that exemplifies the three tenets central to the GCWS
mission:
- Interdisciplinary inquiry;
- Innovative thinking; and
- Epistemologically self-conscious investigation.
Eligibility:
Students currently matriculated in a Masters or Doctorate program at one of the nine GCWS member institutions and who have been or are currently enrolled in a GCWS seminar are eligible to submit. Papers need not have been written for a GCWS course. Submissions will be reviewed by a 2-person selection committee of GCWS affiliated faculty. The award of the writing prize will be announced in the beginning of the Fall semester.
Submission requirements: Please send the following documents by email in PDF form to gcws@mit.edu
- Your paper submission (PDF) (maximum 30 single-sided,
double-spaced pages)
- Completed Mother Board Writing Prize submission form (PDF)
(attached)
Please note: The comments section of the submission form must be
filled out by a faculty member who is familiar with your work and
can speak to the merits of the submitted paper. You may not comment
on your own paper. Good candidates are: an advisor, a faculty
member from your GCWS course, another faculty member from your home
institution with whom you have worked closely.
- Curriculum vita (PDF) (with current address)
- Confirmation of past or current enrollment in a GCWS course
(Scanned copy of a grade transcript, email confirming course
acceptance or letter of confirmation signed by the GCWS Program
Manager)
DUE DATE:
Submissions are due May 1st, 2016
Submit to: gcws@mit.edu
For more information, contact:
Andi Sutton
Program Manager
Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies
Building 14N Room 211, MIT
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
Announced on 27 April 2016 4:30 p.m. by Kj Surkan
End-of-Term Presentation Guidelines now Posted on Materials
Good Morning - For May 3 and 10 presentations of your inquiry projects, I've just posted our guidelines on Materials. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns - we're excited to hear from each of you in May and look forward to our last conversation about shared readings on Apr 26. Thanks, lmb
Announced on 20 April 2016 10:38 a.m. by Linda Blum
Second Inquiry Project & Paper Guidelines now posted
Announced on 14 April 2016 1:25 p.m. by Linda Blum
Reading Suggestions for next week's visit with Dr. Najmabadi
reading suggestions for _Professing Selves_By request -- key chapters for our Najmabadi text :
Intro and chapter one are important to set up the study
3 & 4 are compelling in analysis of culture, image, and the political context
6-8 for the relationship between these identity issues, state interests, and narrative constructions.
so I would say skim over chapters 2 & 5 if you can't get to everything. . .
Dr Najmabadi will be coming to visit our class in the first half. It will be really helpful for the discussion leaders if you can include some questions for her in the reaction papers. We'd also like to suggest that you identify 2 passages of particular interest that you would like to discuss further -- and if Group A (whose week it is not) would like to just post some questions to the forum, feel free to do so!
Announced on 13 April 2016 5:34 p.m. by Kj Surkan
Reading for April 12th course meeting
Hi everyone: this information is on the syllabus, but in case you might have missed it --
Next week we have the Tey Meadow article posted on Materials, and chapters to emphasize if you're unable to read the entire Valentine book --
Introduction, Introduction to Part II, Chapters 3 and 5. Thanks so much for your great engagement! lmb
Announced on 06 April 2016 8:59 a.m. by Linda Blum
