Feminist Theory: Suggested Readings II

The following discussion of recommended feminist theory texts took place
on WMST-L in November 1999.  See also Joya Misra's earlier bibliography,
Feminist Theory: Suggested Readings.  For additional WMST-L files now 
available on the Web, see the WMST-L File List.

I'm also planning to teach feminist theory as part of our capstone class
next semester and am in the midst of choosing texts.  Could responses on
The Second Wave be posted to the list?  Also, has anyone used _Feminist
Theory: A Reader_ edited by Wendy Kolmar and Frances Bartkowski and what
was the reception?  My students will be women's studies minors but will
not have a lot of feminist theory and I need materials that are accessible.
Any suggestions?  I'd like to do one reader but otherwise books on
specific topics.  I'm starting with bell hooks' _Teaching to Transgress_.
Thanks, Barbara Scott  Winkler   bwinkler  @  wvu.edu

I just got finished using Nicholson, along with Tuana and Tong's "Feminism and
Philosophy" in a graduate theory course, where they worked well together. I
think undergraduates who may be just getting into feminist theory would be
overwhelmed by Nicholson, some of the readings anyway, though not all. Tuana
and Tong's is also pretty dense sometimes. For my spring undergraduate theory
course I am looking at Kolmar and Beartkowski's collection, which seems much
more appropriate for undergrads, and am also thinking about using Jaggar's
"Living with Contradictions." I found that using two collections coming from
different angles quite useful in the graduate class, hence the Kolmar/Jaggar
pairing. I like having a single issue to look at as well--last time I made a
packet on pornography. Am thinking this time AIDS. Perhaps we who are teaching
undergraduate theory courses in the spring should send them to the wmst-l
syllabus collection. I'll bet they're ready for new ones (just guessing).

jane
jane.olmsted  @  wku.edu
Western Kentucky University

For my Spring undergraduate feminist theory course I will be using (for
the first time): __Feminisms__ edited by Sandra Kemp & Judith Squires
(Oxford University Press, 1997)
This is a very comprehensive and diverse selection of excerpted readings.
I will also assemble several additional readings.

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*  Carolyn DiPalma                  email: cdipalma  @  luna.cas.usf.edu  *
*  Assistant Professor              phone: 813-974-0979               *
*  Department of Women's Studies    fax:   813-974-0336               *
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Thanks to all of those who responded to my request for information
about using the Nicholson text, The Second Wave (Routledge,
1997), to teach feminst theories.  I received a range of responses,
some of which recommended the text for the undergraduate level
and others which did not because of its level of difficulty.  At least
one person did not adopt this text again to teach the course
because of the cost.

I also received a number of other recommended texts, which I
though were worth sharing with the list.  Someone suggested that
those of us that teach feminist theories share our syllabi with the
WMST-L archives, if we haven't already done so.


Texts that were recommended to teach feminist theories:

Tuana & Tong, Feminism & Philosophy

Wendy Kolmar & Frances Beartkowski, Feminist Theory: A Reader

bell hooks, Teaching To Transgress

Tong, Feminist Theory: A More Comprehensive Introduction

Judith Lorber, Gender Inequality

Mary Rogers, Contemporary Feminist Theory

Sandra Kemp & Judith Squires, Feminisms


I will continue to compile a list, and share it if others are interested.

Many thanks,

Katherine Side
Katherine.Side  @  MSVU.ca

Department of Women's Studies
Mount Saint Vincent University
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Canada
B3M 2J6

Another useful text that introduces feminist theory in the context of case
studies is Sondra Farganis, Situating Feminisms: From Thought to Action
(Sage, 1994). I've used this with both graduate students and upper level
undergrads.

Mary Todd
Concordia University
River Forest, Illinois
crftoddml  @  curf.edu

Hi Katherine,

I saw your post on the WMST list. I am currently teaching Intro to Feminist
Theory at the University of Southern California and am using the Nicholson
text as one of the assigned books. I also use Judith Grant's _Fundamental
Feminism_ (Routledge, 1993) and Heywood and Drake, eds., _Third Wave
Agenda: Being Feminist, Doing Feminism_ (U. Minnesota Press, 1997). I also
put together a very small course reader with essays that I didn't feel any
of the above texts addressed (if you're interested I'll send the
citations).

Here's where I'm at mid-term: I have found that although this is a 3rd year
level class, most of students, 80% female, don't really believe that women
face oppression, let alone that there is anything to theorize about our
lives. They have enjoyed, for the most part, the Nicholson text, but what I
think I am going to do is omit Grant's book and use instead a reader in
basic women's studies, Kesselman, et. al (eds) _Women, Images, and
Realities: A Multicultural Anthology_ (Mayfield, 1998). I want to combine
material that is more relevant to who they are a females today, along with
the classic theoretical models. The Feminist theory class that I teach
fulfills a "diversity" requirement so most, if not all, of the students are
unprepared for theory per se (although they did write *great* mid-term
exams). Still, I encouraged them to write experientially, as long as they
backed their personal observations with comments from the theorists and
they did this well. But, I'm not convinced that they really "get it." I
think that the Kesselman reader has enough material, missing from Nicholson
and Grant, that I won't have to develop a course reader along with the
texts.

We are just now starting to explore the "third wave" and I have no useful
comments about how they are taking to that text. The readings seem to
address issues that they are currently exploring in their own lives so I
think they'll find it useful.
Hope this is helpful.

In sisterhood,
Regina F. Lark, Ph.D.
University of Southern California
Glendale Community College
Pasadena City College
(freeway flyer/road's scholar!)
rflark  @  pacbell.net

barbara scott winkler wrote:

>I'm also planning to teach feminist theory as part of our capstone class
>next semester and am in the midst of choosing texts.  Could responses on
>The Second Wave be posted to the list?  Also, has anyone used _Feminist
>Theory: A Reader_ edited by Wendy Kolmar and Frances Bartkowski and what
>was the reception?  My students will be women's studies minors but will
>not have a lot of feminist theory and I need materials that are accessible.
>Any suggestions?  I'd like to do one reader but otherwise books on
>specific topics.  I'm starting with bell hooks' _Teaching to Transgress_.

yes, and while we're on the subject, has anyone used:

_Third Wave Agenda:  Being Feminist, Doing Feminism_, eds. Leslie Heywood
and Jennifer Drake, U of Minnesota, 1997.

thanks,

kass fleisher

~~~~~~~~~

kass.fleisher  @  colorado.edu
http://spot.colorado.edu/~fleisher
(site under construction)

Dear Jan,

I regularly use Alice Rossi's The Feminist Papers, because I think anyone
in women's studies need to understand the history of feminist thought.  I
end with Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time, because it gets us out of the
idea that society is natural and any change must be reformist and
incremental.  I use other things as well along with these two, but
they are xeroxed coursepak stuff.

Angela E. Hubler, Assistant Professor of English and Women's Studies
Leasure Hall
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS  66506
(785) 532-7274  (office)
(785) 537-9008  (home)
fax: (785) 532-2192

I've just used Wendy Kolmar and Frances Bartkowski's _Feminist Theory:  A
Reader_ (1999).  Students LOVED it -- and so did I.  I supplemented my
syllabus with a few full-length books, but discovered that extra books were
too much, the reader is sufficient.  One of the best things about this book
is its inclusion of a substantial number of essays that allow one to trace
an environmental thread through the history of feminist thought.  Students
liked the book's double organization:  chronological/historical and
thematic (via the "Lexicon of the Debates").  The book also has great
bibliographies and suggestions for further reading.  One or two quibbles:
it needs an index and we all prefered matte to glossy pages.  Those are
very small matters:  my students and  I strongly strongly recommend this
book.