Intro to Women's Studies: Recommendations

PART 2 OF 2

A number of people have emailed me off-list to suggest that I 
condense/digest the replies I've received to my inquiry about teaching 
an introductory Women's Studies course and post them to the list-serv. 
Following is my initial inquiry to the list-serv and a condensed 
version of some of the replies I received -- textbook suggestions, 
assignment/activity suggestions, thoughts on inclusiveness, and more. 
(I did remove names and other personal/identifying information.) 
Many, many thanks to all who have contacted me with your ideas, 
suggestions, and encouragement.

I do hope that this thread continues as others read this digest email

Best,
Milton W Wendland
milton  AT  ku.edu

************

ORIGINAL POST:

I'm going to be teaching an introductory women's studies course next 
year -- it's 200-level, so there will be a mix of fresh through 
senior, I imagine.  I'm a GTA (graduate teaching assistant) so this 
will be the first time I've had full responsibility for a course 
(although I've assisted faculty with courses and I've been a 
discussion section leader).  There are a number of matters that I'd 
like to have input on:

1.)  I've already started making my way through the excellent file of 
syllabi that someone has done a great job of maintaining and updating 
as part of the WMST community.  I wonder, though, if anyone might like 
to share specific and particular class projects and activities that 
have and have not worked and if anyone would like to share readings 
that have been especially useful (or for that matter, especially NOT 
useful!) in engaging students in discussions.  I'm especially eager to 
hear from any graduate student instructors or younger faculty who have 
taught the course this past year or two and who have tried to 
incorporate popular and mass culture into their courses (e.g., films, 
books, TV, etc).

2.)  I'd appreciate hearing some input on whether it's more useful and 
productive to use a reader or pre-designed textbook on women's studies 
or gender studies or whether you have found it more productive to 
collect articles and chapters yourself and put them on e-reserve or in 
a course packet.  What textbooks or readers might you recommend?  I've 
seen so many and they all seem to have their own faults and 
attributes.

3.)  Additionally, I'm a (gay) male instructor in Women's Studies. 
I'd be interested in hearing from other males who have taught women's 
studies courses and what experiences they have had and what 
challenges/successes/failures they've faced as well as from 
instructors of any gender/sex.  I want to create a classroom 
environment that might -- for many students -- be the first place 
they've been able to discuss and explore the sorts of topics and 
issues we might discuss.   At the same time, I want a class that is 
composed of all sorts of students -- various sexes, genders, 
orientations, religions, ethnicities, classes, etc.  And I do want to 
be cautious about how to do that -- pedagogically, politically, 
personally, and theoretically.

4.)  Finally, I'm a lawyer by training and I've just returned to 
graduate school.  I'd like to include some aspects of the law in my 
course but my fear is that because I'm a lawyer I'm not sure how to 
make legal issues understandable for undergraduates.  Has anyone out 
there taught women and the law, gender and law, etc?  What materials 
might I use?

I know I've asked a lot of questions, but I do hope that everyone will 
respond on-list or off-list  (my email is listed below) to any or all 
of my inquiries.  I thank you all in advance for your assistance and 
guidance!  And I would welcome the opportunity to continue this 
conversation on-list or off-list over the coming school year!


Milton W. Wendland, J.D.
Dept of American Studies
Dept of Women's Studies
213 Bailey Hall
The University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS  66045
milton  AT  ku.edu

^^^^^

I use an anthology as my text because I prefer to have a collection of 
different voices rather than a text written by a single author.  I am 
currently using Women: Images and Realities, A Multicultural Reader, 
3rd ed.  The editors are Kesselman, McNair, and Schniedwind. 
Published by Mayfield, 2003.  I am very satisfied with it because it 
includes a wide variety of voices and genres.

One of my most successful assignments is journal entries.  Students 
are required to submit one journal entry per week.  They can say what 
they want in it as long as they are either responding to the reading, 
class discussion, and/or connecting either with something in their 
lives.  I find that journal entries are very helpful in terms of 
getting students to open up.  sometimes they reveal things in their 
journal that they then are willing to share with the rest of the 
class.  I make it very clear to the students that whatever they write 
in their journal is in confidence.  I only refer to contents of 
journal entries in very general terms and never reveal who said what. 
But I find that the act of pouring their guts out in a journal seems 
to encourage students to be more forthcoming in their class 
discussions.

^^^

An essay by Tyson Smith and Michael Kimmel,  "The Hidden Discourse of 
Masculinity in Gender Discrimination Law,"  Signs, vol. 30, #3 (Spring 
2005) is clearly and well written, not too difficult for undergrads. 
It is an  analysis of how jurists in the highest courts perpetuate 
unexamined stereotypical convictions in several decisions in sex 
harassment suits brought by both female and male employees from 1982 
to the late 90's.

This piece, containing succinct descriptions of the fascinating events 
that provoked the law suits and the results, and accompanied by the 
authors' powerful and insightful comments,  is guaranteed to arouse 
the strongest interest in the topic and get good class discussion 
going.

^^^^^

I would suggest going with a course textbook. It is useful for new 
teachers for two reasons: 1) the editors have taught these classes 
before so they know what articles work well 2) most texts come with an 
instructors guide which is helpful for exams

While I always add extra articles and don't use the whole text book, 
and this semester I actually used two texts and just picked out what I 
liked, it is really helpful at the beginning.

As for legal issues, I have always added articles from the Taking 
Sides series from McGraw Hill.  Not all the articles are about legal 
issues but they present two sides of debates and I ask the students to 
do extra research and present the debates in the class.

I also found it helpful to require activism.  This was an opportunity 
for the students to work in groups which builds the community and safe 
zone students in women's studies courses need.  It also is the BEST 
way for students to connect the theories to the world around them. 
There is a good book called Teaching Feminist Activism edited by Nancy 
Naples.  I also found Teaching to Transgress and Teaching Community 
incredibly useful as I thought about my pedagogical approach.

^^^^^

I can't suggest strongly enough that you not only use a textbook, but 
that you look for textbooks with a pedagogical apparatus.  I use the 
Shaw/Lee *Women's Voices, Feminist Visions* which I love because, like 
I mentioned above, the pieces are the central ones in the field and 
they are abridged in a useful way.  The introductions to the chapters 
have great key terms that are italicized, and consequently, I have 
students focus on those terms.  Also, they have a teaching cd-rom that 
you can request with questions and tests that I have found a huge time 
saver in creating a new course (and esp. essential in graduate 
school).

^^^^^

I chose to go with a published text, even though I had TA'd a similar 
course several times at a different school.  I usually prefer to 
compile and use my own reader, but for a new course, I thought it 
safer to go with a text.  Now, eight weeks into the semester, I know I 
made the right decision.  I think the single text "anchored" my 
students through a wide range of material, made it easier for me to 
shape my lectures, and I now have a good idea about how much I can 
reasonably cover in a semester.  The text I used, which I highly 
recommend, is Kirk & Okazawa-Rey, _Women's Lives: Multicultural 
Perspectives_ (McGrawHill, 3rd ed, 2004).  Two close seconds that I 
almost used were Shaw & Lee, Women's Voices, Feminist Visions 
(McGrawHill, 2nd ed., 2004) and Grewal & Kaplan, _An Intro to WS: 
Gender in a Transnational  World_, also McGraw Hill. Their tables of 
contents are listed on the McGraw Hill website.

I loved that Kirk & Okazawa-Rey was very up-to-date and had lots of 
good web references.  Every reader is hit and miss, of course, for the 
authors & topics you want.  I also found that article length was an 
important factor--I prefer longer selections, and many readers had 
short snippets.  I also found that an older generation of readers 
tended to include "multicultural" or "race" sections/chapters in ways 
that I felt artifically separated race from gender (and class and 
sexuality....). The Kirk/O-R text, in contrast, integrated all of 
these areas from the very start, and throughout the various topics 
(the title is a bit of a misnomer for that reason).

^^^^^

First, I did use books, but I chose several that I mixed and matched 
readings from.  I used "Feminist Frontiers" by Richardson, "Sister 
Outsider" by Audre Lorde and "Listen Up" edited by Barbara Findlen.  I 
combined readings for a reason.  First, I used the Richardson book to 
deal with building a foundation of information on issues- statistics 
for instance, as well as articles on medical discrimination, 
globalization, and types of feminism.  I used Sister Outsider broadly 
throughout the semester to introduce ideas of standpoint theory, to 
take foundational issues to more personal perspectives, and to touch 
on the ideas of liberation, anger, and poetry.  Finally, I use Listen 
Up! because my students identify with it.  The essays are not 
theoretical at all- they are personal, they reflect the technological, 
social and pop cultural background of students, and they represent a 
wide range of identities. That book is always a favorite of my 
students.

I also always incorporated service learning projects in my courses. 
Students have worked in domestic shelters, for Legal Aid, with the 
annual VM production, I've even had students to sensitivity training 
for local police.  I'm also big on pop culture.  Rather than have my 
students write expositional papers on what they read, I have them 
analyze film, television, music and so on.  I've shown But I'm A 
Cheerleader, Bend It Like Beckham, episodes of the Simpsons and 
reality TV, I've even assigned playing video games to understand the 
cultural construction of female sexuality.

I also teach the law.  Over the years I've strugled with how to teach 
the law both nationally and internationally.  I've ended up doing 
three things.  One- I approach US law from the topics of precedent and 
the 14th Amendment.  It may sound oversimplified, but it tends to 
work.  I teach a bit about the fight for 14th amendment protecctions 
in the suffrage movement, as well as the Civil Rights Era.  I can 
touch on major cases, including Plessy v Ferguson, Minor v Happersett, 
Brown v Board, and Korematsu v US, among others.  Then I do a couple 
of days about continuing battles- I discuss AIM and Leonard Peltier, 
same sex marriage, the Equal Rights Amendment, and so on.  Students 
pretty quickly grasp the domestic legal situation, and do understand 
the problem.  For international law, I do two things. First, I use the 
Fact Sheets provided by the Women's Center of Amnesty International. 
These one-page fact sheets cover domestic abuse (both straight and 
queer couples), rape laws, violence against women, and so on.  I try 
to link all of those issues to the larger questions of ethnocentrism, 
Westernization and the concept of international "sisterhood" as well.

Though I can't help much with your concern about being a male teaching 
women's studies, I can say something about inclusiveness.  I have a 
hard and fast rule in my classroom- that it is a safe space.  I make 
the goal of all my classes the building of alliances across 
identities, and I tell my students on the first day that a main focus 
of allies is the idea that you have the safety to speak without fear 
of repercussion.  I tell them all this: I am not here to change your 
mind.  I am here to ask that you consider the possibilities.

^^^^^

As you've undoubtedly heard by now, Paula Rothenberg's anthology (my 
course text) has a very accessible section entitled "How it Happened: 
Race and Gender Issues in U.S. Law."  Utilizing the gender-specific 
pieces here might prove useful in helping students understand the 
historical, present, and future impact of the law in this area.

I find the assignment of "summaction papers"  particularly useful as 
it encourages students both to understand the authors' point and 
examine their own thoughts and feelings about critical issues.

The oral presentation requirement specifically provides time for each 
student's voice to be heard and helps ensure we deal with the most 
contemporary manifestations of the course themes.

The oral portion of the final exam ultimately provides an opportunity 
for students to share and celebrate learned/developed knowledge with 
their peers and me.  Also, I always provide food and beverages for 
this event to make it more fun.

Perhaps one of the most important things I do is work hard to ensure 
everyone's voice/opinion is heard.  Whether comments appear to 
originate from the right, the left, the center, or some other place, I 
encourage students to speak out since everyone's comments can help us 
reach new, refined, or solidified levels of understanding.  As long as 
students are respectful in their communication, they are urged to say 
what feel/believe in an effort to achieve a larger level of 
interpersonal awareness.