Revitalizing a Feminist Theory Course

In December 2003, the question arose on WMST-L of how to revitalize a
graduate course on feminist theory, especially how to include not just
problems but also solutions and applications to real life. What
follows are the question and the responses it received. For additional
WMST-L files available on the Web, see the WMST-L File Collection.

I regularly teach a graduate theory course and have lately become, as
happens when I do things many times, disgruntled with the materials.
Although I change anthologies regularly and have a different "focus"
every time, so it's not as if I'm doing the same texts all the time, I
still am wanting something different. This is tied up with students
wanting at least two things they don't always get:

1) Solutions . . . a sense of hope, a way to get past just thinking
about things (often bad things) (and I don't mean to imply that they
aren't activists or are just sitting on their butts thinking all day,
but rather they're busybusy, informed, trying to be involved in
meaningful activities, etc., but still feeling that too many of the
readings point to how bad things are without offering either solutions
or different ways of thinking)

2) Application to real life, here and now issues.....now this isn't
always a problem, since often the connections are OBVIOUS. But some of
it seems rather removed from them.

I was really interested in the recent exchanges on FOOD [see
http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/food.html ] and am ordering Carnal Appetites,
to take a look at it, as that looks like a possible new avenue to
take, theorizing lives and culture, but from another, less anticipated
angle.

While I am as persuaded as anyone of the worth of second wave theory,
I'm really weary of the anthologies. I either need to find a new one
that helps address #1-2 above, or turn to some different kinds of
collections or monographs that will help.

If you're still reading, here's what I've used this semester:

    * Donovan's Feminist Theory (good)
    * McCann & Kim, Feminist Theory Reader (It's a good collection, and
      a couple of students liked it a lot)
    * Schiebinger's Feminism and the Body (fascinating articles, very
      disturbing for one of my students going through a lot)
    * bell hooks Feminist Theory (same old same old . . . sorry, but I
      could barely drag myself through rereading this)
    * Keating/Anzaldua, This Bridge We Call Home (mixed, but much is
      very powerful, and "solutions" are there)
    * As I say, I change these all the time....last time I taught there
      was a much stronger emphasis on sexuality, though we didn't ignore
      it this time. And another collection that I've used that worked
      well and I recommend is "Policing the National Body," edited by
      Jael Silliman and Anannya Bhattacharjee.


What are really great "out of the box" texts that you teach or have had
in class that you recommend? (not "feminist theory" collections but that
still "do" theory)

I'm happy to collect and post to the list, if you want to reply
privately (or not):
jane.olmsted  AT  wku.edu

In my theory course, I always have my students write a "manifesto"
about some problem/situation that concerns women (I suppose they could
do one about men, too, though no one has).  I ask them to model it
after Charlotte Bunch's paradigm in "Not by Degrees: Feminist Theory
and Education" (in Feminist Theory:  A Reader, ed. Kolmar and
Bartkowski).  This requires them to lay out a vision and strategy,
rather than just outline a problem.  The students share their
manifestos with the class.  The value of this exercise is that it
moves students from seeing problems to theorizing solutions (of
varying degrees of practicality, of course).  Students seem to really
like the exercise, and some tell me it's the most valuable assignment
of the semester, as it forces them to crystalize responses to
a situation that disturbs them.

Anya Silver

*******************************************
Dr. Anya Krugovoy Silver
Assistant Professor of English and Interdisciplinary Studies
Mercer University
1400 Coleman Ave.       "Either you know the reason you're alive
Macon, GA 31207-0001     or nothing makes any difference."
(912) 752-5641                           --Anton Chekhov
silver_ak  AT  mercer.edu

Jane Olmsted wrote:

> I regularly teach a graduate theory course and have lately become, as
> happens when I do things many times, disgruntled with the materials.
> Although I change anthologies regularly and have a different "focus"
> every time, so it's not as if I'm doing the same texts all the time, I
> still am wanting something different. This is tied up with students
> wanting at least two things they don't always get:

Maybe the realization is spreading that there really is no such thing as
"feminist theory", only feminist issues such as:
How do we detect and fight sex discrimination in employment?
Should full time mothering be supported by government grants?
Is affirmative action a good thing on balance?
What if anything should be done about the decline of marriage?
How should the workplace be structured so as to allow people to have
children?
etc., etc.

Barbara R. Bergmann bbergman  AT  wam.umd.edu
Prof Emerita, Economics, American U and U of Maryland
5430 41 place nw dc 20015
tel: 202 537-3036

There are two new collections that might be of
interest.  One is _This Bridge We Call Home:  Radical
Visions for Transformation_, edited by Gloria Anzaldua
and Ana Louise Keating.  This is a follow-up to _This
Bridge_.  The other is _Sing, Whisper, Shout, Pray:
Feminist Visions for a Just World_, ed. by M. Jacqui
Alexander.  I haven't gotten to read these in depth
yet, but they may be what you are looking for.

For stories of hope, I like _That Takes Ovaries: Bold
Females and Their Brazen Acts_, ed. by Rivka Solomon,
and also _Everyday Acts Against Racism:  Raising
Children in a Multiracial World_, ed. Maureen T.
Reddy.  I'm in the process of reading the former.  It
might not be appropriate for a graduate class, though
it would be interesting to analyze some of the pieces;
I read some that I thought were very problematic (I
read one or two that were stories of one person's
"liberation" at the expense of someone else's
oppression, for example -- this is a huge
generalization, but I don't have the book handy to be
more specific).  I've used excerpts from the latter to
show students how some individuals have challenged
racism in their own lives.  These are academic
articles that provoke questions and discussion.

Hope this is helpful.  I realize these are all
anthologies, but maybe you could put together a course
reader from them (with permission, of course! ;) ).

Jessica Nathanson

Jessica Nathanson, Ph.D. American Studies
Concentration, Women's Studies
Adjunct Instructor, English Department, Augustana College
janathanson  AT  yahoo.com

Jane Olmsted wrote:

> This is tied up with students
> wanting at least two things they don't always get:
>
> 1) Solutions . . . a sense of hope, a way to get past just thinking
> about things (often bad things) (and I don't mean to imply that they
> aren't activists or are just sitting on their butts thinking all day,
> but rather they're busybusy, informed, trying to be involved in
> meaningful activities, etc., but still feeling that too many of the
> readings point to how bad things are without offering either solutions
> or different ways of thinking)
>
> 2) Application to real life, here and now issues.....now this isn't
> always a problem, since often the connections are OBVIOUS. But some of
> it seems rather removed from them.

I share some of the same concerns expressed here--I've never found a
feminist theory anthology that I like and that does exactly what I want
to do.  But I have found a small solution to the problem Jane outlines
above.  I require my students to write their final paper on a moment of
social change.  They are allowed to define what that means for
themselves but they have to show that some social change happened.  Then
they have to use three feminist theories to explain how the change
happened.  They are required not only to say what happened, but how it
happened and how feminist theories can explain in different ways how it
happens.

I wish I could say that this assignment produces spectacular results.
Students find it a very difficult assignment and they often have huge
difficulties in seeing any other explanation for social change except
liberal individualism: i.e. Sally Ride was the first woman astronaut,
hence her success made it possible for women to become astronauts.  One
thing we have discovered together is that how you define a moment of
social change basically puts you into a theory.  So now I have them
rewrite their moment of social change in different ways to reflect
different theoretical orientations.

The purpose of the assignment, however, I think speaks to Jane's
concerns that students want to see solutions and applications to real
life.  I did get one paper last time on the publication of Our Bodies
Ourselves that was a real gem.

Laurie Finke
finkel  AT  kenyon.edu

Barbara Bergmann said:
> Maybe the realization is spreading that there really is no such thing as
> "feminist theory", only feminist issues such as:
> How do we detect and fight sex discrimination in employment?
> Should full time mothering be supported by government grants?
> Is affirmative action a good thing on balance?
> What if anything should be done about the decline of marriage?
> How should the workplace be structured so as to allow people to have
> children?

Maybe the realization is spreading that these are not feminist issues; they
are issues of culture and do not belong to one self-defined group of
concerned citizens but to all of us.

And maybe, (oh! stop me!!) we have not yet found solutions, since the issues
persist.

Gill Wright Miller, Ph.D.
millerg  AT  denison.edu