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Spring 2007

 GWS 590 CM: Topics in Gender and Women’s Studies

Topic: Theories of Feminist and Intersectional Pedagogies

Meets with EPS 590
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              Mayo                    CRN 46941                                     T                          4-6:50

This course examines the link between political movements and pedagogies, analyzing feminist, intersectional, critical, critical multicultural, critical race, and queer pedagogies.  Starting with the theories of feminist and critical pedagogy from the 1970s, moving to the interventions of women of color feminism in the 1980s, and finally onto the theories of feminist poststructuralism, intersectional, critical/multicultural, critical race and queer pedagogies of more recent years.  Key concepts in these pedagogies include centralizing authentic and absent voices, consciousness raising, intersecting but not analogizing struggles, examining experience in the context of institutional constraint, and a range of theories of power and epistemic authority.  Whatever the theoretical background, all of these pedagogies agree that education is a politicized and politicizing process and that political struggle is a process that involves learning and teaching.  In addition to our engagement with theoretical issues in each of these pedagogies, this course will involve practical examination of their techniques and strategies.  Students will develop pedagogical projects using the insights from theory and collaborate in critiques of those projects.