Between System and Self: History of Gender Violence

2025/2026

Academic Year

ENG

Instruction in English

Delivered at:

Department of History

Course type:

Elective course

When:

2 year, 1 module

Instructor

Starun, Maria

Course Syllabus

Abstract

This course explores the history of gender violence as a dynamic interplay between systemic structures and individual agency, tracing its transformation from the early modern period to the present day. Beginning with the witch hunts of early modern Europe and the cultural production of gendered persecution through the idea of witchcraft, the course examines how genders and bodies have been historically disciplined through law, religion, and social norms. It critically analyzes the emergence of modern policing and its entanglement with gender norms, alongside the resistance movements that have challenged these systems. The course will not focus solely on the Russian experience but will explore the wide spectrum of gender violence across various cultural and historical contexts worldwide. The scope extends beyond domestic violence to include war, trafficking, and other systemic forms of violence, over which feminist legal theorists create some alternatives. While violence remains a central focus, the course will also emphasize historical options of non-violence and restorative justice. By engaging with historical case studies—such as witch trials, wartime violence, and the criminalization of sex work—and contemporary issues like true crime obsession, the course uncovers the enduring nature of sexual violence, its evolving forms, and its persistent role in shaping different dynamics across societies.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze historical forms of gender-based violence and their cultural, legal, and political contexts
• Investigate the role of religion, law, and medicine in shaping practices of gendered violence
• Assess the impact of war, colonialism, and state policies on patterns of gender-based violence
• Assess the development of international norms addressing gender violence, including the role of feminist activism in shaping global policie

Expected Learning Outcomes

• A studenr can analyze how social status and gender intersected to shape vulnerabilities to violence in ancient societies.
• Critically evaluates how imperial regimes weaponized intimacy and regulated gender and sexuality to enforce racial hierarchies and political domination
• Analyzes the co-constitution of international anti-trafficking agendas and wartime sexual violence policies within the contexts of imperialism, nationalism, and emerging human rights discourses.
• Critically evaluates the tension between the emancipatory rhetoric and the practices of state and party control that characterized the regulation of sexuality and intimate life in state socialist societies.
• Critiques the Orientalist framing of gender-based violence as a cultural pathology of the "Other" and analyzes its function in justifying imperial, humanitarian, and carceral interventions.
• Critically evaluates the role of true-crime media in shaping cultural understandings of gender violence, distinguishing between sensationalized exploitation and transformative narrative justice.

Course Contents

• Gender violence in Antiquity and Medieval times
• Imperial "carnal knowledge"
• Transnational/International dimension: trafficking and war
• Regulating communist desires
• Orientalizing gender violence
• Seeing gender violence: true-crime obsessions

Assessment Elements

• Seminar discussions
• Presentation
  Each student presents an additional academic text (article, book chapter, or primary source) at the beginning of a seminar. The goal is to summarize the main arguments, explain the author’s methodology, and demonstrate the text’s relevance to understanding the history of gender-based violence. Duration: 7–10 minutes
• Written assignment
  This assignment challenges you to identify and investigate a topic related to gender violence that was not sufficiently covered in the course curriculum. By curating sources, academy works and documenting your research process, you will demonstrate your ability to critically engage with digital tools—including AI—and articulate the significance of marginalized perspectives in the broader history of gender violence.

Interim Assessment

• 2025/2026 1st module
  0.2 * Presentation + 0.4 * Seminar discussions + 0.4 * Written assignment

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Carnal knowledge and imperial power : race and the intimate in colonial rule: with a new preface, Stoler, A. L., 2010

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Muslim women in war and crisis : representation and reality, , 2010

Authors

• Starun Maria Igorevna