Gender Studies

2021/2022

Academic Year

ENG

Instruction in English

4

ECTS credits

Delivered at:

Department of Sociology

Course type:

Elective course

When:

2 year, 1 module

Instructor

Казакевич Ольга Сергеевна

Course Syllabus

Abstract

This is an introductory course, designed to familiarize students with the key theoretical interventions and debates in the broad interdisciplinary field of gender studies. Students will engage with the concepts of sex, gender, feminism(s) and the ways in which they have been understood and developed throughout the past decades in different geographical locations. As it is a basic course, it will work with the key assumptions and argumentation concerning the conceptualization of gender but also, the contributions from various historical and geographical contexts and their entanglement in the production of what constitutes ‘gender studies’ will be introduced and critically examined. Furthermore, the course will touch upon various ways in which the key concepts and debates have not only been conceived, but also changed, rethought and transformed through travelling around the globe. This is a reading-intensive course; as such, its main teaching method is close-reading and discussion.

Learning Objectives

• The course aims to enhance students’ analytical reading skills as well as strengthen their skills in participating in scholarly debates through work in small groups.

Expected Learning Outcomes

• As this is a reading-intensive course, students will also learn how to effectively engage with academic texts.
• In that respect, students will strengthen their skills of critical reading by, first, learning how to identify, summarize and present the argument in a scholarly text, and, second, by understanding how to identify and critique its key assumptions.
• Overall, Students will acquire competence in working with the major concepts, issues and debates in gender studies.
• Students will acquire knowledge about the role of various historical and geographical locations in how the knowledge has been produced and the field has been developing.
• Students will also become familiar with the key theoreticians whose work has been foundational for the field of gender studies.
• Students will be able to participate in various debates on gender and to critique its conceptualization in nuanced, scholarly-informed ways.
• Students will be able to use the key theories and approaches in gender studies, its main concepts and arguments organizing this interdisciplinary field, and their critique.
• Students will understand the role the conceptualization of gender plays in society, culture and politics.

Course Contents

• Week 1. Introduction. Gender as an analytical category
• Week 2. Subjectivity and power
• Week 3. The production of heterosexuality
• Week 4. Queer/Trans
• Week 5. The Western Eye and post- and decolonial feminism
• Week 6.1. Feminist thought and postsocialism
• Week 6.2. Neoliberal feminism and postfeminism

Assessment Elements

• Attendance and participation
• Final presentation
• Weekly responses (4)
• Final paper

Interim Assessment

• 2021/2022 1st module
  0.2 * Attendance and participation + 0.2 * Final presentation + 0.3 * Final paper + 0.3 * Weekly responses (4)

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Mohanty, C. T. (1988). Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses. https://doi.org/10.1057/fr.1988.42
• Scott, J. W. (1986). Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis . American Historical Review, 91(5), 1053. https://doi.org/10.2307/1864376