Women’s Studies: The Basics is an accessible introduction into the ever expanding and increasingly relevant field of studies focused on women. Tracing the history of the discipline from its origins, this text sets out the main agendas of women’s studies and feminism, exploring the global development of the subject over time, and highlighting its relevance in the contemporary world. Reflecting the diversity of the field, core themes include: the interdisciplinary nature of women’s studies core feminist theories and the feminist agenda issues of intersectionality: women, race, class and gender women, sexuality and the body global perspectives on the study of women the relationship between women’s studies and gender studies. Providing a firm foundation for all those new to the subject, this book is valuable reading for undergraduates and postgraduates majoring in women’s studies and gender studies, and all those in related disciplines seeking a helpful overview for women-centred, subject specific courses.
This interdisciplinary collection is concerned with important theoretical and methodological issues facing women's studies. Drawing on feminist theory and politics it addresses a range of questions raised for women's studies by work conducted in history, literature, politics and sociology. The editors provide a context for these debates in their introductory essay which gives an overview of the development of women's studies and reflects on its current position. In their concluding chapter they also suggest a framework from which women's studies might move forward.
Providing a historical framework for understanding how women's studies evolved from women's struggles for access to higher education, this book illustrates the impact that feminist perspectives have made in the academy. Using the disciplines as its organizing principle, the First Edition explores eleven major fields to examine the host of contributions and critiques being made by feminist scholars. This book also probes the emergence of women's studies in the late 1960s as an accomplishment of great historical significance, and presents a vast array of readings by feminist scholars over the past 30 years. For professionals with a career or interest in women's studies, sociology, psychology, history, and/or education.
A Companion to Gender Studies presents a unified and comprehensive vision of its field, and its new directions. It is designed to demonstrate in action the rich interplay between gender and other markers of social position and (dis)privilege, such as race, class, ethnicity, and nationality. Presents a unified and comprehensive vision of gender studies, and its new directions, injecting a much-needed infusion of new ideas into the field; Organized thematically and written in a lucid and lively fashion, each chapter gives insightful consideration to the differing views on its topic, and also clarifies each contributor's own position; Features original contributions from an international panel of leading experts in the field, and is co-edited by the well-known and internationally respected David Theo Goldberg.
A comprehensive overview of the interdisciplinary field of Women's and Gender Studies, featuring original contributions from leading experts from around the world The Companion to Women's and Gender Studies is a comprehensive resource for students and scholars alike, exploring the central concepts, theories, themes, debates, and events in this dynamic field. Contributions from leading scholars and researchers cover a wide range of topics while providing diverse international, postcolonial, intersectional, and interdisciplinary insights. In-depth yet accessible chapters discuss the social construction and reproduction of gender and inequalities in various cultural, social-economic, and political contexts. Thematically-organized chapters explore the development of Women's and Gender Studies as an academic discipline, changes in the field, research directions, and significant scholarship in specific, interrelated disciplines such as science, health, psychology, and economics. Original essays offer fresh perspectives on the mechanisms by which gender intersects with other systems of power and privilege, the relation of androcentric approaches to science and gender bias in research, how feminist activists use media to challenge misrepresentations and inequalities, disparity between men and women in the labor market, how social movements continue to change Women's and Gender Studies, and more. Filling a significant gap in contemporary literature in the field, this volume: Features a broad interdisciplinary and international range of essays Engages with both individual and collective approaches to agency and resistance Addresses topics of intense current interest and debate such as transgender movements, gender-based violence, and gender discrimination policy Includes an overview of shifts in naming, theoretical approaches, and central topics in contemporary Women's and Gender Studies Companion to Women's and Gender Studies is an ideal text for instructors teaching courses in gender, sexuality, and feminist studies, or related disciplines such as psychology, history, education, political science, sociology, and cultural studies, as well as practitioners and policy makers working on issues related to gender and sexuality.
Theoretical Perspectives on Gender and Development demytsifies the theory of gender and development and shows how it plays an important role in everyday life. It explores the evolution of gender and development theory, introduces competing theoretical frameworks, and examines new and emerging debates. The focus is on the implications of theory for policy and practice, and the need to theorize gender and development to create a more egalitarian society. This book is intended for classroom and workshop use in the fields ofdevelopment studies, development theory, gender and development, and women's studies. Its clear and straightforward prose will be appreciated by undergraduate and seasoned professional, alike. Classroom exercises, study questions, activities, and case studies are included. It is designed for use in both formal and nonformal educational settings.
This major introduction to feminist cultural studies provides an important new synthesis of the feminist critique of culture. It also brilliantly reflects the interdisciplinary approach of cultural studies. The book opens with an exploration of the development of feminist academic practice and an overview of the full range of feminist theory. It includes full coverage of the equality/difference debate. Chapters then examine the impact of women's studies on linguistics, literary theory, popular culture, history, film theory, art history, theatre studies and musicology. Part two explores the politics, theories and methods of feminist study including psychoanalysis, black criticism, lesbian studies and semiotics. This book is essential reading for anyone who needs a lively and accessible explanation of how feminism has taken culture and its academic study by storm.
On a November evening in 1989, Laura Levitt was raped in her own bed. Her landlord heard the assault taking place and called 911, but the police arrived too late to apprehend Laura’s attacker. When they left, investigators took items with them—a pair of sweatpants, the bedclothes—and a rape exam was performed at the hospital. However, this evidence was never processed. Decades later, Laura returns to these objects, viewing them not as clues that will lead to the identification of her assailant but rather as a means of engaging traumatic legacies writ large. The Objects That Remain is equal parts personal memoir and fascinating examination of the ways in which the material remains of violent crimes inform our experience of, and thinking about, trauma and loss. Considering artifacts in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and evidence in police storage facilities across the country, Laura’s story moves between intimate trauma, the story of an unsolved rape, and genocide. Throughout, she asks what it might mean to do justice to these violent pasts outside the juridical system or through historical empiricism, which are the dominant ways in which we think about evidence from violent crimes and other highly traumatic events. Over the course of her investigation, the author reveals how these objects that remain and the stories that surround them enable forms of intimacy. In this way, she models for us a different kind of reckoning, where justice is an animating process of telling and holding.
This book presents case studies of the Women's Studies programs at seven institutions of higher education in the United States focusing on how and what students learn in Women's Studies programs. An introduction describes the development of Women's Studies as an academic discipline, the recent criticism of such programs, the development of the project to study this area, questions generated during the project about student learning, the importance of institutional context for each case study, and institutional challenges generated at some sites. The body of the book presents a chapter for each institution detailing the scope, goals, learning skills, and structure of that institution's program. Many of the program descriptions touch on the development of the program at that institution, the general institutional climate and technical notes on conducting the case study at that site. The chapters are as follows: (1) "Introduction"; (2) "University of Colorado: Personalized Learning" (Marcia Westkott and Gay Victoria); (3) "Lewis and Clark College: A Single Curriculum" (Laurie Finke and others); (4) "Old Dominion University: Making Connections" (Anita Clair Fellman and Barbara A. Winstead); (5) "Wellesley College: Counting the Meanings" (Rosanna Hertz and Susan Reverby); (6) "CUNY-Hunter College: Feminist Education" (Michele Paludi and Joan Tronto); (7) "Oberlin College: Self-Empowerment and Difference" (Linda R. Silver); (8) "University of Missouri-Columbia: For Women's Sake" (Mary Jo Neitz and Michelle Gadbois); and (9) "Conclusion." Most chapters include extensive references. (JB)
