Dr. Aimee Berger 898-2117 aberger@twu.edu 307L HDB Office Hours: MW, 9-10/12-2; Th 12-2

WS 2013.01 Women: Images and Perceptions Fall 2005 PH 107 MWF 10- 10:50 a.m.

Course Description

This course will introduce you to Women’s Studies as a discipline and to the feminist perspectives that have shaped areas of inquiry, categories of analysis and methodologies within Women’s Studies and across disciplines. The course draws on feminist ideas and scholarship in developing historical, theoretical and cross-cultural frameworks for the study of gender and women’s lived realities. The primary aim is to sharpen your awareness of how gender operates in institutional and cultural contexts and in your own lives, and to give you an opportunity to imagine and participate in bringing about social change that incorporates attention to social justice and human rights in a gendered context.

Course Objectives

Students in this course will:

• Develop an understanding of Women’s Studies as a discipline, how it evolved and its continuing relevance, as well as its interdisciplinary nature and contributions to various disciplines;
• Read classic and conceptual texts (testimony, theory, public rhetoric, fiction/poetry and experimental writing) that address issues in the discipline of Women’s Studies and the movements that created it;
• Develop some understanding of feminist theory and of the nature of feminist methodology;
• Understand and be able to identify some of the dynamics of gender, race, ethnicity, social class, sexual orientation, ability and age;
• Apply the principles and methods associated with Women’s Studies to interdisciplinary projects, issues and texts;
• Learn to “read gender” analytically, which is to say, begin to understand gender in relation to the larger world through
  examination of the similarities and diversities of women historically and multiculturally. In order to facilitate your understanding of multiculturalism and its importance, we will also strive toward these objectives:

q Demonstrate knowledge of those elements and processes that create and define cultures;

q Understand the bases of values, beliefs, and practices found in human societies;

q Develop basic multicultural understanding, empathy, and communication;

q Understand the responsibilities of living in a multicultural world;

q Demonstrate knowledge of the development of languages and their influence on multicultural interactions;

q Understand the underlying unity of diverse cultural expressions.

Required Texts

Women's Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings
Eds. Susan Shaw and Janet Lee. McGraw-Hill, 2001.  ISBN: 076741814X

Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism and the Future. Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2000.

Electronic Texts (Blackboard)

GRADING FORMULA

Online Discussions, Group Work, In-class Writing & Class Participation as reflected by the Journal	300 pts.
Reading Group Project	200 pts.
Reading Gender Essay	200 pts.
Oral History Project	200 pts.
Final	100 pts.
POINTS POSSIBLE	1000 pts.

Class Policies: Late Work and Attendance

Due dates are stated on the syllabus for all assignments, and you are responsible for submitting all work on time (which is to say at the beginning of class, not the end, so if you are for any reason unable to bring your assignment to class, it must be submitted via email or to the Women’s Studies administrative assistant in 307 not later than the minute class begins).

Submitting Work Electronically

If you must submit an assignment electronically, please follow these protocols:

o Send your assignment as an attachment in MS Word or as an RTF document;

o Name your file: lastname_assignmentname. EXAMPLE: my oral history project would be named: berger_oralhistory;

o In the Subject line of your email, type Assignment Submission WS 2013.02 Lastname [where Lastname is your last name, not the word Lastname];

o Copy yourself on the email (if you report having sent the email and I have not received it, you will need to produce your copy of the email or take a zero).

If you are unable to meet a deadline and are requesting an extension, you must do so in writing (via email) two weeks prior to the deadline.

Email

Email is the best way to get in touch with me [aberger@twu.edu]. Please enter some descriptive information in the Subject line of any email you send me. This information must include the course and section number and a summary of your purpose, such as Question about Syllabus or Comment on Week 1 Readings.

The university considers your Portal email account to be an official channel for communication, and important information may be sent to this email account by various departments such as the Registrar, Financial Aid, etc. In addition, Blackboard uses your TWU mail account, so users (including me) who send you mail through Blackboard are sending to your TWU mail account (also called your Portal account), unless you change your email address in Blackboard. **To check your email address in Blackboard, click Communication, Roster. To change your email address in Blackboard, click Personal Information, Edit Personal Information.

This class will make use of many collaborative learning strategies, such as small group work, in-class writing collaborations, class workshops and discussions. As such, attendance is crucial. Roll will be taken daily and moreover, all work done in class will be initialed by me and collected by you in your journal for submission at the end of the term. Only assignments with my initials will be credited. Likewise, online discussion posts will not be credited if they are posted late. The journal is a reflection of your class participation and is worth almost 1/3 of your grade. Chronic absence and/or tardiness with meeting weekly deadlines will cost you greatly and could result in a failing grade on the journal and/or in the class.

NO LATE WORK will be accepted and excessive absence (more than three) will have a significant impact and may result in a failing grade.

Disability Support Policy

Texas Woman’s University seeks to provide appropriate academic adjustments for all individuals with disabilities. The University will comply with all applicable federal, state and local laws, regulations and guidelines, specifically Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), with respect to providing appropriate academic adjustments to afford equal educational opportunity. It is the responsibility of the student to register with and provide medical verification and academic schedules to Disability Support Services (DSS) at the beginning of each semester and no later than the second week of school unless otherwise determined by the coordinator. The student also must contact the faculty member in a timely manner to arrange for appropriate academic adjustments. For further information regarding Disability Support Services or to register for assistance, please contact the office at (940) 898-3835 (voice), (940) 898-3830 (TDD) or visit CFO 105.

Blackboard

Blackboard is the university’s software program for course support and distance learning. You will have access to any courses for which you are registered and for which the instructor has set up a site. To login, you will need to have created a Portal account [click Pioneer Portal from the TWU homepage at http://www.twu.edu and follow the instructions to create this account]. Your login and password for Blackboard will be the same as in the Portal.

To login, either click the Blackboard button in the left navigation bar of the TWU homepage OR enter this URL [http://twu6.blackboard.com/] in your browser window. I strongly advise you to visit the Online Orientation resource, available on the Blackboard login page, and then spend some time familiarizing yourself with our class site during the first week of class.

A copy of the syllabus will be stored in Blackboard, as are the readings on the syllabus designated (electronic). These are listed in order of their due date under Course Content. I will also use Blackboard to post announcements, and we will of course use it for the online Discussions.

You can also:

· check your grades and track your progress in the course on a regular basis;

· email me or your classmates directly from Blackboard. (**Make sure you check your TWU portal email account regularly!).

· get answers to questions between classes or continue discussions of topics that interested you through the Discussion forums.

Academic Honesty

For all writing assignments, please be careful to properly document quotations and paraphrases from other sources. Plagiarism (from the Latin, meaning “kidnapping”) is a serious offense, a kind of hybrid of both lying and cheating, and refers to the practice of presenting words or ideas from sources as your own.

Plagiarism includes the following:

• Quoting directly from the Internet, a book, an article, or writings (published or unpublished) of another person without placing quotation marks around the words of the other person and acknowledging your source. Quotation marks must be used even around short phrases, and the parenthetical citation following the quotation gives the author’s name and page number. You must also include a Works Cited page with all graded writing.
• Presenting the ideas of another person without acknowledging your sources, even if the ideas are explained in your own words. Even when you paraphrase another person’s argument or thought, you must cite your source(s).
• Buying a paper from an Internet source or another person and submitting the paper or portions of the paper as if it were your own.
• Deliberately falsifying your references.

Please, take the time to familiarize yourself with what is required of you: http://www.twu.edu/library/res/res_plagiarism.htm

You will also sign a contract (see handout) to uphold standards of academic honesty.

Since academic dishonesty is a serious offense, deliberate plagiarism will result in a failing grade on your written assignment and may result in a failing grade for the course. You will be immediately reported to the Office of Student Life and if it is determined that you have indeed plagiarized, you may be subject to further disciplinary action. If it is determined that your plagiarism was a result of sloppiness or carelessness, you will receive a grade no higher than 75, regardless of the other strengths of the paper.

ASSIGNMENTS

ONLINE DISCUSSIONS, Group work, in-class writing and participation

Though this is a face-to-face class, we will use Blackboard [http://twu6.blackboard.com/] for pre-class online discussions. This will enable those of you who are uncomfortable expressing yourselves in a classroom environment to find expression in the virtual space of our online discussion; it will give me an opportunity to tailor our in-class discussions around your expressed interests week by week, and the online discussion will also enable us to get our minds around the complex topics we will be discussing before we actually discuss them, which should make our in-class discussions less intimidating and easier for everyone to participate in.

You are expected to post in each weekly discussion as a general requirement of the course. If you miss or fail to meet the minimum requirements for two discussions over the semester, you will lose one letter grade from your final grade in the course. If you miss or fail to meet the minimum requirements for more than four discussions total, you will be unable to pass the course.

Discussion topics (1 usually, 2 at most) will be posted for each week; the first message in each discussion thread will contain the topic, so open the message, read the topic and then type up your response in a word processing program (this will ensure you do not lose your work, as you can’t Save in the discussion message boxes and will also allow you to check your spelling, etc. before posting). SAVE each week’s comments in one central file on your hard; this document will be submitted at the end of the semester.

After you have typed up your original thoughts, return to the discussion and read what others have written. Cut and paste your message into the thread, and make changes to what you have written to reflect that you have read the messages of others. For example, if someone has posted thoughts similar to yours, acknowledge that person’s post by saying, “As So and So wrote earlier,….” or “Similar to So and So’s observations, I think…but my take on this or that is a little different…” You don’t need to respond in detail to these others in your original topic post, but only to acknowledge them, as you would in a face-to-face discussion.

Remember that this is a discussion, not a collection of isolated monologues—this is one of the most interactive elements of the course and an opportunity for us to come together as a supportive learning community. This is not to say that you can’t disagree with others or post ideas radically different than those being expressed by others; but respect and courtesy are important aspects of any fruitful discussion, and no one should ever feel attacked or cornered in a class discussion, whether that discussion takes place face to face or in this more anonymous realm. Make sure that what you have written in response to others is politely worded, and never confrontational. Though many media try to convince us that confrontation and hostility are givens in conversation between people who disagree, women’s studies/feminist paradigms of communication tell us otherwise, and we should be able to engage in even the most heated of debates with a spirit of collaboration rather than competition. Be persuasive when expressing your views, not bullying or hostile. Persuasive writing, like persuasive speech, makes use of evidence, supports generalizations and demonstrates a desire to really see the points others are making before you decide on how to respond.

You must respond substantively to at least two comments posted by others and you must respond in a timely manner to any comments or questions about your post from me.

These are the minimum requirements for the online discussions; if you consistently do only the minimum, your grade will be a C (the grade that reflects minimal standards). Discussions will be graded holistically, and the more you contribute, obviously the higher your grade in this category.

You are also required to participate in classroom activities. These include in-class writing (which will be assigned at least twice a week), group work and participation in class discussions.

JOURNAL

At the end of the semester, you will hand in a journal that contains a print-out of all discussion postings AND your after-class reflections (either in handwriting or printed in a different colored ink)—these reflections can be written up any time after the class but must be analytical, must make use of points made in class and be at least 3 sentences in length); each in-class writing (only those I have initialed will be credited); all group work and your class notes. Your grade in this category will be determined by what is contained in this journal.

READING GENDER ESSAY (Taking a Pro-Woman Perspective OR Analyzing a Film)

For this assignment, you can choose from one of the following two topics. Regardless of your topic, your paper must be 2-4 pages in length, typed, double-spaced, with page numbers and a title page.

Pro-Woman Perspective Essay

Using Chapter 3 of Manifesta as a guide, rewrite a current news story from a pro-woman perspective OR provide a pro-woman backstory for a current news story. You must use a reputable mainstream news source and NOT an online-only news source (in other words, use something like Time, USA Today, The New York Times, Dallas Morning News etc.). Please read and reread Chapter 3 to ensure that you understand this assignment.

Provide an original and meaningful title for your story. Write a one paragraph summary of the story as it originally appeared, then provide the pro-woman perspective on the story. In your conclusion, speculate on what cultural ideologies or stereotypes are at work in the original that led to its exclusion of the pro-woman perspective. If your paper is not stapled or clipped, it will not be accepted.

Attach a copy of the original story to your paper (in back).

Film Analysis

In this paper you will have the opportunity to apply the skill of reading gender to a popular film. Choose from among the following:

Spanglish	Finding Neverland	Mulan
Million Dollar Baby	Bridget Jones’ Diary	The Hours

First, provide a plot synopsis and then choose one or two scenes to focus your analysis on. Consider the scene’s significance in terms of the film's use and portrayal of gender overall. In other words, what does the film assume about women and men? How does it construct gender identities, that is, masculine and feminine? How does it represent gender relations? What gender issues does the film highlight and what does the film want you to think about these issues?

Remember that reading gender involves taking a critical stance towards gender relations in as much as they often represent women as subordinate to men, represent stereotyped versions of men and women and may assume women’s general or specific inferiority. Keep in mind, too, that gender intersects with other categories of identity, such as race, class, sexual orientation, age, etc. You should focus on a single scene, two scenes at most, but your reading of that scene should be placed in the context of the film as a whole and allow you to make an argument about gender in the film more broadly.

You should not waste time in your paper simply summarizing the movie: describe it only to the extent necessary for explaining and supporting your argument. Keep in mind that you need to make a main point supported by details based on your observations. Please remember to proof-read your paper.

As with every close reading, you will need to focus on specific details in order to make your argument convincing. In reading a film, you want to consider any, but not necessarily all, of the following elements:

-dialogue
-interaction of characters
-body language
-costumes
-lighting
-music and sound
-editing/scene cuts
-camera angles and movement
-intended audience
-the sympathies of the film (whom does the film expect the audience to identify with or whose perspective is the audience expected to share? how can you tell?)

Oral History Project

For this project, you will be able to choose between interviewing and reporting on three generations of women in your family or interviewing and reporting on women involved with a local women’s activist project.

In either case, you will first develop a list of 10-15 questions and post them under the Interview folder in the Discussion (see Calendar for due date). In an introductory paragraph, discuss what themes you hope to work with or what you are trying to focus on/find out, etc. Questions should be analytical and designed to get information about particular topics related to the issues we are studying in class. You are encouraged to read the questions others have come up with and incorporate them into your interview if desired.

Your paper for this assignment will consist of the following (in this order):

1. Transcript of interview
2. 2-4 pages of reflections
3. A conclusion (of at least ½ page) that analyzes your findings relative to gender and/or specific readings or topics discussed in class.

Three Generations

Interview your grandmother, your mother or an aunt and yourself about how being a woman has affected your life. Focus on particular issues and concepts we are studying that are of interest to you.

Local Women’s Activism

You may attend a community event related to something we are studying in class and interview participants and/or other attendees OR get in touch with a local organization that works with women’s issues and interview someone who works there OR perform a community service that benefits women specifically and interview yourself about the experience.

READING GROUP PROJECTS

For this project, you will choose a novel from the list below and join the “book club” that is discussing this novel. No more than 5 people are permitted to work in each group, so when you have chosen your novel, post a brief message in that book’s folder in the Discussion expressing your intention to join the group.

During the time we are working on this project, you will be able to use Friday class time for your book discussions. First, you will work together to determine a reading schedule and to appoint a leader for each week’s discussion; this will be done during class time on Friday of Week Four. The leader will be responsible for posting questions for that week, by a deadline set by the group but in advance of your Friday discussion. The leader will also post a Wrap Up Message for the week in which the major points raised during discussion are summarized. Title this message Wrap Up Week [and then the week number] to make it easier to find this message.

Basically, the assignment works this way: you’ll discuss the book with your group, raising points that are pertinent from a feminist perspective. Each person will then write his or her own 5-7 page paper examining either one of the issues discussed in class and the ways in which it plays out in this novel OR analyzing gender representations in the novel. Model essays and additional resources to help you with this assignment are provided in Blackboard.

BOOK LIST

Daughters by Paule Marshall

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta

Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison

Tracks by Louise Erdrich

In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez

SCHEDULE

This class begins on Monday August 29, so Week One refers to Monday August 29 through Sunday September 4., and so on.

This page lists the readings for each week. Post to the online discussion not later than Sunday at 11:55 p.m. (so the night before the week technically begins—thus, for Week Two, you would post to the Week Two discussion by Sunday September 4). It is expected that you will have read ALL readings for the week by the time you arrive in class on Monday of the week for which the readings are assigned.

WV refers to your textbook, Women’s Voices, Feminist Visions. Electronic texts are linked, and the URL is given so that you can cut and paste it in the event that the link is not working.

PART I: Developing Perspectives, Defining Terms

Week One: August 29, 31 & September 2
History of the Women’s Movement (1^st and 2^nd Waves)

q Chapter 1 and all Readings (WV)

q Declaration of Sentiments (Seneca Falls, 1848)
[http://www.closeup.org/sentimnt.htm]

q “Women’s Rights” by Katherine Williams
[http://www.cornerstonemag.com/pages/show_page.asp?170]

Week Two: September 5 [NO CLASS], 7 & 9
Separate and Unequal in America

q Chapter 2 and all Readings (WV)

Week Three: September 12, 14 & 16
Contemporary Feminisms

q “I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady [online]

q Appendix 1 AND Chapters 1-3 (Manifesta)

q Sign up for Book Clubs (in Discussion) NOT LATER THAN SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 18 AT 11:55 PM

PART II: Construction Zones

Week Four: September 19, 21 & 23
Gender and Other (Social) Constructions

q READING GENDER ESSAY DUE MONDAY IN CLASS

q Chapter 3 and all Readings (WV)

q Meet with your Book Club to determine reading schedule, etc.

Week Five: September 26, 28 & 30
The Politics of Representation: Images of Women

q Chapter 9 and all Readings (WV)

q Book Club (Friday)

Week Six: October 3, 5 & 7
Growing Up Female

q Chapters 4-6 (Manifesta)

q Book Club (Friday)

Week Seven: October 10, 12 & 14
Family

q Chapter 7 and all Readings (WV)

q Book Club (Friday)

PART III: Bodies in Motion

Week Eight: October 17, 19 & 21
Gender and the Body

q Chapter 5 and all Readings (WV)

q Book Club (Friday)

Week Nine: October 24, 26 & 28
Thin (Imaginary) Lines: Binary Logic and Women’s Sexuality

q Chapter 4 and all Readings (WV)

q Last Book Club (Friday)

Week Ten: October 31, November 2 & 5
The Power/Powerless Paradox: Violence against Women

q Reading Group Project paper due ELECTRONICALLY BY NOON FRIDAY

q Chapter 10 and all Readings (WV)

q “Sexual Terrorism”
[http://www.worldpsychology.net/World Psychology/VirtualPsyFiles/nova_pagina_31111.htm]

q Distance Learning Assignment (Friday): See Blackboard Discussion under Announcements for assignment guidelines

PART IV: Institutions that Shape Our Lives

Week Eleven: November 7, 9 & 11
Women’s Health

q Chapter 6 and all Readings (WV)

Week Twelve: November 14, 16 & 18
Law and Public Policy

q Chapter 11 and all Readings (WV)

q “What’s Wrong with Welfare to Work?” by Randy Albelda
[http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2000/0900albelda.html]

Week Thirteen: November 21, 23 & 25 [NO CLASS]
Work

q Oral History Project Due beginning of class time MONDAY

q Chapter 8 and all Readings (WV)

q Distance Learning Assignment (Wednesday): See Blackboard Discussions under Announcements for assignment guidelines.

Week Fourteen: November 28, 30 & December 2
Religion/Spirituality

q Chapter 12 and all Readings (WV)

PART V: Walking the Walk

Week Fifteen: December 5 &7
Feminist Methods, Modes and Maps

q Chapters 7 & 8 and appendices 2-3 (Manifesta)

q Chapter 13 and all Readings (WV)

q “Transnational Feminism and the Struggle for Global Justice”
[http://www.wpunj.edu/~newpol/issue34/brenne34.htm]

q TURN IN JOURNAL beginning of class time WEDNESDAY

Week Sixteen: FINAL MONDAY DEC. 12 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.