Women's Studies: The Basics

Description

Women’s Studies: The Basics is an accessible introduction to the pathbreaking and cross-disciplinary study of women—past and present. Tracing the history of the field from its origins, this revised and updated text sets out the main topics making up the discipline, exploring its global development and its relevance to our own times. A new chapter on militarization and violence provides fresh insight into trends in the contemporary world and adds to curricular significance. 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, gender, ethnicity, and religion violence, militarization, security, and peace women, sexuality and the body Women’s Studies: The Basics provides an informed foundation for those new to the subject and is especially meant to guide undergraduates and postgraduates concentrating in women’s studies and gender studies. Those in related disciplines will find in it a valuable overview of and background to women-centered issues and concerns, including global ones. The work also provides an updated list of suggested reading to help in further study, classroom presentations, and written exercises. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Chapter 1: The Inventi on of Women’s Studies Women’s Studies: What Is It? Feminist Roots of Women’s Studies: A Brief Look Back Women’s Studies and the University Women’s Studies Grows from Knowledge Outside the Academy Changing the Classroom as Part of Changing the University—First Steps What Is a Woman? And Other Early Questions Nature Versus Culture Women’s Studies Around the World Broadens the Questioning Conclusion: Its Meaning Is Change Note Sugested Reading Chapter 2: The Foundations of Interdisciplinarity From Multidisciplinarity to Interdisciplinarity Women’s Studies’ Early Critical Edge Women’s Studies New Critique of Reason Androgyny Women’s Studies and the “L” Word Margins and Centers Mad Women in the Attic Conclusion Suggested Reading Chapter 3: Intersectionality and Difference: Race, Class, and Gender Contests over Diference Race and the Birth of Intersectionality Ethnicity and Intersectionality Class and Intersectionality Pluralism and Its Critics Equality Versus Diference Conclusion Notes Suggested Reading Chapter 4: Global Agendas The Legacy of Empire and Post-Colonialism The Post-Colonial Perspective Women in the Global Economy, Past and Present Women and Neo-liberalism Women’s Migration in a Global Age Women and Poverty Development and Women’s Poverty Orientalism and Its Chalenges Women’s Global Subjectivity Global Feminist Activism and Modernity Conclusion Notes Suggested Reading Chapter 5: Violence, Militarization, Security, and Peace Securitization and Women’s Activism Confronting Violence Conclusion Note Suggested Reading Chapter 6: Women’s Studies and the Question of Gender Current Definitions of Gender Gender, Structuralism, and Post-Structuralism Joan Scot: Gender: A Useful Category Gender Stirs up the University Sex versus Gender Trans People and the Unwinding of Gender Conclusion Sugested Reading Chapter 7: Feminist Theories and Methods Why Theory? From Marxism to Political Economy Psychoanalysis Race Theories Post-Modernism and Women Post-Colonial Theory Methods, Epistemology, and Ethics in Women’s Studies Conclusion Note Suggested Reading Chapter 8: Embodiment, Sexuality, Identity Gender and Body Politics The Body Politics of Disability Debating, Defining, and Designing Embodiment Compulsory Heterosexuality, the Lesbian Experience, and Trans Life Nature Speaks about Sex Queer Acts Chalenge All Sexual Identities Conclusion Notes Sugested Reading Chapter 9: Classrooms, Controversies, and Citizenship Women and Citizenship A Chily Climate in the Clasrom Consciousness-Raising Contentious Issues in the Clasroom Conclusion Suggested Reading Chapter 10: The Future of Women’s Studies in our Information Age Why Women’s Studies Should End Post-Feminism Has the World Really Changed All that Much? Burning Issues that Remain Flows, Flux, and Nomads Our Virtual Selves and the Internet Solution We Are Cyborgs: Beyond the Human-Centered World: The Post-Human Our Place in the Animal Kingdom Conclusion Notes Suggested Reading Index