Studying at York
Approaching Women's Studies - WOM00003M
- Department: Centre for Women's Studies
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: M
- Academic year of delivery: 2023-24
- See module specification for other years: 2022-23
Module summary
This module provides a context and foundation for other more specialised work in Women's Studies as well as a space for thinking about general problems of method and theory in this field. It enables students from many different disciplinary backgrounds to work with their peers to develop a broad range of knowledge suitable for interdisciplinary and intercultural feminist research.
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Semester 1 2023-24 |
Module aims
This module provides an introduction to key issues and concerns within Women’s Studies. It starts by exploring theoretical and conceptual approaches to the field, paying particular attention to the category of ‘woman’ and the concept of ‘gender’, and interpreting these through an intersectional lens that takes categories such as race, sexuality and class, amongst others, into account. The module then moves on to consider various topics that have been and still are of particular concern to feminists. Interdisciplinary in approach, the module enables individual students from many different disciplinary backgrounds to work with their peers to develop a broad range of knowledge suitable for interdisciplinary gender research. We also want you to think outside the Western context in which we are working and in which most of the feminist theory we are discussing originated; we do this by developing an awareness of the epistemological basis of this theory, as well as by critically engaging with case studies and material from other cultures.
Module learning outcomes
After successfully completing this module, students will be able to:
• Interrogate and explain key issues and concerns within Women’s Studies, including the problematics associated within the category ‘woman’ and the concept ‘gender’.
• Critically engage with and account for the differences amongst women, with an astute awareness of intersecting identity categories such as race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, dis/ability, age.
• Apply different methods to gendered research, with an appreciation of the importance of interdisciplinarity to Women’s Studies.
• Develop feminist research with an appreciation of the importance of cross-cultural work in Women’s Studies, with a sensitivity to questions of difference and diversity.
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Special assessment rules
None
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Module feedback
You will write a draft as a procedural essay (compulsory but not assessed) partway through this module, and will receive detailed feedback and a tutorial to help you improve your essay writing.
Indicative reading
Avtar Brah Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting Identities London: Routledge, 1996.
Raewyn W. Connell Southern Theory: Social Science And The Global Dynamics Of Knowledge Cambridge: Polity Press 2007.
Mary Eagleton (ed) Feminist Literary Theory: A Reader 3rd ed. Chicester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.
Jean Makdisi, Noha Bayoumi, Rafif Rida Sidaw (eds.) Arab Feminisms: Gender and Equality in the Middle East London: I.B. Tauris, 2014.
Carole R. McCann and Seung-Kyung Kim (eds.) Feminist Theory Reader: Local and Global Perspectives London: Routledge, 2002.
Oyèrónk ´Oyewùmí African Women and Feminism: Reflecting on the politics of sisterhood Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2003.
Victoria Robinson and Diane Richardson (eds.) Introducing Gender and Women’s Studies, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, 4th edition.
M B Zinn et al. (eds.) Gender through the Prism of Difference Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.