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Ways of (Feminist) Knowing - WOM00011M

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  • 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 critically engages with questions of knowledge and how we (as feminists) know. Situating our enquires against the backdrop of post-Enlightenment, disembodied approaches to knowledge that privilege the cognitive, the module explores these and other ways of knowing, and the political and ethical implications of that.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Semester 2 2023-24

Module aims

Against the backdrop of post-Enlightenment, disembodied approaches to knowledge that privilege the cognitive and the ‘logical’, this module critically engages with questions of knowledge and how we (as feminists) know. What counts as knowledge?; What is the hierarchy amongst different forms of knowledge?; And how might that be related to what have been constructed as gendered ways of knowing? In dialogue with feminist theoretical approaches to some of these questions, the module explores ‘rational’, bodily, emotional/affective, experiential and post-human ways of knowing.

Module learning outcomes

After successfully completing this module students will be able to:
• Interrogate and explain a range of theoretical approaches to ways of knowing, with an understanding of the ontological and epistemological foundations of these approaches.
• Demonstrate critical awareness of the hierarchies in different forms of knowledge, applying this awareness in one’s own reflexive research practice.
• Critically analyse the complex issues around meanings and constructions of ‘knowledge’, with a focus on feminist engagements with the politics of knowledge production.
• Apply feminist theorisations of knowledge to conduct research into the gendered dimensions of social, cultural and political lives.

Indicative assessment

Task % of module mark
Essay/coursework 100

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task % of module mark
Essay/coursework 100

Module feedback

Provisional feedback (subject to external examiners' approval) is normally given in week 6 of the spring term.

Indicative reading

Adams, Carol, J. The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory. 20th Anniversary ed. London: Bloomsbury, 2015.

Ahmed, Sara. The Cultural Politics of Emotion. New York: Routledge, 2004.

Alaimo, Stacy, and Susan Hekman (eds.). Material Feminisms. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2008.

Cudworth, Erika. ‘Feminism’ in Carl Death, ed., Critical Environmental Politics. London: Routledge, 2013.

Davis, Kathy (ed.). Embodied practices: feminist perspectives on the body. London: Thousand Oaks, 1997.

Haraway, Donna J. Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Durham and London: Duke, 2016.

Haraway, Donna. ‘Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective’, Feminist Studies, vol.14, no. 3, 1988, pp. 575-599.

Kosofsky Sedgwick, Eve. Touching Feeling: Affect. Pedagogy, Performativity. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2003.

Piercy, Marge. He, She and It / Body of Glass. any edition, 1991.

Stanley, Liz. The auto/biographical I: the theory and practice of feminist auto/biograph. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1992.


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University constantly explores ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary. In some instances it may be appropriate for the University to notify and consult with affected students about module changes in accordance with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.