Message

S1607 Gender Studies (Cultures of the World core)

Avanza Martina

This course aims to approach some of the central issues of gender studies (gender socialisation, the social construction of femininity and masculinity, women-rights and sexual minorities questions, equality and discrimination, power, sexual and reproductive issues, etc.) by focusing on politics. Given my specific expertise, particular attention will be focused on gender and activism and on the abortion issue. Other central subjects will be examined, such as citizenship, vote, political representation and identity politics.

 

Teaching methods:
Sessions will be structured around the discussion of essays, and they will privilege interactivity. During most sessions a theoretic essay will be read, and a case study will be drawn, whenever possible, from the students' countries of origin. A theoretic issue will therefor be approached first (e.g. a critical review of political representation, from a gender point of view), then the second part of the session will consist in translating this theoretic question into practice (e.g. what is the sexual composition of Governments in the students' countries of origin?).

In some cases, the sessions will be in part dedicated to associating scientific literature (essentially revolving around gender studies, sociology and political science) to the first-hand material gathered with the help of the students, during classroom workshops (class exercises). This process will enable the students to add to the discussion their own knowledge of their countries of origin. During the session dedicated to the abortion conflict, for example, the students will have to research the situation in their own countries, in order to enrich the discussion from the perspective of their national circumstances. We will then compare the different situations. This approach aims to diversify the sessions (as reading theoretical texts can prove monotonous in the long run), but also to make the most of the international composition of the class. This process will help the students in familiarising with the analysis of first-hand documentation. We will also watch and discuss some documentary films related to the course subject.

 

Learning outcomes of the course
•    To gain knowledge and critical sense about gender inequality today.
•    To learn to read and discuss theoretical texts on the course’s subject matter.
•    To link a theoretical issue (e.g. the theory of representation) to some very real cases.
•    To learn to analyse first-hand material (the photograph of a politician, the speech of a presidential candidate), by applying the knowledge acquired during the lessons.