F1408 Gender Studies (Cultures of the World core)

The course will be taught by Prof. Luca Trappolin (week 1-3 + 7-12) and Prof. Annarita Paolieri (weeks 4-6).

Gender studies are an interdisciplinary field of research focussed on the ways the meaning of being men and women is constructed through every day-life practices, discourses and representations, cultural objects and institutional practices.
Yet, the course will be mainly focussed on the sociological dimension of gender studies, in which gender is investigated both as an organizing principle of society and a product of society itself.   

From one hand, class will discuss how gender expectations affect the life of boys/men and girl/women in different times and spaces, as well as the organization of social institutions such as family, school, the labour market. From the other hand, class will address how gender is socially constructed and the implication the process has for men and women.

Identifying what gender patterns and meanings are more constraining than others (and who take advantage of this) implies investigate society and culture from the point of view of the unequal distribution of power between men and women and within different groups of men. As a consequence, the course will encourage students to think critically on how gender differences translate into gender inequalities.

Special attention will be given to the interpretation of the symbolic dimension of gender. From this point of view, the course will address how norms of masculinities and femininities – intersected with class, race and sexual identity – are represented in public discourses, art and mass-media.
Examples will refer to the Italian context as well as other Western and Eastern contexts. Three weeks of classes will be devoted to the issue of women artists in the Renaissance and in the late 18th century societies, historical periods which were favourable to the emergence of significant cultural and social transformations in the life of women.

The course will cover 12 weeks. The first 3 weeks (prof. Luca Trappolin) will be focussed on the discussion of the emergence and the development of gender studies: main objects, topics, concepts and research perspectives. Classes will bring together notions from feminist studies, men studies, post-colonial studies, cultural studies and queer studies.  
From the fourth to the sixth week (prof. Annarita Savorelli), classes will investigate how and to what extent the fact of being a man or a woman affected artistic activity and its success. We will examine the relationship of women artists with their male counterparts, trying to detect the presence or lack of a peculiar feminine attitude versus a masculine one, even in the representation of artistic subjects.

From the seventh week (prof. Luca Trappolin), classes will address the following topics:

a)    the approach of gender performance;
b)    gender representations in popular culture (mass-media and advertisements)
c)    from boys to men: the construction of masculinity
d)    the violation of gender norms and the pluralisation of gender identities: homosexuality and transgenderism.    

Two remarks:
1) Much of the readings will be focused on theory and research findings. Nevertheless, each of the area of gender studies we will be covering takes its cue from real life. As a consequence, students will be asked to give examples of “real-life situation” related to their national contexts.
2) This class is an educational safe zone. It welcomes and respects the viewpoints of students from different countries, relying on different gender cultures and performing different gender and sexual identities. All members of this learning community are expected to treat each other with respect and dignity.