WS 5984 Spring 04

WS 5984 #16563, Spring 2004

Feminist Perspectives on Pedagogy and Academe:
Feminist Academic Memoir

Professor Bernice L. Hausman

Meets Tuesdays, 11am-1pm, Lane 151

Homepage | General Course Info | Contact Info

Course Description:

The genre of academic memoir offers us the opportunity to read the reflections of feminist academics on their own experiences as teachers, scholars, and administrators in higher education around the world. In this course, we will read the memoirs of avowed feminist academics from a variety of backgrounds, with an eye toward reflecting on our own experiences as feminist academics. The readings comprise mature feminist discussions on issues that are central to the feminist project in university education: equality of women and members of other marginalized groups, gendered power within academic contexts, single-sex and mixed-sex education, women in administrative positions, the interrelation of gender with race and class discrimination, and egalitarian pedagogical practices.

How to navigate this website:

Below on this page you will find the assignments, attendance policy, books, and reading schedule for this course. Under General Course Info, you will find links to Prof. Hausman's teaching pages, including information about how to read for her classes, expectations for written work, formatting guidelines, feminist pedagogy, plagiarism and the honor code, etc. It is your responsibility as a student in Prof. Hausman's class to be familiar with these guidelines and expectations.

Statement on student accommodation:

Students who have a disability or other condition that requires accommodation should discuss the issue with Prof. Hausman early in the semester. Students need not disclose their condition with the professor, merely provide her with documentation from the Dean of Students Office concerning the necessary accommodation and how that will work with this particular course. Students may make an appointment or come to Prof. Hausman's office hours (posted on contact info page).

Assignments:

Weekly reading responses: Each student will hand in 2 pages of responsive writing, due Friday of each week (12 noon, mailbox #43, 3rd floor of Shanks Hall). These pages will not be graded, but students will receive one point for each reading response, for a total of 15 points for the semester. You must hand them in each week. Reading responses can cover the discussion and the readings for that week; these are not meant to be comprehensive, but are a means of communication between student and professor over the materials for the course.

Students should prepare to lead discussion for about 30-45 minutes, including the brief overview of the text. Each incident of leading discussion is worth 15 points, so that a total of 30 points of the final grade will be assessed on this assignment.

Midterm paper: Students will write ten-page paper comprising a critical response to one text read in the first half of the course. Due Friday, March 5, 12:30pm, in Dr. Hausman's office (206 Shanks Hall). 20 points.

Final paper: Students will write a 15-20 page final paper on one of two topics: (1) a reflective personal academic memoir or (2) a critical comparative response to three or more texts read for the course. These papers will be due during the final exam period during finals week. 25 points.

Self-evaluation: This ungraded assignment is described on its own website. You must hand in a self-evaluation to receive a grade in this course. Due with the final paper.

Participation and preparedness for class: Participation and preparedness for class are not, strictly speaking, assignments. 5 points will be allocated to assess students' overall involvement in the course and preparedness for class discussion. Points will be taken off this score for absences over the allocated single cut (see below under absence policy).

Students are allocated one week's worth of cuts; in this class, that means one class. Any absences over this amount will be deducted from the students Participation and Preparedness grade. No absences are excused or unexcused; please remember to save yours for the unexpected (illness, car breakdown, family emergency). If circumstances arise that will affect your ability to attend class regularly, see Prof. Hausman immediately to discuss this problem.

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, by Azar Nafisi
A Life in School: What the Teacher Learned, by Jane Tompkins
A Woman's Education, by Jill Kerr Conway
Getting Personal: Feminist Occasions and Other Autobiographical Acts, by Nancy Miller
Leaving Pipe Shop: Memories of Kin, by Deborah McDowell
The Alchemy of Race and Rights, by Patricia J. Williams
I Dwell in Possibility, a memoir, by Toni A. H. McNaron
Fault Lines: A Memoir, by Meena Alexander
Scenes of Instruction: A Memoir, by Michael Awkward
Failing the Future: A Dean Looks at Higher Education, by Annette Kolodny
Power, Race, and Gender in Academe, ed. Shirley Geok-Lin Lim and Maria Herrera-Sobek

Week 1: Introductions. The goal this week is to introduce ourselves to each other and to get a sense of the course. We'll talk a bit about our own histories in coming to academics and feminism/women's studies.

Readings: "Me and My Shadow" by Jane Tompkins (handout); Getting Personal, by Nancy Miller .

Readings: "A Long Line of Vendidas" by Cherrie Moraga (handout); "Identity: Blood, Skin, Heart" by Minnie Bruce Pratt.

Readings: "talking back," "toward a revolutionary feminist pedagogy," "black and female: reflections on graduate school,""keeping close to home: class and education,"to gloria, who she is: on using a pseudonym," and An Interview with bell hooks by Gloria Watkins" by bell hooks (handouts).

Readings: Essays in Power, Race, and Gender in Academe, by Shirley Geok-Lin Lim and María Herrera-Sobek.

Readings: Failing the Future: A Dean Looks at Higher Education, by Annette Kolodny.

Week 10: Pedagogy, politics, censorship, and freedom: women's intellectual lives in Tehran.