Module WS 821.1 (2015) Thinking Differently:
European Women’s Studies. 5 ECTS
Module Co-ordinator: Mary Clancy, Women’s Studies Centre,
10 Upper Newcastle Road, Room No. 202
Mary.clancy@nuigalway.ie 091 495347. Ext: 5347
European Women’s Studies: Module Aims
The aim of the Module is to critically examine how gender has influenced personal and public effort
and contexts. It examines a variety of topics in order to show diversity and continuities across social
class, political change, time and place. The course enables students to learn about political,
intellectual and social contexts from the late 18th century to the present. There is emphasis, therefore,
both on analysis of historical effort and contemporary lives. In so doing, students acquire critical
insight that will benefit the experience of living and studying in European contexts.
Teaching and Learning
The course is delivered through a combination of lectures, discussion, film, short exercises and
presentations. This approach ensures that students have opportunities to discuss themes and resources
of interest. There is strong emphasis on preparation in advance for class exercises and students
prepare for class through: consulting readings in advance, undertaking preparatory exercises, such as
photographic tasks, visits to sites of interest (local, virtual), preparing responses to selected topics.
Course handouts include information about geographical and political contexts.
Class time: Tuesday, 14:00 – 16:00 (2 – 4 p.m). Lecture room: McMunn Theatre (Concourse).
Mary Clancy, Course Co-ordinator, has a teaching and research background in women’s history, is a
member of research consortium Gender ARC (www.genderarc.org) and joint editor of Saothar:
Journal of the Irish Labour History Society. She has participated at European level through her work
in the research alliance, Athena, now incorporated in Atgender (www.atgender.eu) and has published
in association with European colleagues. She participates in university and public projects, such as
Art and Archives in the West of Ireland, Galway City Council Heritage Forum, television
documentary and media through the medium of Irish and English, and various public events.
Course materials
Course materials are available via library e-resources and Blackboard. Students are not required to
purchase books. Additional material will be distributed in class. Information about additional local
events, such as films, exhibitions, public talks, will be circulated via Blackboard.
Module Assessment
The Module is assessed through assignment only. Length: 3,000 words. Students will be expected to
draw upon class topics and written guidelines will be issued. Submit to: The Women’s Studies Centre,
10, Upper Newcastle Road, near new entrance to the university.
Core resources
Websites: European Women’s Lobby, www.womenlobby.eu; European Institute of Gender Equality,
www.eige.europa.eu Students are required to consult core sites regularly in order to remain
informed about debates and campaigns.
Note: Classes will begin on 15 September. Venue: McMunn Theatre on the Concourse.
Tuesday, 15 September, 2015. Introduction and contexts
Topic: Introductions and course information. Defining European identities and questions. Review:
women and gender. Forgotten Women. Topical Matters. Handouts.
Tuesday, 22 September. Women’s Suffrage and Equal Citizenship
Topic: This session will trace the granting of votes to women throughout Europe during the early 20th
century. Class analysis: suffrage and anti-suffrage documents and visual materials.
Tuesday, 29 September. National and Imperial Citizenships
Topic: This session examines questions of women’s social and political rights in European nation
states, especially post-revolutionary contexts. Class analysis of discourses, visual and symbolic texts.
Tuesday, 06 October. Public Powers and Personal Rights (1)
Topic: This session will examine social and personal questions, state and voluntary institutions. Casestudy: the Magdalen Asylum. Analysis of narratives, visual evidence and public artefacts.
Tuesday, 13 October. Hidden and Hard Labour
Topic: This session examines working-class lives and topics such as child labour, domestic service,
sweated labour, trade-union organising, emigration, forced and hidden labour. Film.
Tuesday, 20 October. Women’s Voices in Politics
Topic: This session examines questions of interest to political women in late 20th and early 21st
century Europe, using their own words and actions. Exercise: writing politics.
Tuesday. 27 October. Public Powers and Personal Rights (2)
Topic: This session examines equality and the status of so-called minority groups in Europe, Asylum
Seeking, Trafficking. Discuss: Lives of Travellers and Roma.
Tuesday, 03 November. Images and Visual Representations
Topic: This session examines the place of art– artefact, documentary, sound, visual - as central to
expression, identity, representation and change. Art and Activism.
Tuesday, 10 November. Class Presentations.
Topic: Students will make small-group presentations on agreed topics. Instructions will be issued and
groups organised some weeks in advance of the class.
Tuesday, 17 November. Post-Soviet Europe
Topic: This session examines developments in post-soviet European countries (post-1989): Memories
in Writing and Film. Film extracts in class.
Tuesday, 24 November. Assignment Ideas and Resources.
Writing the assignment. Students will have prepared progress reports, including outline of assignment
idea and list of resources, as per guidelines issued earlier in Semester. Module Review.
Submit assignment by: Tuesday, 8 December, 2015, 3 p.m.
A full outline, with readings and guidelines, will be distributed to students on registration for the
course in September.
Mary.clancy@nuigalway.ie
July, 2015