WOST (Women’s Studies) 3500
Dr. Susan Pearce, Department of Sociology
On-line, East Carolina University Summer I 2015
3 credits
Special Topics: Gender-based violence at home and around the world
(NOTE: THIS COUNTS FOR SOCIAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION CREDIT.)
Instructor: Susan C. Pearce, PhD, Associate Professor of Sociology, Brewster 402A, 252-3282544. Office hours: on-line T 4:00-5:00 PM, W and Th 3:00-5:00 PM.
Graduate Assistant: Wade McIntyre, mcintyrew10@students.ecu.edu
Pick up a newspaper in the past couple of years and you are likely to read about gender-based
violence: from the attempted murder of young activist Pakistani Malala Yousafzai, to domestic
violence scandals in the NFL, to sexual assault on college campuses, to rapes in public places in
India, to Angelina Jolie’s campaign to end sexual violence in conflict. Within the past few
weeks, cities across the United States have been embroiled in confrontations of violence against
Black men.
In this course, we will learn more about these and other patterns of gender-based violence
against women, sexual and gender minorities, and men. We will learn the latest social science
research on: Domestic violence, Conflict-based sexual violence against women and men, Sexual
assault on campuses, How gender-based violence helps drive immigration, Activist movements
to expose and counter gender-based violence, including men’s involvement as activists, Laws
such as the Violence Against Women Act and international treaties, Backlashes against changes
in the status and rights of women and sexual minorities, How gender-based violence intersects
with race and ethnicity, and How the arts and entertainment industry are raising awareness.
As a sociologist, you will find that our readings and discussions will be different from what you
might expect on the same topic in a medical, psychology, or social work class. We do not
investigate ideal treatments for victims and abusers, for example, although we will run across
this in our readings from time to time. Rather, we will be investigating 1) how societies and
societal institutions are involved in the problem, 2) how seemingly “private” matters of violence
are “public” responsibilities, 3) how social movements are attempting change society in more
structural ways,
Schedule: As all on-line courses, you can do the coursework in an “asynchronous” fashion: in
other words, on a different day than that posted on the schedule. If I have a particular day’s
lecture/presentation ready in advance, you can go ahead and do that in advance. This may
happen in some situations but not others, because I plan to write each lesson in dialogue with
what I am receiving from you as a class in terms of questions, comments, etc. But be aware of
deadlines for each assignment and for the posting of discussion board posts.
Office hours: I will be available “virtually” (via email) between 4:00 and 5:00 PM on Tuesday,
and between 3:00 and 5:00 Wednesday and Thursday of each week. I will check email
regularly, however, though you will be guaranteed an immediate response if you write me
during these office hours. For those of you on campus, I will let you know the days when I will
be physically present in my office, and I encourage walk-ins. (If I have to adjust or cancel office
hours one day, I will let you know in advance.)
Required Readings (Dowdy Stores have all 3 books on order; most likely the Messner book is
there by now):
Books:
Michael A. Messner, Max A. Greenberg & Tal Peretz. 2015. Some Men: Feminist Allies and the
Movement to End Violence Against Women. Oxford University Press.
Geraldine Terry. 2007. Gender-Based Violence. Oxford, UK: Oxfam.
Full download of the Terry book is here:
http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/gender-based-violence-115394
Moha Ennaji and Fatima Sadiqi, eds. 2011. Gender and Violence in the Middle East. New York
and Oxford: Routledge.
Articles and Book Chapters (these will be posted for you on Blackboard):
Bograd, Michele. 2005. “Strengthening Domestic Violence Theories.” Pp. 25-38 in Natalie J.
Sokoloff and Christina Pratt, eds. Domestic Violence at the Margins. New Brunswick: Rutgers
University Press.
Fabian, Katalin, ed. 2010. Domestic Violence in Postcommunist Societies. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press.
Kanuha, Valli Kalei, “Compounding the Triple Jeopardy. Pp. 71-82 in Natalie J. Sokoloff and
Christina Pratt, eds. Domestic Violence at the Margins. New Brunswick: Rutgers University
Press.
Mitchell, Karitha. 2012. “Love in Action: Noting Similarities between Lynching Then and
Anti-LGBT Violence Now.” 2013, Volume 36, Issue 3, pp. 688 – 717.
Narayan, Uma. “Cross-Cultural Connections, Border-Crossings, and ‘Death by Culture':
Thinking about Dowry-Murders in India and Domestic-Violence Murders in the United States.”
Dislocating Cultures: Identities, Traditions and Third World Feminisms. London: Taylor &
Francis, 1997. 81-117.
Pearce, Susan C. and Alex Cooper. 2014. “LGBT Movements in Southeast Europe: Violence,
Justice, and International Intersections.” Book chapter for the Handbook of LGBT Communities,
Crime, and Justice. Edited by Dana Peterson and Vanessa R. Panfil. New York: Springer
Publishing.
Pearce, Susan C. and Natalie J. Sokoloff. 2013. “’This Should Not Be Happening in this
Country’: Private-Life Violence and Immigration Intersections in a U.S. Gateway City.”
Sociological Forum 28:4.
Sanday, Peggy Reeves. 2007. Fraternity Gang Rape : Sex, Brotherhood, and Privilege on
Campus. New York: NYU Press. Chapters 1 and 2, pp. 53-82.
Stotzer, Rebecca. 2015. “Youth involvement in anti-gay and anti-lesbian bias crimes.” Violence
and Victims.” 30: 308 – 321.
Vojdik, Valory. 2014. “Sexual violence against men and women in war: a masculinities
approach.” Nevada Law Journal 14: 923-952.
Course Assignments:
Four “Mini” Tests: 10% each, for 40% of grade. These are objective (multiple choice,
true/false) tests on at the end of each week all of the material from the week’s classes: readings,
lectures, videos, etc.) There will be approximately 20 questions per test. Although I cannot
monitor whether you have your books/papers open for these, you will have only about 25
minutes to complete the tests on-line, so there is not time to look up the answers, so you need to
know the material. There will not be formal study guides so pay attention to what I emphasize in
our class meetings. These will be open for 24 hours beginning at noon each Thursday to noon
the next day (Friday). In order to minimize lockouts, make sure that all other browsers, tabs, and
windows are completely closed. If you are on campus, I highly recommend going to one of our
computer labs or a library computer so you are not dependent on wifi. If you have a glitch or
lockout, contact both Wade MacIntyre and me, and one of us will unlock it for you.
Blackboard discussion boards: 15% of grade. This is your grade for regular attendance and
participation. For every day of class, you need to 1) post at least one substantial (at least 2paragraph) reflection that demonstrates that you did the reading and understood that day’s
lecture/presentation. This should be done within a 48-hour window at the most after the
scheduled class (e.g., each class will be posted by 9:00 AM, so please respond by 9:00 AM 2
days later). 2) post at least one substantial (at least 1-paragraph) response to another student’s
post. I will grade you both on the quantity and regularity of your posting and the substance. You
are not allowed to use the words “I agree.” I have simply gotten far too much of this, because it
doesn’t forward discussions. Clearly, all of our discussions should be respectful and civil, but
we will not have an in-depth discussion or stimulate critical thinking if we stay within this form
of politeness. Try to play devil’s advocate—get a real debate going; even try to push yourself to
see things from a different angle. As a sociologist, I prefer to see some strong reflections on
research or theory, more so than solely opinion based upon personal experience. And yet,
following feminist methodology, I welcome and encourage your reflections on how personal
experience relates to the course content.
Creative Piece – 15% of grade: use your imaginations. Produce 1 creative piece on one topic
related to this course. You can use any creative medium: photography, performance, theater,
poetry, creative writing, painting, music, drawing, graphic arts, pottery, video, memes,
mashups—you name it. Not feeling skilled at any of these? You can produce a nice PowerPoint
with well-selected images, background music, and information, put together in a creative, less“lectury” style. This recap of a Downton Abbey episode as if it took place on Facebook was
clever: some version of this applied to our course content could also work:
http://happyplace.someecards.com/downton-abbey-s4-recap/downton-abbey-season-4-episode8-finale-the-london-season-2013-christmas-special-bbc-pbs-recap/
Since this is not a course in teaching and judging creativity per se, how will I grade these? Here
is what I will look for:
--Nothing syrupy or sentimental. It can evoke emotion, but those might be anger or outrage—
but try not to overdo it.
--A piece that clearly took a good deal of investment in planning, research, and execution; not a
1- or 2-hour production. If you have something short like a haiku, add at least a page of
commentary to give your interpretation of it and background for the reader.
--A piece that shows more sophistication than a high-school-level poster collage.
--a piece that demonstrates your own evolving background and competence in the subject, with
accurate information
--a piece that does not reproduce stereotypes or appear culturally judgmental of another culture
(we will not represent other cultures as “backward,” “behind,” “more misogynist,” etc.)
--a piece that narrows in on one issue or problem, does not try to do everything. Creativity often
comes when you set limits. So, for example, limit yourself to only a certain group of words,
images with only one set of colors, or only 1 range of musical tones, etc.
--a piece that thinks “outside the box” – something you have not seen before.
As with any assignment, plagiarism is taken seriously and can result in the failure of this
assignment and/or the course as a whole. Your piece cannot be lifted or excerpted from an
existing source. The only exception is the use of images you have taken from the internet for
collages, mashups, PowerPoints, etc. but you have reassembled them in your own project.
Wikipedia Entry: 15% of grade, due the final exam day. The National Women’s Studies
Association has called for more women to contribute entries to Wikipedia, and to have more
entries related to gender and women than are currently available. We are going to experiment
with some “mock” Wikipedia entries, with the possibility that in the future you can refine it and
put it on the Wikipedia site.
Choose a specific topic of your choice from this course or very closely related to it.
I will not count words, but I require at least 8 full paragraphs (do not go over 12) and 8
academic sources: these need to be books and journal articles, not websites, newspaper, or
magazine articles. Do put hyperlinks within your entry to other related Wikipedia sites. This
will be easier than a research paper since you will not need to have a thesis statement, etc. It is a
straightforward encyclopedia entry.
Here is the Wikipedia entry on feminism, to get your thought processes started and to introduce
you to some references:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism
Blog contributions: 15% of grade:
This semester, we will contributing to a blog. This is a blog that started with three ECU classes
in 2011, in Sociology, Anthropology, and History. We have kept it going since, and it now has a
rich source of information. Please click through the older links to see what ECU students have
posted in the past.
http://blog.ecu.edu/sites/genderpoliticsculture/
Our focus will be: how gender-based violence is reported or presented as an issue in the news
media, social media, the arts, and other cultural forms. You are required to
1) post at least one article in a posting per week, with your own substantive comment about
your post and a question for other students to discuss the topic.
2) respond to another student’s posting each week, with substantive, thoughtful comments,
preferably soliciting a continuing discussion by others. (I can especially spot when
students are not reading other students’ posts when they post an article that another
student has already posted!)
3) OPTIONAL: write 1 “op-ed” piece based on an academic study (not a news/magazine
article) about one of the semester’s topics. Pitch it as if you are submitting it to a
newspaper to help enlighten the general public and recommend how to address or not
address the problem. See the examples already posted on the blog.
You are encouraged to go beyond these basic assignments and do even more than required.
You should be able to earn an “A” on this assignment if you do regular, thorough work on 1)
and 2), and ALSO do 3). You would earn a “B” if you do regular thorough work on 1) and 2)
but do not do 3); OR if you do a very good but incomplete job on regular postings for 1) and 2)
and also do 3). You would earn a “C” if you do basic but incomplete jobs on 1) and 2) and do
not do 3). You would earn a “D” if you do the very minimum on all of these, including simply
posting an article but having no commentaries. You would get an “F” for mostly ignoring this
assignment, even if you posted some.
Where to find articles to post: Check out Women’s e-News; you can set this up to get regular
emails from them. You can also set up a Google alert to send you gender-based violence articles
daily. There are many other sources out there, including Ms. Magazine and others.
Important Course Information:
Cultural relativism: Educate yourself about one or more of the countries about which we will
read this semester, and challenge yourself to see the problems they are reported to experience
through the eyes of someone who grew up in that society. How do you see things differently?
Further, if it is a society without as much privilege in the global arena as ours, how does that
country’s position outside of that privilege relate to the issues? Do you agree with how outsiders
propose that that country tackle the problem?
Trigger warnings: The very serious subject of this class will most likely be emotionally
wrenching, and particularly if you or someone close to you has had an experience that we will
be discussing. I will give “trigger warnings” particularly before any video that we watch, and
request that you make your own decision about whether you should watch it. Also, I want to
give all of you a general “trigger warning” that all of the content of our readings and discussions
are about potentially disturbing information.
Rules: Please stick to all deadlines, at the risk of grade penalties. I will decide whether to accept
any late work on a case-by-case basis, and may not accept it. I know that many of you are
juggling this course with employment, so please make sure that schedules do not interfere with
one another. Plagiarism and will be unacceptable and result in an “F” for the assignment, and
possibly for the course.
Keeping yourself balanced: I thought I would help to balance out the emotional toll that these
readings and discussions could take on all of us, regardless of our personal experience, by
posting a music video before and after each class. I love music, and summer is a great music
season, especially if you like your music outdoors. I have created a “Music Playlist” on the left
side on Blackboard; feel free to click on a music video right before class and right after class if
you think this will help you. This is voluntary, of course, and not at all intended to make light of
the seriousness of the course.
Monday, May
18
Tuesday, May
19
Introductions, Course background and requirements, Overview of key
concepts
Sexual assault on campuses: the new impetus to expose and end the
problem; Title IX
Readings: Sanday, pp. 52-83 and recent ECU debate:
http://www.theeastcarolinian.com/news/article_6dc0a674-e964-11e4a069-c73896636dfb.html
http://www.theeastcarolinian.com/opinion/article_afa7ad48-ed48-11e484b6-53f42658b816.html
http://www.theeastcarolinian.com/opinion/article_91877538-ed4711e4-9532-ab87f85405f6.html
Wednesday,
May 20
Readings: Some Men, Chapter 1; the basics of Title IX:
http://knowyourix.org/title-ix/title-ix-the-basics/
Thursday, May
21
Tuesday, May
26
Wednesday,
May 27
Thursday, May
28
Readings: Some Men, Chapters 2-3
Test: opens at noon for 24 hours.
Readings: Some Men, Chapter 4
Monday, June
1
Tuesday, June
2
Wednesday,
June 3
Thursday, June
4
Monday, June
8
Tuesday, June
9
Wednesday,
June 10
Thursday, June
Readings: Some Men, Chapters 5-6
Violence against African American men; Sexual violence against men
Readings: Vojdik, additional readings TBA.
Test: opens at noon for 24 hours.
Violence against LGBT people
Mitchell, Stotzer
Violence against LGBT people
Readings: Kanuha, Pearce and Cooper
Intersectionality and Domestic violence in the United States; Violence
Against Women Act, International women’s movements and treaties
Readings: Bograd, Narayan, and Pearce and Sokoloff
Domestic violence in Eastern Europe; International and transnational
human rights treaties/conventions/measures
Readings: Fabian, and The Istanbul Convention:
http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/standardsetting/conventionviolence/about_en.asp
(read the overview about the convention)
Test: opens at noon for 24 hours.
Readings: Terry and Hoare, chapters 1 through 4
Readings: Terry and Hoare, chapters 5 through 8
Readings: Terry and Hoare, chapters 9 through 12
Gender and Violence in the Middle East
11
Monday, June
15
Tuesday, June
16
Wednesday,
June 17
Thursday, June
18
Monday, June
22
Tuesday, June
23
Readings: Ennaji and Sadiqi, chapters 1 through 3
Test: opens at noon for 24 hours.
Readings: Ennaji and Sadiqi, chapters 4 through 7
Readings: Ennaji and Sadiqi, chapters 8 through 10
Readings: Ennaji and Sadiqi, chapters 11 through 14
Creative projects due: post on Blackboard; you need to review all
other students’ projects; post response to your classmates’ projects on
Blackboard discussion board. No readings.
Wrap-up of semester, lecture on alternatives to combat the
problemsand sociological approaches, overview of additional genderbased violence topics, discussion boards. This is when you can post
your ideas on understanding and addressing gender-based violence,
from your learning across the semester. No readings.
Final Wikipedia Entries due. Blackboard discussions summarizing
the semester, final blog postings.