Activism & Feminist Communities
MW 9:15-11:45am (See note about course format below!)
Burnett 102
8 Week Session (5/16-7/8)
Description:
Activism and Feminist Communities examines the concept of community engagement through the lens
of experience – student-designed activist projects or volunteer work with community or campus
organizations – and puts experience in conversation with feminist theories and concepts. We will study
activist strategies and approaches, generate new or hybrid strategies in connection with our own activist
projects, and develop a language for thinking about, reflecting on, interpreting, and theorizing our own
experiences and observations. Course readings will provide a feminist theoretical framework for
examining the intersections of feminism, activism, and identity, while also exploring the values of
listening, dialogue, and reciprocity. Taking an open, dialogic approach that entails recognizing, speaking
with, alongside, or back to, feminist ideas, we will enter and build on existing feminist conversations in
the context of our own feminist community. Some questions we’ll collectively explore:
 What is feminism?
 What does a feminist community look like? What does it do?
 What does it mean to claim a feminist identity?
 What does it mean to claim an activist identity?
 What constitutes activism?
 What role do issues of social location and privilege play in relation to feminist activism?
 How are notions of reciprocity, dialogue, listening, and coalition-building important to activism?
Course Format:
This is a hybrid course. During the first three weeks of the course, we will meet face-to-face on Monday
and Wednesday mornings. For the remainder of the 8 week session, we will only meet on Wednesday
mornings and you will complete other work online. This is also a service-learning course, in that you will
be doing 15-20 hours of field/volunteer work alongside your coursework. We will decide during the first
week if we will complete a class activism/volunteer project as part of the required service-learning
hours.
Assignments:
Readings, journal entries, time logs, informal presentations, volunteer/field work, final reflection &
portfolio
Tentative Reading List:
Grassroots: A Field Guide for Feminist Activism, Jennifer Baumgardner & Amy Richards
Stir It Up: Lessons in Community Organizing and Advocacy, Rinku Sen