Please note that this syllabus is subject to change prior to the first class meeting in January 2015.
Please find the most up to date version on our Canvas site by Jan 17th 2015.
Feminist Geographies
How is space and place gendered?
How do markers of race, class and gender intersect in our bodies and lives?
How are war, work, nature and nationalism shaped by norms of masculinity and femininity?
How do patriarchy, capitalism, and racism structure our social world?
What can a feminist ethic bring to research methodology?
How has feminist theory troubled and reworked the discipline of Geography?
1. Introduction:
In the last four decades Feminist thought has significantly transformed the discipline of
geography and our broader understanding of space and place. In this class we will review key
feminist geography writings produced over this time and the key shifts in feminist
geographic thought. In particular, we will focus on transformations in work on knowledge
and knowledge production; economic processes including labor, reproductive and
productive work, migration, development and globalization; and political processes such as
those of colonialism and nationalism, geopolitics and transnationalism. In doing so we will
draw on and explore a range of strands of feminist theory including; Marxist, postcolonial,
post structural, intersectional and transnational feminisms.
2. Course Objectives:
Intellectual goals:
 To review the key strands of feminist thought within the discipline of Geography
 To review a series of broader theoretical concepts that are central to feminist theory
 To explore the ways in which feminist geography can extend, develop and
complicate your own research theoretically and methodologically
 To explore the varied ways in which feminist geography has conceptualized space,
place and subjectivity.
Goals for developing written/oral skills:
 To write in a range of forms including short think pieces, critical analysis papers, and
one longer piece related to your own research.
 To practice acting as ‘discussant’ - summarizing and presenting your ideas and the
ideas of others to facilitate intellectual development
 To engage in respectful and intellectually productive conversation
 To read critically within a discipline for shifts in intellectual approaches, methods and
analysis.
3. Course readings:
We will read a series of academic articles and book chapters that will be posted on our class
Canvas page. Please bring a hard copy of the books/papers to class, laptops are not
permitted during seminar.
4. Assignments:
Attendance (10%)
You are required to come to all seminar sessions, to arrive on time, to be well prepared to
discuss all the reading material and to engage actively with your peers. Absences or late
arrival will only be accepted with a medically validated illness. Missing seminar, arriving late
and/or unprepared, using cell phones in class, failing to actively and/or respectfully
participate will affect your overall grade. Active and respectful engagement also necessitates
that you are reflective of your presence in class. If you know you have a tendency to
dominate, work on listening actively and facilitating the discussions of others. If you are shy
encourage yourself to speak at least three times during session.
Weekly blogs (20%)
Due by noon on Wednesdays. Please post at our Canvas site.
Each week as a way to prepare for class I would like you to complete a short (450-500 word)
blog or ‘think piece’. This serves a number of purposes; it will encourage you to read the
material closely and critically, it will give us lots of rich material to discuss in class, and it will
help you focus on a few key ideas that you may choose to take up in your longer papers. It is
also an engaging way to hear from your peers outside of the classroom. Use this blog:
 to review the key themes in the readings
 to identify connections between at least 2 of the pieces
 to pick out one or two key concepts that you want to talk more about in class
 to discuss how the pieces made you feel (intrigued, confused, angry, excited…)
 to raise questions for your peers that we can then take up in our discussion sessions.
Note that your blog can be informal but you should always seek to be respectful in our
shared learning space. Points will be deducted for late blogs or blogs over or under the word
limit.
Discussant on the blogs and reading material x 3 (15%)
Sign up on day 1 of class for 3 presentation dates
In each of our class sessions we will have 1-2 student discussants. Each student will act as
discussant 3 times during the quarter. You will be expected to draw both on the reading
material and your peers’ blogs in your role. As discussant you must:
 start the class by briefly reviewing the articles and blogs and presenting what you see
as 1-2 key concepts, the key argument/geographic approach, the connections
between the pieces and perhaps between the pieces and those from past weeks.
 then facilitate discussion amongst the other students in the room. You should do this
by highlighting 2-3 common, interesting, challenging and/or provocative questions
raised in the blogs from which we can build a discussion.
 As a rule we will spend the first part of the class discussing what is useful,
productive, engaging about the pieces before we move into criticism. When we do
so, as facilitator/discussant, your role will be to highlight critiques you have
identified or that were raised in the blogs.
You should aim to facilitate during the sessions when you are not writing a more lengthy
reflection paper and to coordinate with your co-facilitator. Remember that as
facilitator/discussant, once you have presented your opening segment you should be
speaking the least but be working the hardest on encouraging others to share their ideas.
Critical analysis papers (3 x 5 pages) (25%)
Sign up on day 1 of class for submission dates
Due in hard copy form in-class 3 times during the semester
During the semester you will write 3 critical analysis papers. These papers provide you with
space to develop your thoughts and may also form the theoretical foundations for your final
paper. They will be graded on a letter scale. Papers receiving an “A/A-” grade will do all of
the following clearly:
 succinctly outline the key argument of one or more of the pieces and tell me how the
author makes this argument (ie what evidence do they use, what theoretical
approach, what methods?)
 take up a particular theme/concept/idea that it engages with and that you find
interesting, problematic, useful etc. How do you understand what that
theme/concept/idea means? How is it useful (or not) in pushing feminist thought
and feminist engagements with geography forward? How might it be useful in your
own work? What criticisms do you have and why?
 close with analytical questions that demonstrate constructive engagement with the
ideas presented in the paper but that push the piece forward in some way – either
empirically, methodologically or theoretically.
You may use these papers to connect key course themes with your own intellectual trajectory
and to move it forward in new ways, however the piece should focus primarily on an
engagement with the theory we have covered in class.
Final paper (30%)
Full Draft due: Week 13 or 14 (in-class)
Final due: Week 16, Wednesday 6 May (via turnitin.com), or earlier.
I leave your culminating paper for the class deliberately loose and open. Very broadly
speaking your final paper must demonstrate an engagement between your own research, at
least 1 of the strands of feminist theory (Marxist, Postcolonial, Poststructural, Political
Ecology etc) that we have discussed in class and with at least 1 of the key concepts
(Intersectionality, Empowerment, Transnationalism, Identity, Positionality etc). Beyond this
I am open to accepting a range of written material.
 You may choose to develop one or more of your reflective papers into a sustained
theoretical engagement with some of the ideas and approaches we have covered in
class and that you feel will in the future be useful for an empirical chapter of your
dissertation, making sense of your fieldwork notes etc. If you are developing the
foundations of your project this may be particularly helpful for you.
 If you are at the writing stage you may use this paper to write a portion of the MA or
PhD dissertation, a research or grant proposal, or one of the empirical chapters.
 If you are finishing up or well into the writing process you may choose to develop a
chapter you have already written so that it engages with feminist theory with a view
towards journal publication.
 If your own work is still in development, or you want a break from it, you may take
up a new empirical focus (one that came up in class or that is totally different) and
use it to explore the theoretical material covered in class.
Please arrange to meet with me during my office hours between to discuss what would work
best for you wherever you are in the MA or PhD process.
Course outline:
PART 1: KNOWLEDGE/ METHODOLOGY
Week 1
Remaking Geography through Feminism: Critiques of Disciplinary Patriarchy
Due: Blog by Tuesday at 6pm
Introductions to the class, review of the course syllabus, and sign up for facilitation,
reflection paper, and final paper presentation dates.
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Monk, J. and Hanson, J. (1982) On Not Excluding Half of the Human in Human
Geography The Professional Geographer, Vol. 34: 11- 23.
Rose, G. (1993) Feminism and Geography: An Introduction Feminism and Geography:
The Limits of Geographical Knowledge Blackwell Publishers pp. 1-16
Domosh, M. (2000) Unintentional Transgressions and Other Reflections on the Job
Search Process The Professional Geographer, Vol. 52(4): 703-708
Longhurst, R. (2002). Geography and gender: a “critical” time? Progress in Human
Geography Vol. 26(4), 544-552.
Week 2
Science, Subjectivity and Space: Feminist Interventions
Due: Blog by Tuesday at 6pm, Optional critical analysis paper
 Harding, S. (1986) From the Woman Question in Science to the Science Question in
Feminism in The Science Question in Feminism Cornell University Press pp. 15-29
 Haraway, D. (1988) Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and
the Privilege of the Partial Perspective Feminist Studies Vol. 14(3): 575-599
 McDowell, L. (1993) Space, place and gender relations: Part 1 Feminist Empiricism
and the Geography of Social Relations Progress in Human Geography 17(2): 157-179
 Hodge, D. (1995) Should Women Count? The Role of Quantitative Methodology in
Feminist Geographic Research The Professional Geographer Vol. 47(4): 426
 Kwan, MP. (2002) Is GIS for women: Reflections on the critical discourse in the
1990s. Gender, Place and Culture: : A Journal of Feminist Geography , 9(3):271-279.
Week 3
Power and the Production of Knowledge: Feminist Methodologies
Due: Blog by Tuesday at 6pm, Optional critical analysis paper
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England, K. (1994) Getting Personal: Reflexivity, Positionality and Feminist
Research The Professional Geographer 46 (1): 80-89
Kobayashi, A. (2001) Negotiating the Personal and Political in Critical Qualitative
Research in Limb, M. and C. Dwyer (eds) Qualitative Methodologies for Geographers: Issues
and Debates pp. 55-70
Mohammad, R. (2001) ‘Insiders’ and/or ‘Outsiders’: Positionality, Theory and Praxis
in Limb, M. and C. Dwyer (eds) Qualitative Methodologies for Geographers: Issues and
Debates Oxford University Press pp. 101-117
Hyndman, J. (2001) The Field as Here and Now, Not There and Then Geographical
Review, Vol. 91(1-2): 262-272.
Davies, G. and Dwyer, C. (2007) Qualitative methods: are you enchanted or are you
alienated? Progress in Human Geography, Vol. 31(2): 257-266.
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[Optional: Review essay on key elements of feminist methodologies] Wolf, D.
(1996) Situating Feminist Dilemmas in Fieldwork in D, Wolf. (eds) Feminist Dilemmas
in Fieldwork Westview Press pp. 1-55
PART II: FEMINIST ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHIES
Week 4
Development and Gender I: Adding Women In (WID, WAD, GAD)
Due: Blog by Tuesday at 6pm, Optional critical analysis paper
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Kabeer, N. (1994) ‘The Emergence of Women as a Constituency of Development’,
The Theoretical Underpinnings of WID’, ‘Structuralist Perspectives’ and
‘Development from a Gender Perspective’ in Reversed Realities: Gender Hierarchies in
Development Thought Verso: London, New York pp. 1-95
Schroeder, R. (1997) Re-claiming land in the Gambia: Gendered property rights and
environmental intervention Annals of the Association of American Geographers 87(3): 487
Radcliffe, S. (2006) Development and Geography: Gendered Subjects in
Development Processes and Interventions Progress in Human Geography, Vol. 30(4):
524-532.
Week 5
Nature/Nurture: Ecofeminisms and Feminist Political Ecology
Due: Blog by Tuesday at 6pm, Optional critical analysis paper
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Rocheleu, D., Thomas-Slayter, B. and Wangari, E. (1996) ‘Gender and environment:
A feminist political ecology perspective’ in Feminist Political Ecology: Global Issues and
Local Experiences London and New York: Routledge pp. 3-26
Seager, J. (2003). Pepperoni or broccoli? On the cutting wedge of feminist
environmentalism Gender Place and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography, 10(2): 167174
Nightingale, A. (2006) The Nature of Gender: work, gender and environment,
Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 24(2): 165-185
Mollett, S. (2010) Está listo (Are you ready)? Gender, race and land registration in the
Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve Gender, Place and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography
Vol. 17(3): 357-375
[Optional review essay] Seager, J. (2003). Rachel Carson died of breast cancer:
Feminist environmentalism comes of age. SIGNS, 28 (3): 945-972
Week 6
Political economies of gender I: Feminist engagements with class, work and labor
Due: Blog by Tuesday at 6pm, Optional critical analysis paper
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Pearson, D. and Elson, R. (1981) Nimble Fingers make cheap workers: An analysis
of women’s employment in Third World Export Manufacturing Feminist Review Vol.
7: 87-107
Rose, G. (1993) Spatial Divisions and Other Spaces: Production, Reproduction and
Beyond in Feminism and Geography: The Limits of Geographical Knowledge Blackwell
Publishers pp. 113-136
Massey, D. (1994) A Woman’s Place in Space, Place and Gender Minneapolis: University
of Minnesota Press pp. 191 – 211
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Gibson-Graham, JK. (2006) Excerpts from The end of capitalism (as we knew it): a
feminist critique of political economy University of Minnesota Press
Lawson, V. (1998) Hierarchical households and gendered migration in Latin
America: feminist extensions to migration research Progress in Human Geography, Vol.
22(1): 39-53.
Week 7
Political Economies of Gender II: The Global Intimate
Due: Blog by Tuesday at 6pm, Optional critical analysis paper
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Nagar, R. Lawson, V., McDowell, L. and Hanson, S. (2002) Locating Globalization:
Feminist (Re)readings of the subjects and spaces of Globalization Economic Geography,
Vol. 78(3): 257-284
[Optional] Pratt, G. and Rosner, V. (2006) Introduction: The Global and the
Intimate Women’s Studies Quarterly Vol. 34(1/2): 13-24
Mountz, A. and J. Hyndman. (2006) Feminist Approaches to the Global Intimate,
Women’s Studies Quarterly, 34(1-2): 446-463
Gibson-Graham, JK (2008) Diverse economies: performative practices for `other
worlds' Progress in Human Geography, Vol. 32(5): 613-632.
Wright, M. (2009) “Gender and Geography: Knowledge and Activism across the
Intimately Global,” Progress in Human Geography, Vol. 33(3): 379-386.
Week 8
Development and Gender II: Neoliberalism, self-improvement and the work of
empowerment
Due: Blog by Tuesday at 6pm, Optional critical analysis paper
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Cruickshank, B. (1999) ‘The liberal arts of governance’ in The Will to Empower:
Democratic citizens and other subjects Ithaca: Cornell University Press pp. 43-62
Sharma, A. (2008) ‘Introduction (up to page xxv) in Logics of Empowerment: development,
Gender and Governance in Neoliberal India Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
Erickson, L and Faria, C. (2011) ‘‘We want empowerment for our women’:
Transnational Feminism, Neoliberal Citizenship, and the Gendering of Women’s
Political Subjectivity in Post conflict South Sudan Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and
Society 2011, vol. 36, no. 3
Rankin, K. (2001) Governing development: neoliberalism, microcredit and rational
economic woman Economy and Society Vol. 30(1): 18-37
Week 9
Spring break. No class. Use this time to rest and work on the drafts of your final papers.
PART III: FEMINIST POLITICAL GEOGRAPHIES
Week 10
Engaging the State I: colonial and postcolonial feminist geographies
Due: Blog by Tuesday at 6pm, Optional critical analysis paper
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Sharpe, J. (2003) Feminist and Postcolonial Engagements in A Companion to Political
Geography J. A. Agnew, K. Mitchell, G.Ó Tuathail Wiley Blackwell pp.59-74
Domosh, M. (2004) Selling Civilization: Toward a Cultural Analysis of America's
Economic Empire in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, Transaction of the Institute
of British Geographers, Vol. 29: p. 453-467,
Blunt, A. (1999) ‘Imperial geographies of home: British women in India, 1886-1925.’
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers NS 24, pp. 421-440.
McEwan, C. (1994) Encounters with West African Women: Representations of
Difference by White Women Abroad in A. Blunt and G. Rose Writing Women and
Space: Colonial and Postcolonal Geographies Guilford Press. pp. 73-100
Fluri, J. (2009) The beautiful ‘other’: a critical examination of ‘western’
representations of Afghan feminine corporeal modernity Gender, Place and Culture: A
Journal of Feminist Geography 16(3): 241-257
Week 11
Engaging the State 2: (trans)nationalism and feminism
Due: Blog by Tuesday at 6pm, Optional critical analysis paper
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Yuval-Davis, N. (1997) ‘Theorizing Gender and Nation’ in Gender and Nation Sage
publications pp.1-25
Fluri, J. (2008) ‘Feminist-nation building in Afghanistan: an examination of the
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)’ in Feminist Review
89, 34–54
Mayer, T. (2000) From Zero to Hero: masculinity in Jewish Nationalism in Mayer, T.
(eds) Gender Ironies of Nationalism: Sexing the Nation Routledge: London and New York
Pratt, G. and Yeoh, B. (2003) Transnational (counter) topographies Gender, Place and
Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography Vol. 10(2):159-166
Week 12
Intersectional Approaches: Complicating Gender through Analyses of Race and
Difference
Due: Blog by Tuesday at 6pm, Optional critical analysis paper, Paper presentations group 1
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McDowell, L. (1993) Space, place and gender relations: Part II. Identity, difference,
feminist geometries and geographies Progress in Human Geography, September 1993; vol.
17, 3: pp. 305-318.
Kobayashi, A. and Peake, L. (1994) Unnatural Discourse: ‘Race’ and Gender in
Geography Gender, Place and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography 1(2): 225-243.
McKittrick, K. (2006) The Last Place They Thought Of: Black Women’s
Geographies in Demonic grounds: Black women and the cartographies of struggle University of
Minnesota Press pp. 37-64
Valentine, G. (2007)Theorizing and Researching Intersectionality The Professional
Geographer The Professional Geographer Vol. 59(1): 10-21
Nash, C. (2008) ‘Rethinking intersectionality’ Feminist Review 89: 1-15
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[Optional] McKittrick, K. and Peake, L. (2005) What difference does difference
make to geography? in N. Castree, A. Rogers, D. Sherman Questioning Geography
Wiley-Blackwell pp. 39-54
Week 13
Queering Feminist Geographies
Due: Blog by Tuesday at 6pm, Optional critical analysis paper, Paper presentations group 2
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Hubbard, P. (2000) Desire/disgust: mapping the moral contours of heterosexuality
Progress in Human Geography, Vol. 24(2): 191-217.
Oswin, N. (2008) Critical geographies and the uses of sexuality: deconstructing queer
space Progress in Human Geography, Vol. 32(1): 89-103.
Johnston, L. and Longhurst, R. (2010) The Geography Closest In: The Body Space,
Place and Sex Rowman and Littlefield Publishers pp. 21-41
Wright, M. (2010) Gender and geography II: bridging the gap -- feminist, queer, and
the geographical imaginary. Progress in Human Geography, Vol. 34: 56-66.
Brown, G. et al (2011) Sedgwick’s geographies: Touching space Progress in Human
Geography, Vol. 35(1): 121-131
Week 14
The Emotional Turn: Thinking and Feeling in New Feminist Geographies
Due: Blog by Tuesday at 6pm, Optional critical analysis paper
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Sharpe, J. (2009) Geography and gender: what belongs to feminist geography?
Emotion, power and change Progress in Human Geography, Vol. 33(1): 74-80
Pain, R. (2009) Globalized fear? Towards an emotional geopolitics Progress in Human
Geography, Vol. 33(4): 466-486
Wright, M. (2010) Geography and gender: Feminism and a feeling of justice Progress
in Human Geography, Vol 34(6): 818-827.
Thien, D (2005) After or beyond feeling?: a consideration of affect and emotion in
geography, Area 37(4): 450-456.
Week 15
Conclusions/Openings - Theorizing Gender and/in Space: Critical Perspectives
Due: Blog by Tuesday at 6pm, Optional critical analysis paper
We’ll close by thinking about how feminist geographers have theorized space and place in
differing ways over the last 40 years.
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Valentine, G. (1989) The Geography of Women’s Fear Area Vol. 21(4): 385-390
Massey, D. (1994) Space, Place, Gender: Introduction in Space, Place and Gender
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press pp. 185 – 190
Longhurst, R. (1997) (Dis)embodied geographies Progress in Human Geography, Vol.
21(4): 486-501.
Domosh, M. (1998) Geography and gender: home, again? Progress in Human
Geography, Vol. 22(2): 276-282.
Pratt, G. (2004) ‘Spatializing the subject of feminism’ in Working Feminism Temple
University Press. pp 12-37
Final Paper due Wednesday of Week 16 by midnight at turnitin.com.