The University of Tennessee-Knoxville  Department of History  Women’s Studies  Spring 2012
A Survey of
Gender in
Modern
World History
Lectures:
MWF 1:25-2:15pm
CHRISTINA HASTIE, INSTRUCTOR
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Course Instructor Contact Information:
Ms. Christina Hastie
chastie@utk.edu
Office Hours: MWF 2:20 P.M.—3:20 P.M., or by Appointment.
Course Focus:
This survey course is intended to inspire questions about how gender has been involved in processes of modern
imperialism and colonization. We will be uncovering some of the purposes, practices and inconsistencies among
imperial forces throughout the modern history of Europe and the United States. In addition, we will examine the
stories of many colonized peoples. As a class, we are interested in studying the impact of gender on the social,
economic and political structures of colonized people, and on their anti-colonial and nationalist movements. Among
the myriad notions of gendered world history we will confront this semester, you will be asked to reimagine the
relationship between the social life of “the self” and the global life of violence in addition to thinking about how
gender, sexuality, intimacy, and the bifurcation of space have collectively affected the shaping of politics, economy,
migration, tradition, and religion in global cultures. Please note that we will be studying women through various
media including film and audio materials with the purpose of expanding the boundaries of learning beyond
traditional print texts.
Our objectives for the course are threefold: First, to incorporate a gendered perspective into the narrative of world
history. Second, to problematize the presumptive dichotomy of the public and private spheres of men and women,
instead emphasizing the global interconnectedness of gender and cultures. And, third, to gain a foundation for
further investigation in women’s studies and to offer insight into the study of cultural history as part of humanistic
and social science scholarship.
Students will demonstrate their understanding of the figures and genres we study through three exams, thematic
journaling assignments, participation in class discussions, and a final term paper.
Please Note: Some of the literary material presented in this course is of a sexually explicit and/or
violent nature.
Required Texts:
There are four required texts for this course.
1. Pateman, Carole. The Sexual Contract. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988.
2. Smith, Bonnie G., ed. Women's History in Global Perspective. 3 vols. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2004.
** You are responsible for purchasing volumes 2 and 3 ONLY. You do NOT need to purchase volume 1.**
**Referred to as “WHGP” on the course schedule**
3. Stearns, Peter N. Gender in World History. Edited by Peter N. Stearns. 2 ed, Themes in World History. New
York: Routledge, 2006.
Note: Amazon.com offers competitive pricing on all of these titles. I estimate that the course’s textbooks will cost
students $100 or less.
On Course Reserve at Hodges Library:
1. Manning, Patrick. Navigating Word History: Historians Create a Global Past. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
2. Wolf, Eric. Europe and the People Without History. Foreword by Thomas Hylland Eriksen. 2nd edition. Berkeley
and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2010.
3. Klenk, Rebecca M. Educating Activists: Development and Gender in the Making of Modern Gandhians. Lanham:
Lexington Books, 2010.
4. Hunt, Tamara L. and Micheline R. Lessard, eds. Women and the Colonial Gaze. New York: NYU Press, 2002.
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5. Briggs, Laura. Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science, and U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2002.
6. Sugarman, Jane C. Engendering Song: Singing & Subjectivity at Prespa Albanian Weddings. Chicago: The University of
Chicago Press, 1997.
7. Bederman, Gail. Manliness & Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States, 1880-1917.
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1995.
8. Wexler, Laura. Tender Violence: Domestic Visions in an Age of U.S. Imperialism. Chapel Hill: The University of
North Carolina Press, 2000.
9. Davis, Janet M. The Circus Age: Culture & Society Under the American Big Top. Chapel Hill: The University of North
Carolina Press, 2002.
10. Boisseau, TJ and Abigal M. Markwyn, eds. Gendering the Fair: Histories of Women and Gender at World’s Fairs.
Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2010.
11. Allen, Robert C. Horrible Prettiness: Burlesque and American Culture. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina
Press, 1991.
12. DeLamotte, Eugenia, Natania Meeker, and Jean O’Barr. Women Imagine Change: A Global Anthology of Women’s
Resistance, from 600 B.C.E. to Present. New York: Routledge, 1991.
13. Stephen, Lynn. Women and Social Movements in Latin America: Power from Below. Austin: University of Texas Press,
1997.
Course Requirements and Attendance
This course is comprised of several components: intensive reading, responsive writing, and active
discussion. Participation in class discussion includes synthesizing, debating, and evaluating the assigned readings.
Your attendance is therefore imperative to your success in this course and each student is encouraged to attend (and
be on time for) each class meeting. Students are required to attend, at minimum, 75% of all class meetings;
students missing more than 25% of the class (9 days) will automatically fail the course. However, you may miss 3
classes over the course of the semester with little penalty. Attendance is taken by means of a sign-in sheet available
at the beginning of every class meeting.
Academic Dishonesty
Any form of academic dishonesty—cheating on exams or plagiarizing on writing
assignments—will result in your failure of this class.
Thematic Responses
Short reaction papers will be assigned weekly in correlation to our scheduled reading. The majority of these
journals will be “take home” assignments that shall be word-processed or typed, 2 pages in length and handed in on
their respective due date. No late papers will be accepted for any reason; should you miss a journal, you will not
receive later credit. This is worth repeating: late papers are not accepted. Hand-written papers are not accepted. Emailed papers are not accepted. Prompts for weekly thematic responses will be posted on the course
website, under “Assignments.” They will not be announced/reminded in class. You have an
assignment each week: it is your duty to check the course website for the prompts.
Exams
Three exams will be given at regular intervals throughout the semester, and are scheduled on the syllabus.
Exams will consist of short-answer questions and longer essay questions. As you will notice, this class does not
require students to take a mid-term or final exam.
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E-mail Policy
I communicate regularly with the class via UTK e-mail. I require that you be available for communication
through the UTK web-mail system; I do not e-mail students through any other e-mail provider. If you use
something like hotmail, gmail, yahoo, AOL, etc., I suggest that you route your UTK e-mail properly.
Cell Phones/ Laptops
Because note taking is essential to your success in this course, laptops are permitted for use during course
meetings. The use of cell phones is strictly prohibited in class: I ask that they not be visible on desktops and that they
be turned to silent or “off” positions. Texting, phone ringing, or any other cell-phone related activity results in your
dismissal for the day. This is strictly enforced as a professional courtesy to your instructor, fellow students, and of
course, to the learning environment itself.
Term Paper: The Print-to-Film Project
You will write a 5-8page historiographical paper that takes as its focus women, men, and/or gender after
1500 as its primary focus. You will study and analyze issues of gender through virtually any lens of your choosing:
war, domesticity, trade, economy, dress, food, space, etc. in any global culture with the aim of connecting regional
processes to global phenomena. Using secondary sources, you will craft an original argument that discusses the
cultural, political, and/or economic implications of your subject matter. I expect somewhere between 8-10 sources
for this paper.
Term Paper Proposal:
Proposals for the semester project should include a historiographical description of your topic and time
period, a preliminary bibliography of 3-5 sources, and a discussion of how you are analytically framing your
research. Proposals should be approximately 500 words and are due no later than Wednesday, February
22nd, 2012. (the project proposal is a course requirement. On-time submission is imperative).
All written manuscripts should be typed or word-processed, double-spaced in a 12-pt. font (please consider
traditional academic fonts), and follow the guidelines for Chicago-style papers.
Grading
Class Participation
Journals
Quizzes
Exams
Final Project
Attendance
Total Points
A 94% and above
A- 92-93.9%
B+ 90-91.9%
B 84-89.9%
45 points
50 points (10 journals)
70 points (7)
150 points (2@100 points; 1@ 50 points)
200 points
25 points
540 points
B- 82-83.9%
C+79-81.9%
C 74-79.9%
C- 72-73.9%
D+ 70-71.9%
D 64-69.9%
D- 62-63.9%
F 61% and below
How to Prepare for Class
For each assigned reading: (1) summarize its main point(s) and write down one or two brief
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questions that sum up the readings/author’s perspective/issues confronted; (2) make a list of three to five
other points about the reading that you found interesting or provocative; (3) jot down how the reading
connects with the issues and/or themes of our course or other readings.
Good preparation for class discussions will additionally help you with preparation for quizzes, exams, and
your semester projects.
Assignment Schedule
Wednesday February 22
Wednesday February 22
Wednesday March 28
Friday April 27
Wednesday May 2
Term Project Proposals Due
First Exam
Second Exam
Term Papers Due/Last Day of Class
Third Exam (Taken during our Final Exam Period)
COURSE SCHEDULE
(Outline is subject to change with class needs)
Week of January 9, 2012: Introduction
Wednesday: Introduction to Course/Syllabus/Instructor(s)
Reading: Chapter 1, “Defining World History,” pgs. 3-16 and Chapter 6, “Narrating World History,” pgs. 107118 in Navigating World History: Historians Create a Global Past, by Patrick Manning. New York: Palgrave Macmillan,
2003. Course Reserve.
Reading: Chapter 2 in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, by Paulo Freire. New York: Continuum, 2006. Course Website.
Friday: Introduction to Gender Studies as a lens for World History
Reading: Joan Scott, “Is Gender a Useful Category?” in Scott, Gender and the Politics of History, or in American
Historical Review Vol. 91, No. 5 (Dec., 1986), pp. 1053-1075. ON JSTOR.
Week of January 16, 2012: The Sexual Contract & World History: Theoretical Framework
Monday: No Class; MLK Holiday
Wednesday: Lecture: “Contracting In”
Reading: Chapters 1 & 2 from The Sexual Contract, by Carole Pateman. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988.
Textbook.
Friday: Lecture: “Contract, the Individual and Slavery”
Reading: Chapters 3 & 4 from The Sexual Contract, by Carole Pateman. Textbook.
Week of January 23, 2012: The Sexual Contract & World History
Monday: Lecture: “Feminism and the Marriage Contract”
Reading: Chapter 5 & 6 from The Sexual Contract, by Carole Pateman. Textbook.
Wednesday: Lecture: “The End of the Story?”
Reading: Chapter 7 & 8 from The Sexual Contract, by Carole Pateman. Tetbook.
Friday: Discuss: Feminism & Gender Studies in World History: Why should we care about gendered histories?
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Reading: Introduction, “The traditional base: Civilizations and Patriarchy,” pages 1-19 in Gender in World
History, 2nd ed., by Peter N. Stearns. New York: Routledge, 2006. Textbook.
Week of January 30, 2012: Setting the Stage: The World as We “Knew” it
Monday: Lecture: “Part One: Results of European Expansion, 1500-1900”
Reading: Chapter 6, “Europeans and Native Americans,” pages 63-79 in Gender in World History, 2nd ed., by Peter
N. Stearns. New York: Routledge, 2006. Textbook.
Wednesday: Lecture: “Part Two: Results of European Expansion, 1500-1900”
Reading: Chapter 7, “Men and Women amid British Imperialism in India,” pages 80-94 in Gender in World History,
2nd ed., by Peter N. Stearns. New York: Routledge, 2006. Textbook.
Friday: Lecture: “Part Three: Results of European Expansion, 1500-1900”
Reading: Chapter 8, “Western influences and regional reactions: Polynesia and Africa,” pages 95-103 in Gender in
World History, 2nd ed., by Peter N. Stearns. New York: Routledge, 2006. Textbook.
Week of February 6, 2012: Gender and Masculinity in East Asia with a focus on Japan
Monday: Lecture: “China, Korea, and Japan”
Reading: WHGP, vol. 2, Chapter Two, pages 47-100, by Susan Mann. Textbook.
Wednesday: Lecture: “The Emperor’s Two Bodies”
Reading: Chapter 4, pgs. 155-170 “The Monarchy in Japan’s Modernity” from: Splendid Monarchy: Power and
Pageantry in Modern Japan, by T. Fujitani. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. Course Website.
Reading: Chapter 9, “Westernization and gender: Beyond the Colonial Models,” pages 111-117 ONLY in Gender in
World History, 2nd ed., by Peter N. Stearns. New York: Routledge, 2006. Textbook.
Friday: Lecture: “The Politics of Gendering and the Gendering of Politics”
Reading: Chapter 4, pgs. 170-194 “The Monarchy in Japan’s Modernity” from : Splendid Monarchy: Power and
Pageantry in Modern Japan, by T. Fujitani. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. Course Website.
Week of February 13, 2012: Women and Gender in South and Southeast Asia
Monday: Lecture: “Women and Gender in South/Southeast Asia”
Reading: WHGP, vol. 2, Chapter Three, pages 101-138, by Barbara N. Ramusack. Textbook.
Wednesday: Lecture: “Gendering Education in rural Himalayan India”
Reading: Part One, “Developed Women,” in Educating Activists: Development and Gender in the Making of Modern
Gandhians, by Rebecca M. Klenk. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2010. Course Reserve.
Friday: Lecture: “Burma Today: The Gendered Politics of Fear”
Reading: Brooten, Lisa, “The Feminization of Democracy under Siege: The Media, "The Lady" of Burma,
and U.S. Foreign Policy,” in NWSA Journal , Vol. 17, No. 3, States of Insecurity and the Gendered Politics of Fear
(Autumn, 2005), pp. 134-156. On JSTOR.
Week of February 20, 2012: Women and Gender in Colonial Latin America
Monday: Lecture: “Women and Gender in Colonial Latin America”
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Reading: WHGP, vol. 2, Chapter Five, pages 187-237, by Ann Twinam. Textbook.
Wednesday: First Exam Scheduled. Term Project Proposals Due.
Friday: Lecture:
Reading: Luis Martínez-Fernández, “The `Male City’ of Havana: The Coexisting Logics of Colonialism, Slavery,
and Patriarchy in Nineteenth-Century Cuba,” in Women and the Colonial Gaze, ed. Tamara L. Hunt and Micheline R.
Lessard. Course Reserve.
Reading: Chapter 2, “Sex and Citizenship: The Politics of Prostitution in Puerto Rico, 1898-1918” pages 46-73, in
Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science, and U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico, by Laura Briggs. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 2002. Course Reserve.
Week of February 27, 2012: History of Women in the United States to 1865
Monday: Lecture: “Colonial Domesticity”
Reading: WHGP, vol. 2, Chapter 6, pages 238-278, by Kathleen Brown. Textbook.
Wednesday: Lecture: “The Role of Conjugal Space in Shaping Politics, Economies, and Cultures”
Reading: Chapter 7, “‘Il a Epousé une Sauvagesse’”: Indian and Métis Persistence across Imperial and National
Borders,” by Michael A. McDonnell. In Moving Subjects: Gender, Mobility, and Intimacy in an Age of Global Empire,
edited by Tony Ballantyne & Antoinette Burton. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2009. Course Website.
Friday: Lecture: “Black social and political activity in 18th-century America: Jarena Lee and the rise of women’s
rights in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church”
Reading: “Jarena Lee: The Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee,” pages 177-182, in Women Imagine Change:
A Global Anthology of Women’s Resistance from 600 B.C.E. to Present, edited by Eugenia DeLamotte, Natania Meeker,
and Jean O’Barr. New York: Routledge, 1997. Course Reserve.
Week of March 5, 2012: Women and Gender in the history of Sub-Saharan Africa
Monday: Lecture: “Women and Gender in Sub-Saharan Africa”
Reading: WHGP, vol. 3, Chapter 1, pages 9-67, by Cheryl Johnson-Odim. Textbook.
Wednesday: Lecture: “Confronting the Social Construction of Masculinity”
Reading: Robert Morrell, “Of Boys and Men: Masculinity and Gender in Southern African Studies,” Journal of
Southern African Studies, vol. 24, No. 4, Dec. 1998. On JSTOR.
Friday: Lecture: “Working Relationships and the Celebration of Violence as a key element of Masculinity”
Reading: Keith Breckenridge, "The Allure of Violence: Men, Race and Masculinity on the South African
Goldmines, 1900-1950," Journal of Southern African Studies, vol. 24, No. 4, Dec. 1998. On JSTOR.
Week of March 12, 2012: Women and Masculinity in the Middle East Since the Rise of Islam
Monday: Lecture: “Women in the Middle East since the rise of Islam”
Reading: WHGP, vol.3, Chapter 2, pages 68-110, by Nikki R. Keddie. Textbook.
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Wednesday: Lecture: “Western Representations of the Burqa since the Cold War: Constructing Afghan
Women as Gendered Slaves”
Reading: Kevin J. Ayotte and Mary E.Husain, “Securing Afghan Women: Neocolonialism, Epistemic Violence,
and the Rhetoric of the Veil,” in NWSA Journal , Vol. 17, No. 3, States of Insecurity and the Gendered Politics of
Fear (Autumn, 2005), pp. 112-133. On JSTOR.
Reading: Part of Chapter 5, “Women’s Symbolic Action: The New Veiling in Lower-Middle-Class Cairo,” pages
97-102 (“Women’s Dress as Symbol in the Middle East) from Accommodating Protest: Working Women, the New Veiling,
and Change in Cario, by Arelene Elowe Macleod. New York: Columbia University Press, 1991.
Reading: Short Biography of Gatima Mernissi (1975) and Ghada Samman (1961), “Islam and Feminism: Changing
Interpreations,” in Women Imagine Change: A Global Anthology of Women’s Resistance from 600 B.C.E. to Present, edited by
Eugenia DeLamotte, Natania Meeker, and Jean O’Barr. New York: Routledge, 1997. Course Reserve.
Friday: Lecture: “Complexity is Inevitable: Women’s Rights & Women’s Inferiority in the Middle East”
Reading: Chapter 12, “Contract and Retract: The Middle East in the twentieth century,” pages 148-158 in Gender
in World History, 2nd ed., by Peter N. Stearns. New York: Routledge, 2006. Textbook.
Week of March 19, 2012
SPRING BREAK, NO CLASSES
Week of March 26, 2012: Gender Issues in Early and Modern Europe: A Transnational Approach
Monday: Lecture: “Women in Early and Modern Europe”
Reading: WHGP, vol.3, Chapter 3, pages 111-144, by Judith P. Zinsser and Bonnie S. Anderson. Textbook.
Wednesday: Second Exam Scheduled.
Friday: Lecture: “Confronting Myths of the Italian Machismo and the Mafia”
Reading: Jane Schneider and Peter Schneider, “Mafia, Antimafia, and the Plural Cultures of Sicily,” Current
Anthropology , Vol. 46, No. 4 (August/October 2005), pp. 501-520. On JSTOR.
Week of April 2, 2012: Gendered Traditions in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Repbulics
Monday: Lecture: “Russia and the Soviet Union”
Reading: WHGP, vol. 3, Chapter 4, pages 145-179, by Barbara Engel. Textbook.
Wednesday: Lecture: “The Discourse of Honor and the Engendering of Song”
Reading: Chapter 7, “Singing as the practice of Patriarchy,” pages 227-285 in Engendering Song: Singing & Subjectivity
at Prespa Albanian Weddings, by Jane C. Sugarman. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1997. Course
Reserve.
Media: Listen to “Kjo Shtëpi e plakës" (This old woman’s house,) a men’s humorous song; Krani, 1972. Recorded
by Robert Henry Leibman. From the accompaniment CD to Jane C. Sugarman’s text, Engendering Song. Course
Reserve @ George F. DeVine Music Library, HSS Building.
Friday: Spring Recess, No Class.
Week of April 9, 2012: Latin American Women’s History: The National Period
Monday: Lecture: “The National Period in Latin American Women’s History”
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Reading: WHGP, vol. 3, Chapter 5, pages 180-221, by Asunción Lavrin. Textbook.
Wednesday: Lecture: “The Participation of Women in the Independence Struggle”
Reading: Chapter 2, “Women’s Rights are Human Rights: The Merging of Feminine and Feminist Interests among
El Salvador’s Mothers of the Disappeared (CO-MADRES), pages 29-54 in Women and Social Movements in Latin
America: Power from Below, by Lynn Stephen. Austin: The University of Texas Press, 1991. Course Reserve.
Friday: Lecture: “Commercial Fruit Production and Traditional Gender Roles in Chile”
Reading: Chapter 7, “Sweet and Sour Grapes: The Struggles of Seasonal Women Workers in Chile,” pages 243260, in Women and Social Movements in Latin America: Power from Below, by Lynn Stephen. Austin: University of Texas
Press, 1997. Course Reserve.
Week of April 16, 2012: Women’s and Gender History in Global Perspective: North America after
1865
Monday: Lecture: “A View from the Globe: Gender Dynamics in North America, post Civil War”
Reading: WHGP, vol. 3, Chapter 6, pages 222-250, by Ellen Dubois. Textbook.
Wednesday: Lecture: “Women Agitators Against Racial Violence in the U.S.”
Reading: Chapter Two, “‘The White Man’s Civilization on Trial’”: Ida B. Wells, Representations of Lynching, and
Northern Middle-Class Manhood,” pages 45-76 from Manliness & Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in
the United States, 1880-1917, by Gail Bederman. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1995. Course
Reserve.
Friday: Lecture: “The Consequences of nineteenth-century sentimental fiction”
Reading: Chapter 3, “Tender Violence: Domestic Photographs, Domestic Fictions & Educational Reform,” pages
94-125 from Tender Violence: Domestic Visions in an Age of U.S. Imperialism, by Laura Wexler. Chapel Hill: The
University of North Carolina Press, 2000. Course Reserve.
Week of April 23, 2012: Cultural Histories of Gender in Performative Space
Monday: Lecture: “Life Under the Big Top”
Reading: Chapter 2, “The Circus as a Historical and Cultural Process,” pages 15-36 & Chapter 4, “Respectable
Female Nudity,” pages 82-143 in The Circus Age: Culture & Society Under the American Big Top, by Janet M. Davis.
Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina Press, 2002. Course Reserve.
Wednesday: Lecture: “Gendering the World’s Fairs”
Reading: Chapter 1, “‘Little Black Rose’” at the 1934 Exposição Colonial Portuguesa,” by Isabel Morais, pages 19-36
& Chapter 11, “Policing Masculine Festivity at London’s Early Modern Fairs,” by Anne Wohlcke, pages 208-226, in
Gendering the Fair: Histories of Women and Gender at World’s Fairs, edited by TJ Boisseau and Abigal M. Markwyn.
Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2010. Course Reserve.
Friday: Lecture: “The Commercialization of Sex and the History of U.S. Burlesque Shows”
DOCUMENTARY FILM (part in class): Behind the Burly Q, directed by Leslie Zemeckis, 2010.
Reading: Chapter Three, “The Historical Contexts of Burlesque I: The Transformation of American Theatre,”
pages 43-78 & Chapter Four, “The Historical Contexts of Burlesque II: Women on the Stage,” pages 79-118 in
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Horrible Prettiness: Burlesque and American Culture, by Robert C. Allen. Chapel Hill: The University of
North Carolina Press, 1991. Course Reserve.
Week of April 30, 2012
 Wednesday: Third Exam Scheduled.
Disclaimer
Any student who, because of a disabling condition, may require some special arrangements in order to meet course
requirements should contact me as soon as possible to make necessary arrangements. Students should present
appropriate verification from Disability Services.