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UBC: Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice (GRSJ)
GRSJ 326: “The Politics of Gender, Families and Nation-Making”
DRAFT OUTLINE
Professor: Becki Ross
January – April 2015
Location: Buchanan D 218
Office Hours: Thurs. 12:30 – 2:00 pm
Ross’s office: GRSJ, Jack Bell Blg, Rm 135
Ross’s Phone: (604) 822-9487, cell 778 628-3840
Email: becki.ross@ubc.ca
*Prof. Ross does not download students’ materials
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course interrogates two major social institutions that figure prominently in feminist antiracist research: the “family” and “the state” in the context of material and discursive processes of
citizen-making and nation-building. Here, our focus is largely 20th century and early 21st century Canada
and the United States, with some integration of cross-cultural studies. We will examine contributions
made by feminist anti-racist scholars to methodological and theoretical research on families, neo-liberal
state formation, hetero-gendered and racial nationalisms, and late capitalist consumerism. Rather than a
private, personal realm, “family” has been, and continues to be penetrated by state and extra-state
discourses and practices of ruling and social organization. For instance, legacies of colonization, and
racist, sexist, and heterosexist state policies of inclusion & exclusion, haunt and shape individual and
familial quests for belonging, ‘home’, intimacy, and citizenship rights, both formal and substantive.
Course readings are interdisciplinary in scope, drawn from sociology, anthropology, geography,
gender & sexuality studies, history, law, and social work. We raise questions about the social relations
of gender, sexuality, ‘race’/ethnicity, social class, and citizenship as they intersect in constituting
identity, family forms, and the nation. We probe the privileging of what sociologist Dorothy E. Smith
terms the post WW II ‘Standard North American Family’ (SNAF) – white, middle class, monogamous,
consumption-oriented, hetero-nuclear, with children. At the same time, we examine the diversity of
Aboriginal, single parent-led, non-Anglo/immigrant, queer, trans*, and transnational families. We
interrogate institutions and (often contradictory) discourses of marriage, motherhood, fatherhood, and
childcare. As well, we explore divisions of household labour, unpaid and paid, including work by
migrant female domestic workers for wealthy families globally. We acknowledge that this course is b
being taught on the unceded, occupied, and ancestral territory of the Musqueam Nation.
REQUIRED COURSE READINGS: Course Reader compiled by Becki Ross: GRSJ 326: Politics of
Gender, Families and Nation-Making, 2015, for sale at UBC Bookstore. Course Reader only includes
required readings marked ** in the course syllabus. Alternatively, weekly required & supplementary
readings can be downloaded at www.connect.ubc.ca via the syllabus posted online. PDFs for book
chapters & other readings are in Connect file folder: 326pdfaddtionalreadings.
COURSE EVALUATION:
1. Class participation: 10%
2. Seminar presentation: 15%
3. Mid-term Exam (first 7 weeks of material): 20% In Class, Thursday, February 26th
4. Auto-Ethnographic Research Paper, 30% DUE in Class, Tuesday, March 24th
5. Final Exam (last 6 weeks of material), 25%, April exam schedule
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STUDENT NEEDS
This course welcomes and seeks to accommodate students with physical or learning disabilities or
chronic illnesses. If you require any assistance or adaptation of teaching or evaluation, please feel free
to discuss your needs with me. The Disability Resource Centre in Brock Hall is available for further
consultation and resource provision. If you speak or read English as an additional language and find the
teaching or evaluation formats a disadvantage for you, please inform me so we can discuss possible
solutions. If classes or assignment due dates are scheduled during a religious or cultural holiday, please
inform me and we can negotiate alternative arrangements.
NOTE: Academic English Support (AES) is available to students who speak/write English as a
second/additional language. See www.aes.ubc.ca
EARLY ALERT:
During the term, I will do my best to reach out and offer support If I am concerned about your academic
performance or wellbeing. I also encourage you to come and speak with me if you need assistance. In
addition, I may identify my concerns using Early Alert. The program allows academic, financial, or
mental health concerns to be identified sooner and responded to in a more coordinated way. This
provides you with the earliest possible connection to resources like academic advising, financial
advising, counseling, or other resources and support to help you get back on track.
The information is treated confidentially and is sent because I care about your academic success and
wellbeing. For more information, please visit earlyalert.ubc.ca
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Support resources:
University students frequently encounter difficulties with time management, anxiety, mood regulation
and substance use that can impact academic performance and may balloon into long-term problems. The
following resources are just a few that are available to UBC students.
· UBC Live Well Learn Well (http://students.ubc.ca/livewell) UBC’s healthy living portal. Find
information about various healthy living initiatives on campus.
· UBC Mental Health Network (http://www.ubcmhn.com/) List of mental health groups, services,
and initiatives on campus.
· The Kaleidoscope (http://the-kaleidoscope.com/) On campus mental health support group.
Weekly meetings provide a safe, stigma-free environment to discuss mental health concerns and
coping strategies.
· UBC Counseling/Health services (http://students.ubc.ca/livewell/services/counselling-services)
Your use of these services is in no way associated with your academic/student record; this is a good
place to seek referrals to treatment and support services.
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STATEMENT OF ACADEMIC STANDARDS
FOR Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice
Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice (GRSJ) is a multidisciplinary field, which brings together
teachers and students from a variety of academic backgrounds with often quite different ways of
articulating and responding to assignments. This diversity is an intellectual asset. Nevertheless, some
basics need to be set out so that evaluation procedures can continue to be relatively standardized across
all Institute courses. Each instructor will, of course, adapt these general guidelines where necessary in
their own course but students should expect that the following guidelines are basic to all courses in the
GRSJ Program. GRSJ course assignments follow the conventions of grammar and punctuation expected
in academic writing. Language in GRSJ course assignments is non-sexist, non-racist, and nonheterosexist. Arguments are logical and coherent, and organization of materials is appropriate to the
topic. Sources are cited following a consistent footnote and bibliography format as appropriate in the
field. Since plagiarism is a serious offense, care should be taken to ensure that materials from other
sources are correctly attributed to their authors. How a paper is written and what it says are not separate
issues, but rather, components of the whole project and are evaluated accordingly.
Statement of Respect: Students, instructors, visitors and readings/media in Institute for Gender, Race,
Sexuality and Social Justice courses often raise controversial issues in the course of classroom
discussion. It is vital that your fellow students and the instructor be treated respectfully at all times and
in all interactions. One can disagree without being disagreeable.
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EVALUATION:
1. CLASS PARTICIPATION: 10% Students are expected to make every effort to speak up during
informal discussion, seminar presentations, and small group work assignments. Attendance is
mandatory; absenteeism will be penalized after more than 2 missed classes (except for illness, death,
emergencies, etc.). We will strive to produce an environment of mutual respect and an appreciation of
each other’s contributions and insights. Please attend class punctually, on time.
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2. SEMINAR PRESENTATIONS: 15% You will work in a small group of 3 or 4 to lead discussion of
2 required readings (**) on a Thursday – the last 50 minutes of the class. Ten weeks are available:
3,4,5,6,8,9,10,11,12,13 – choose one. As a team, you are responsible for posing 6 to 7 questions per
reading (photocopied for classmates) to stimulate dialogue and debate among class members. *Please do
not prepare power-point slides.
A) Formulate questions that address the methods of data gathering used in the study.
B) Formulate questions that address each author’s theoretical influences & contributions to feminist
anti-racist knowledge.
C) Formulate questions to probe each reading’s strengths and weaknesses – what did the author do well?
How might the study be improved?
D) Include 1-2 questions per article that probe links between 2 required readings and students’ personal
experiences, & 1 question that compares/contrasts the main findings of the 2 required readings.
E) Choose a relevant video clip (no more than 4 mins), and formulate one question to interrogate the
video clip.
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Assume everyone has read the articles. You will be graded on the variety and quality of questions for
required readings, quality & question/s for video clip, presentation and facilitation, and ability to engage
discussion of the readings’ main themes (strengths & weaknesses) in substantive, critical ways.
Collaboration among group members is essential.
*Presenters will be emailed a paragraph of feedback & a mark out of 15 on Friday, April 10th.
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3. Mid Term Exam, In Class, Thursday, February 26th, value: 20%
The exam is made up of short-answer questions. Students are responsible for material from required
course readings, lecture notes, hand-outs, students’ presentations, and all video material covered in from
week 1 to week 7, inclusive.
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4. Auto-Ethnographic Research Paper, DUE in Class: Tuesday, March 24th ; value: 30%;
11 pages, double-spaced (plus Bibliography). Please observe page limit; use consistent referencing style.
In this written assignment, you will employ auto-ethnography as a genre of feminist anti-racist
research and writing. Your objective is to ‘interview yourself,’ and to use your diverse, subjective
experiences of ‘family’ and ‘the state’ as a wellspring of knowledge from which to investigate 2
substantive themes. These themes from your life’s experience may include: family formation (single
parent, dual parent, step parent, extended family, transnational family), division of household labour,
child care, immigration, racism, housing, divorce, abortion/reproduction, dis/ability, queerness, health,
trans* identity, violence in relationships, faith, cross-generational tensions, work/family balance, class
status & household wealth, educational achievement, dating/relationships. Please ensure that YOU and
your experiences of family & the state are central to your inquiry (not the experiences of other family
members).
1) In your “Introduction,” briefly introduce yourself and your 2 substantive themes, and explain why
these 2 themes are important to you. How do your 2 themes link to current news events and stories in the
media and popular culture? And how are your 2 substantive themes relevant to understanding the
complex relationships between families and ‘the state’ in Canada today?
2) For each of your 2 themes, select 2 high-quality scholarly sources published since 1995 – feminist
anti-racist academic journal articles and/or book chapters (a total of 4 sources): each source should be
15 pages (or longer), book chapters only from multi-author anthologies; no two from the same book,
same journal, or same author. Please select original, empirical research, not review essays.
Analyse your own experience of each of your 2 themes in comparison and in contrast to the 2 scholarly
studies you have chosen per theme. For each article,
a) briefly describe the methods used to collect research data & author’s theoretical influences
b) briefly summarize the author’s main research findings or conclusions
c) analytically compare & contrast each author’s findings with your own experiences of ‘family’
and the ‘state’
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3) Where relevant, briefly cite findings on your themes from our course reader.
4) In your ‘Conclusion,’ reflect on how your project contributes to feminist anti-racist knowledge about
families in the context of contemporary state policies and nation-building. And, invent two new, original
directions for future research inspired by your own experiences, and the experiences of others described
in your 4 scholarly sources.
NOTE: Only Professor Ross will have access to your writing. The information shared in all papers will
be held in strict confidence.
POLICY ON LATE PAPERS: My deadline for papers is firm and can be negotiated, in advance, only
in the case of unforeseen emergencies (e.g., illness, funerals). Medical notes are required. Late penalty is
5% off the grade for each day that it is late. Please deposit late papers to silver box for Dr. Ross, Institute
for Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Social Justice (GRSJ), 2080 West Mall, lower level.
5. Final Exam: In April 2015, value: 25%
The final exam is made of up short-answer questions. It focuses on materials from week 8 to week 13,
inclusive. Students are responsible for material from required course readings, lecture notes, hand-outs,
guest speakers’ knowledge, students’ presentations & all video material. This exam is 2 ½ hours in
length.
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WEEKLY COURSE READINGS: ** Designates Required Reading
Week 1: Jan 6/8th: Colonial Rule, Industrial Capitalism & Privatized Nuclear Families
**Winona Stevenson, “Colonialism and First Nations Women in Canada,” in Enakshi Dua and Angela
Robertson, eds. Scratching the Surface: Canadian Anti-racist Feminist Thought (Toronto: Canadian
Scholars Press, 1999): 49-80. In 326pdfadditionalreading, at www.connect.ubc.ca
**Nandita Sharma, “Nation States, Borders, Citizenship, an the Making of ‘National’ Difference,” in
Power and Everyday Practices, D. Brock, R. Raby and M. Thomas (eds.) Toronto: Nelson, 2012: 321342. (see PDF in file folder: 326pdfadditionalreading, at www.connect.ubc.ca
Gillian Creese and Veronica Strong-Boag, Still Waiting for Justice: Update 2009, Provincial Policies
and Gender Inequality in BC, BC Federation of Labour, and Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies,
UBC, March 2009. (see PDF in file folder: 326pdfadditionalreading at www.connect.ubc.ca
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Week 2, Jan. 13/15: Aboriginal Families & the Colonial State
**Marlee Kline, “Complicating the Ideology of Motherhood: Child Welfare Law and First Nations
Women,” Queen’s Law Journal 18:2 (Summer 1993): 306-342.
http://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/queen18&collection=journals&page=306
**K. Tsianina Lomawaima, “Domesticity in the Federal Indian Schools: The power of authority over
Mind and Body,” in J. Terry and J. Urla, eds. Deviant Bodies (Bloomington: Indiana University Press,
1995): 197-218.
**Beverley Jacobs, “Response to Canada’s Apology to Residential School Survivors,” Canadian
Woman Studies, vol. 26, no. 3/4 (Winter/Spring 2008): 223-225.
Tamara Kulusic, “The Ultimate Betrayal: Claiming and Re-Claiming Cultural Identity,” Atlantis: a
women’s studies journal 29:1 (Spring/Summer 2005): 23-28.
http://journals.msvu.ca/index.php/atlantis/article/view/1044/1001
Video clip: “My Big Fat Diet” (2007)
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Week 3, Jan. 20/22: Courtship Patterns and Wedding Rituals:
**Beth Montemurro, “Sex Symbols: the Bachelorette Party as a Window to Change in Women’s Sexual
Expression,” Sexuality & Culture (Spring 2003): 3-29. “The Ultimate Betrayal: Claiming and ReClaiming Cultural Identity,” Atlantis: a women’s studies journal 29:1 (Spring/Summer 2005): 23-28.
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12119-003-1010-x
**John (Song Pae) Cho, “The Wedding Banquet Revisited: ‘Contract Marriages’ Between
Korean Gays and Lesbians,” Anthropological Quarterly 82:3 (Spring 2009): 401-422.
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/anthropological_quarterly/v082/82.2.cho.html
Ramona Faith Oswald, “A Member of the Wedding? Heterosexism and Family Ritual,” Journal of
Lesbian Studies 7:2 (2003): 107-131. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J155v07n02_08
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Week 4, Jan. 27/39: Racial & Ethnic Diversities within Families
**Yen Le Espiritu, “We Don’t Sleep Around Like White Girls Do”: Family, Culture, and Gender in
Filipina American Lives,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. 26:2 (2001): 415-440.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3175448
**Grace Yoo and Barbara Kim, “Remembering Sacrifices: Attitude and Beliefs among SecondGeneration Korean Americans Regarding Family Support,” Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 25:2
(2010): 165-181.
http://download.springer.com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/static/pdf/576/art%253A10.1007%252Fs10823010-9116-8.pdf?auth66=1385601753_3dacbb24d20aceb9cb57c003516e59bf&ext=.pdf
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Erica Chito Childs, “Looking Behind the Stereotype of the ‘Angry Black Woman: An Explanation of
Black Women’s Responses to Interracial Relationships,” Gender & Society 19:4 (August 2005): 544561. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30044616
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Week 5, Feb. 3/5: Single-Parent Families
**Jane D. Bock, “Doing the Right Thing? Single Mothers By Choice and the Struggle for Legitimacy,”
Gender & Society 14:1 (February 2000), 62-86. http://www.jstor.org/stable/190422
**Penny Gurstein and Silvia Vilches, “The Just City For Whom? Re-conceiving active citizenship for
lone mothers in Canada,” Gender, Place, and Culture 17:4 (August 2010): 421-436.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0966369X.2010.485829
Ivy Kennelly, “‘That Single-Mother Element’: How White Employers Typify Black Women,” Gender &
Society 13:2 (April 1999): 168-192. http://www.jstor.org/stable/190387
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Week 6, Feb. 10/12: Lesbian/Gay/Queer Families
**Lionel Cantu, “A Place Called Home: A Queer Political Economy of Mexican Immigrant Men’s
Family Experiences,” in Queer Families, Queer Politics: Challenging culture and the State (New York:
Columbia University Press, 2001): 112-136. (see PDF in file folder: 326pdfadditionalreading, at
www.connect.ubc.ca
**Gillian Dunne, “Opting Into Motherhood: Lesbians Blurring the Boundaries and Transforming the
Meaning of Parenthood and Kinship,” Gender & Society 14:1 (February 2000): 11-35.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/190420
Susanna Danuta Walters, “The Kids are Alright, but the Lesbians Aren’t: Queer Kinship in US
Culture,” Sexualities, 15:8 (2012): 917-933.
http://sexualities.sagepub.com/content/15/8/917.full.pdf+html
Slide/Talk Show: Becki Ross: Street Haven & Better Homes and Gardens, Toronto, 1965-1969
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READING WEEK, Feb. 16th – 29th, 2015
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Week 7: Feb 24/26: Teach-In & Mid-Term Exam (no required readings this week)
Tuesday, Feb. 24th: All students will participate in a ‘teach in’ based on feminist anti-racist analysis of
original, primary sources supplied in-class by the professor, for e.g., magazine advertisement, newspaper
article/editorial, photographs, etc.
Thursday, Feb. 26th: In-Class Mid-Term Exam, weeks 1 – 7 (inclusive)
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Week 8, March 3/5: Trans Identities, Families, and the State
**Sally Hines, “Intimate Transitions: Transgender Practices of Partnering and Parenting,” Sociology,
40:2 (2006): 353-371. http://soc.sagepub.com/content/40/2/353
**Kathleen Cross, “The Trans Biography Project: Stories from the Lives of Eleven Trans People in
BC.” Vancouver, 2001, pp. 1-45. (see PDF in file folder: 326pdfadditionalreading, at
www.connect.ubc.ca
Tam Sanger, “Trans governmentality: the production and regulation of gendered subjectivities. Journal
of Gender Studies, 17:1 (March 2008): 41-53.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09589230701838396
Guest Speakers: TBA
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Week 9, March 10/12: Motherhood as Institution, Social Construction, & Lived Experience
**Rachel Epstein, “Butches With Babies: Reconfiguring Gender and Motherhood,” Journal of Lesbian
Studies 6:2 (2002): 41-57. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J155v06n02_06
**Karen Christopher, “Extensive Mothering: Employed Mothers’ Constructions of the Good Mother,”
Gender & Society 26:1 (February 2012): 73-96. http://gas.sagepub.com/content/26/1/73
**Rosalind Ing, “Canada’s Indian residential schools and their impacts on mothering,” in ‘Until Our
Hearts are on the Ground’: Aboriginal Mothering, Oppression, Resistance, and Rebirth, Dawn LavellHarvard and Jeanette Corbiere Lavell, eds. (Toronto: Demeter Press, 2006): 157-172.
326pdfadditionalreading on www.connect.ca
Video clip: “Black Mother, Black Daughter” (1990, NFB)
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Week 10, March 17/19: Fatherhood as Social Construction and Lived Experience
**Roberta Coles, “Black Single Fathers Choosing to Parent Full-time,” Journal of Contemporary
Ethnography 31:4 (August 2002): 411-439. http://jce.sagepub.com/content/31/4/411
**Lan Anh Hoang and Brenda Yeoh, “Breadwinning Wives and ‘Left-Behind’ Husbands: Men and
Masculinities in the Vietnamese Transnational Family,” Gender & Society, 25:6 (December 2011): 717739. http://gas.sagepub.com/content/25/6/717
Judith Stacey, “Gay Parenthood and the Decline of Paternity as We Knew It,” Sexualities 9:1 (2006):
27-55. http://sex.sagepub.com/content/9/1/27
Video Clip: “Kramer vs. Kramer” (1979)
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Week 11, March 24/26: Paid Domestic Labourers at Home: Invisible Family-Making and Un-making
in the Global Context
**Sedef Arat-Koc, “The Politics of Family and Immigration in the Subordination of Domestic Workers
in Canada,” in Family Patterns, Gender Relations, 4th ed. Bonnie Fox, ed. (Toronto: Oxford, 2008):
316-341. In 326pdfadditionalreading, at www.connect.ubc.ca
**Pei-Chia Lan, “Maid or Madam? Filipina Migrant Workers on the Continuity of Domestic Labour,”
Gender & Society 17:2 (April 2003): 187-208. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3594687
Teresa Toguchi Swartz, “Foster Parenting and the Challenges of Government Contracted Care Work,”
Gender & Society 18:5 (October 2004): 567-587. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4149419
Guest Speakers: Christina Panis and Glecy Duran, Filipina Canadian Activists
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Week 12, March 31/April 2: Divisions of Unpaid Household Labour:
**Sarah Ashwin and Tatyana Litkina, “Men in Crisis in Russia: The Role of Domestic Marginalization,”
Gender & Society 18:2 (April 2004): 189-206. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4149432
**William K.M. Lee, “Gender Ideology and Domestic Division of Labor in Middle-Class Chinese
Families in Hong Kong,” Gender, Place, and Culture 9:3 (Fall 2002): 245-260.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0966369022000003851
Margot Rawsthorne and Mayet Costello, “Cleaning the Sink: exploring the experiences of Australian
lesbian parents reconciling work/family responsibilities,” Community, Work & Family, 13:2 (May
2010): 189-204. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13668800903259777
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Week 13, April 7/9: Child Care/Day Care Policies, Practices, and Politics
**Susan B. Murray, “‘We All Love Charles’: Men in Child Care and the Social Construction of
Gender,” Gender & Society 10:4 (August 1996): 368-385.
http://gas.sagepub.com/content/10/4/368.full.pdf+html
**Susan Prentice, “The “Investable” Child and the Economic Reframing of Childcare,” Signs: a journal
of women in culture and society, 34:3 (Spring 2009): 687-710.
http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/stable/full/10.1086/593711
Alison Tom, “Good Work in Canadian Childcare: Complicating the Love/Money Divide,” Atlantis: A
Women’s Studies Journal 29:1 (Fall/Winter 2004): 33-41.
http://journals.msvu.ca/index.php/atlantis/article/view/1169
In-Class Debate on Day Care/Paid Child Care
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FINAL EXAM: IN APRIL EXAM SCHEDULE, 25%, 2 ½ hours in length, weeks 8 - 13
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