SOCI 310
SOCIOLOGY OF GENDER
KOÇ UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
SPRING 2011
Instructor: Şenay Özden
Office: Social Sciences 136A
Phone: (212) 338 1484
Email: sozden@ku.edu.tr
Office Hours: Tuesday/ Thursday 14:00-15:00 or by appointment
Class Hours: Tuesday/ Thursday 15:30-16:45
Class Location: CAS 216
Course Description:
This undergraduate seminar explores a variety of social, political and economic processes in
the Middle East through a gendered perspective. The course material is organized so that we
ask and discuss a number of questions such as, but not limited to, the following: Is the Middle
East analytically an appropriate category of gender analysis? How has nationalism,
colonialism and globalization influenced the gendered aspect of citizenship in the Middle East?
Are there alternative modernities; how do they relate to gender? How are power and
resistance defined in the Middle Eastern context? How do resistance movements influence the
hegemonic gender relations? How have notions and practices of honor, gender and sexuality
been constructed historically in the Middle East? How did the rise of nation-states continue
and alter these processes? What are some analytical approaches to the gendered aspects of
migration and work in the Middle East?
Grading:
There will be one midterm and a final exam. The exams will be in essay format and based on
the readings and the lectures.
You will also be expected to write five response papers (not more than one per week) about
the readings in class. The response papers should be 3-4 pages double space. In these reviews
you will write your analysis of and questions about the writers’ arguments. You will submit
these electronically by 9 am on the day in question.
Midterm exam
30%
Final exam
30%
Response papers
25%
Class participation
15%
Requirements:
1. Attendance and participation: Regular attendance is a must if you are serious about your
work and the grade you will receive. Being late to class is inexcusable and will affect your
grade. I expect everyone to be in class on time.
Having perfect attendance does not mean you get full credit for class participation.
2. Readings: You are expected to have completed the readings before the first lecture of each
week.
Academic Integrity:
Honesty and trust are important to us all as individuals. Students and faculty adhere to the
following principles of academic integrity at Koç University.
1. Individual accountability for all individual work, written or oral. Copying from others or
providing answers or information, written or oral, to others is cheating.
2. Providing proper acknowledgment of original author. Copying from another student’s
paper or from another text without written acknowledgment is plagiarism. Recycling a
paper written for another class also falls under this category.
3. Study or project group activity is effective and authorized teamwork. Unauthorized help
from another person or having someone else to write one’s paper or assignment is
collusion.
Cheating, plagiarism, and collusion are serious offences resulting in disciplinary action and
an F grade.
Week 1: Introduction
Said, Edward. 1978. Orientalism. Pp. 1-28
Mohanty, C. T. 2004. “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses;”
“Cartographies of Struggle: Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism.” In Feminism
without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity. Duke University Press, Durham.
Week 2: Gender and Citizenship in the Middle East
Joseph, Suad. “Gendering Citizenship in the Middle East” in Gender and Citizenship in the
Middle East. Ed. by Suad Joseph. Syracuse University Press. 2000
Arat, Yeşim. “Gender and Citizenship in Turkey” in Gender and Citizenship in the Middle
East. Ed. by Suad Joseph. Syracuse University Press. 2000
Jad, Islah; Penny Johnson; Rita Giacaman. “Transit Citizens: Gender and Citizenship Under
the Palestinian Authority” in Gender and Citizenship in the Middle East. Syracuse University
Press. 2000
Ismael, Jacqueline and Shereen T. Ismael. “Gender and State in Iraq” in Gender and
Citizenship in the Middle East. Ed. by Suad Joseph. Syracuse University Press. 2000
Week 3: Political Processes and Women’s Participation
Gerner, Deborah. “Mobilizing Women for Nationalist Agendas: Palestinian Women, Civil
Society and the State-Building Process.” in From Patriarchy to Empowerment. Ed by
Valentine M. Moghadam. Syracuse University Press. 2007
Bora, Aksu. “Bir Yapabilirlik Olarak Ka-Der,” in 90’larda Türkiye’de Feminizm. Der. Aksu
Bora, Asena Günal. İletişim Yayınları. 2002.
Y. Arat, 2000. ‘From Emancipation to Liberation: The Changing Role of Women in Turkey’s
Political Realm.’ Journal of International Affairs, 54(1): 107-123.
Week 4: Modernities and Gender
Hodgson, Dorothy. 2001 “Of Modernity/Modernities, Gender and Ethnography,” in Gendered
Modernities.
Durakbaşa, Ayşe and Aynur İlyasoğlu. “Formation of Gender Identities in Republican Turkey
and Women's Narratives as Transmitters of 'Herstory' of Modernization” Journal of Social
History Vol. 35, No. 1 pp. 195-203, 2001.
Kandiyoti, Deniz. “Some Awkward Questions on Women and Modernity in Turkey,” in
Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East.
Week 5: Populations, Mothers, Wives
Kanaaneh, Rhoda Ann. 2002. Birthing the Nation: Strategies of Palestinian Women in Israel.
Chapter 1 “Babies and Boundaries,”
Najmabadi, Afsaneh. “Crafting an Educated Housewife in Iran” in Remaking Women:
Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East, ed by. Lila Abu Lughod. 1998. Princeton
University Press.
Çağlayan, Handan. “Yeni Bir Kimlik İnşası Bağlamında 1980 Sonrası Kürt Hareketi ve
Kadınlar: “Analar”, “Yoldaşlar” ve “Tanrıçalar.” Analar, Yoldaşlar, Tanrıçalar: Kürt
Hareketinde Kadınlar ve Kadın Kimliğinin Oluşumu. 2007. İletşim Yayınları
Week 6: Mid-term
Civil War, Resistance, Gender
Rapoport, Tamar “Women in Black: Challenging Israel’s Gender and Socio-Political Orders.”
British Journal of Sociology, Volume 48, Issue 4
Peteet, Julie. “Gender in Crisis: Women and the Palestinian Resistance Movement.”
Week 7: Islam and Gender
Göle, Nilüfer. “The Forbidden Modern: Civilization and Veiling.” In Feminism and the Body.
Ed. by Londa Schiebinger. 2000. Oxford University Press.
Abu-Lughod, Lila. “The Marriage of Feminism and Islamism in Egypt,” in Remaking Women:
Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East ed by. Lila Abu-Lughod.
Sullivan, Zohreh T. “Eluding the Feminist, Overthrowing the Modern? Transformations in
Twentieth Century Iran.” in Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East
ed by. Lila Abu-Lughod.
Week 8: Spring Break
Week 9: Gender and Piety
Mahmood, Saba. 2005. Politics of Piety. Princeton University Press. Chapter 1:“The Subject
of Freedom,” Chapter 5 “Agency, Gender, and Embodiment”
Deeb, Lara. An Enchanted Modern: Gender and Public Piety in Shi’I Lebanon. 2006.
Princeton University Press. Introduction: “Pious and/as/is Modern,” Chapter 6 “Public Piety
as Women’s Jihad,”
Week 10: Honor
Parla, Ayşe. “The ‘Honor’ of the State: Virginity Examinations in Turkey,” Feminist Studies,
Vol. 27, No.1, 2001, pp.65-88
Koğacıoğlu, Dicle. “The Tradition Effect: Framing Honor Crimes in Turkey,” Differences: A
Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, pp. 119-151 Volume 15, Number 2, Summer 2004
Week 11: Masculinities
Kanaaneh, Rhoda Ann. 2009. Surrounded: Palestinian Soldiers in the Israeli Military. Chapter
8: Boys or Men? Duped or “Made”? Stanford University Press.
Peteet, Julie. “Male Gender and Rituals of Resistance in the Palestinian Intifada: A Cultural
Politics of Violence” in Ghoussuoub, Sinclair Webb. Pp. 103-126
Week 12: Sexualities/Bodies
Massad, Joseph. 2007. Desiring Arabs. Chapter 3: “Re-Orienting Desire: The Gay
International and the Arab World” The University of Chicago Press.
Kanaaneh, Rhoda Ann. 2002. Birthing the Nation: Modernizing the Body. Chapter 4.
Modernizing the Body.” University of California Press.
Altinay, Ayşe Gül. “Bedenimiz ve Biz: Bekaret ve Cinselliğin Siyaseti,” 90’larda Türkiye’de
Feminizm. Der: Aksu Bora, Asena Günal. İletişim Yayınları.
Week: 13
Gender, Development and Human Rights
Slyomovics, Susan. 2005. The Performance of Human Rights in Morocco. “I Will Erase You:
Women and Testimony.” University of Pennsylvania Press.
Bennoune, Karima. “S.O.S Algeria:Women’s Human Rights Under Siege”
Abu-Lughod, Lila. “Dialects of Women’s Empowerment: The International Circuitry of the
Arab Human Development Report 2005”in International Journal of Middle East Studies. 41
(2009), 83-103
Week 14 Gender, Work, Globalization
Cairoli, Laetitia. “Girl but Not Woman: Garment Factory Women in Fez, Morocco.”
Yükseker, Deniz. “Trust and Gender in a Transnational Market: The Public Culture of Laleli,
İstanbul,” Public Culture. Vol. 16, No. 1, Winter 2004.
Akalın, Ayşe. “ Hired as a Caregiver, Demanded as a Housewife: Becoming a Migrant
Domestic Worker in Turkey,” European Journal of Women’s Studies 2007; 14; 209.
Week 15:
Review