ANTH 262H/WS 262H
Women’s Lives
Professor:
Dr. Alma Gottlieb
**This Course Fulfills the Campus-wide "Social Sciences" Requirement
for General Education (a sub-category of the larger category, “Social and Behavioral Sciences”)**
The Course
"We cannot prove that people’s experience is
identical merely because they have the same
physiological senses."
-Judith Okely ("Vicarious and Sensory knowledge of Chronology and Change:
Ageing
in Rural France," in Social Experience and Anthropological Knowledge,
ed. Kirsten Hastrup and Peter Hervik, Routledge, 1994 ,p. 47.)
Why isn't Miss America ever fat? Is menstruation everywhere viewed as a curse or handicap? Why are
some girls eager to undergo "circumcision," and why do some women insist on the operation for their
daughters, over their husbands' protests? Is childbirth seen universally as an illness to be medicated?
Are mothers by definition heterosexual? This course will explore these and related questions,
investigating how women in the U.S. and around the world experience their bodies through the life cycle.
Throughout the semester we’ll inquire how social roles, images, uses and meanings of the bodies that all
women inhabit are shaped in deep, though often invisible, ways by culture. Through a variety of readings,
films, and hands-on research/fieldwork exercises, the course will introduce you to critical approaches to
the gendered experience of the body offered by cultural anthropology.
Texts
Books--on sale at IUB, and on reserve in the Undergrad Library (listed in order we’ll be reading them):
Karen Houppert, The Curse: Confronting the Last Unmentionable Taboo: Menstruation
Susan Bordo, Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body
ANTH 262H/WS 262H—Spring 2008
UIUC/Prof. A. Gottlieb
Colleen Ballerino Cohen, Richard Wilk, and Beverly Stoeltje, eds., Beauty Queens on the Global Stage
Robbie Davis-Floyd and Carolyn Sargent, eds., Childbirth and Authoritative Knowledge
Bettina Shell-Duncan and Ylva Hernlund, eds., Female “Circumcision”: Culture, Controversy, and Change
Ellen Lewin, Lesbian Mothers
Articles: We’ll read some articles and book chapters that will be on e-reserve through the
Undergraduate Library (marked as ER on the Weekly Readings Schedule). You can read e-reserve
material from any computer with an internet connection (whether on campus, in your dorm room, in a
friend’s house, etc.). You'll need Adobe Acrobat to view the files--this is a free program that can be
downloaded from the library's website if the computer you're working on doesn't already have it. Feel
free to print the material out from the e-reserve file. You can find a list of all reserve material for the
course through the library online catalog reserve module at: http://www.library.uiuc.edu/catalog/. The
e-reserve materials can also be accessed at: http://web.library.uiuc.edu/ereserves/querycourse.asp.
Your Job
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Attendance, Reading, and Participation: Attendance matters! Please plan to come to every class
unless you're really sick or have a crisis. If you miss more than two sessions for some other reason,
your final grade will be lowered a full letter grade.
Out of respect to all of us, please plan to come to class on time and remain until class ends.
Untimely comings and goings in a small seminar are very disruptive and discouraging to your classmates!
Class discussion by YOU is a critical part of this course! To participate meaningfully in our
discussions, you’ll need to read the assigned readings carefully before they’re due. Think about the
ideas raised, write down questions or concerns you may have. Think about how the reading relates to
issues raised in previous readings, to your own life, and to the lives of other people you know or have
read about, and come prepared to discuss these in class! In this seminar, much learning will occur
through our conversations--you'll learn much from each other as well as from me. This is not a class in
which you should allow yourself to be shy. I'll do what I can to encourage you to participate, but
ultimately it's your responsibility to be an active member of the discussion. If you choose never to
participate in class discussion, your final grade will be a full letter grade lower than what it would have
been had you participated actively.
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UIUC/Prof. A. Gottlieb
Staying organized: Don’t drown in a sea of deadlines! Plot out the semester’s reading
assignments—and writing assignments—now, so you can plan your life and even allow for pizza and party
nights.
Written and other work: Because this class will engage you in issues that will touch you personally,
I am happy for you to write any or all of your papers in the first person. Indeed, using the tools of
anthropology and gender studies to develop a way to think analytically not only about the world at large
but also about your own life is one of the goals of the course. Thus, developing a writing style that
allows you to harness social science theory, and think critically about the lives of other women around
the world, to help you understand your own life experiences—and, reciprocally, to harness your own life
experiences to illuminate social science theory and better understand other women’s lives around the
world—is one of the skills I hope you’ll take away from the course.
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Anne Frank writing in her diary
That said, you'll do a variety of work for the class, including the following:
1. First Film Reaction Paper—about our first class film--“Dear Lisa”—due Jan. 29.
Your paper can be a combination of scholarly, analytical, and personal perspectives. I'll supply
guidelines for this Film Reaction, and a sample evaluation form on which I'll note comments and
grades.
Suggested length: 2-4 pages, typed double-spaced in 10 or 12-point font, plus references.
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ANTH 262H/WS 262H—Spring 2008
UIUC/Prof. A. Gottlieb
2. Second Film Reaction Paper—about one of our remaining class films. Choose 1 of the following
4 options:
a. Write a paper about “Period Piece“--due Feb. 17.
b. Write a paper about “Slim Hopes” and/or “Barbie Nation”—due March 13.
c. Write a paper about “Nyamakuta” and/or “Hope Reborn“—due April 17.
d. Write a paper about “If These Walls Could Talk 2”—due April 24.
Your paper should be primarily scholarly and analytical, but you are also welcome to include personal
reactions based on your life experience. I'll supply guidelines for these Film Reactions, and a
sample evaluation form on which I'll note comments and grades.
Suggested length: 4-5 pages, typed double-spaced in 10 or 12-point font, plus references.
3. Personal Ethnography (“Mirror Essay”): Conduct ethnographic fieldwork in your own life by
going for 24 hours without looking in a mirror, and write a short analytic piece about the experience,
relating to issues & perspectives covered in the course readings. I'll supply guidelines for this
project, and a sample evaluation form on which I'll note comments and grades.
Due: March 25.
Suggested length: 5-6 pages typed double-spaced in 10 or 12-point font, plus references.
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4. Participate in an in-class scholarly debate and turn in debate notes, or write a debate
essay, about the growing global controversy over female genital operations. I'll supply guidelines
for this project, and a sample evaluation form on which I'll note comments and grades.
Due: April 1.
Suggested length: 5-7 pages typed double-spaced in 10 or 12-point font, plus references.
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5. Conduct ethnographic interviews with a woman of an older generation—preferably a relative-about some aspect(s) of her bodily experiences, and write a paper based on these interviews and
relating to issues & perspectives covered in the course readings. I'll supply guidelines for this
project, and a sample evaluation form on which I'll note comments and grades.
Due: April 29.
Suggested length: 8-10 pages typed double-spaced in 10 or 12-point font, plus references.
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ANTH 262H/WS 262H—Spring 2008
UIUC/Prof. A. Gottlieb
6. Extra Credit Option--Campus lecture/seminar/event reaction paper (worth up to 3 points
extra credit):
Throughout the semester, I'll announce special events, lectures, workshops, films, etc. being held
on campus that deal with themes addressed in this class. I encourage you to attend these! If you
write a short summary and analytic evaluation of one of these events, you'll receive up to 3 points
of extra credit for the course. I'll pass out guidelines for your paper, and a sample evaluation form
on which I'll note comments and grades.
Due: Your extra credit paper would be due at the beginning of class, TWO class periods
following the event you saw (e.g., for a talk or event on Monday: due Thur. of that week; for a
talk or event on Wed.: due the following Thur.) (subject to negotiation).
Suggested length: 3-4 pages typed double-spaced in 10 or 12-point font, plus references.
Basis for Class Grade
1st film reaction paper (“Dear Lisa”): 5%
2nd film reaction paper (your choice of film): 10%
Personal ethnography essay (“Mirror”): 25%
Paper, or participation in class debate + debate notes, about female genital operations: 20%
Body history, interview-based paper: 30%
Class participation: 10%
Extra credit campus lecture/special event reaction: up to 3 points extra credit
N.B. Your grade will be lowered if you have attendance problems (see above).
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My Job
In class: You should expect me to treat you with respect and create a class atmosphere that
encourages you to do the same for one another. This is a course that deals with issues that will engage
your mind, body and soul, and you will care deeply and passionately about many topics we read and talk
about. I will work hard to create a “safe” atmosphere in which all of you feel comfortable sharing your
thoughts with others on intimate topics. Please let me know if there’s something more you think I can do
to promote this goal.
Out of class: You should expect me to share with you the best I have to offer about the subject
at hand. I will give you the gentlest but toughest critiques and suggestions I can concerning your written
work!
Office Hours and E-Mail
Please feel free to come by to talk about ideas you may have about course readings, or issues that interest
you from the class, or other issues in anthropology or women’s studies that you’re thinking about, as well as
any problems you may be having in successfully completing the course, or any concerns you might have about
any aspect of the course at any time in the semester. Remember: I hold office hours for YOU!
Office hrs.: Thur., 11 am – 2 pm
Office: 386 Davenport Hall
Office tel.: 244-3515
Sec’y: 333-3616
E-mail: ajgottli@uiuc.edu
If my regular office hours won’t work for you, we’ll work to find another time convenient for both of us.
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