UNIVERSITY OF LODZ
FACULTY OF INTERNATIONAL AND POLITICAL STUDIES
Course title
Feminist Theory: Between Difference and Diversity
Code in USOS
1300-A224VGm
Language
English
Semester
Winter
Number of hours
30
ECTS
10
Course type
Discussion
Level
Master
Instructor’s name
Dr Edyta Just
Instructor’s e-mail edytajust@gmail.com
Course objectives
This course intends to introduce students to feminist theory and to
highlight its most relevant and important aspects. Students get
acquainted with the specificity of the etiology of the feminist theory; its
major subjects of concern; and its critical relevance for analyzing and
creatively approaching the contemporary cultural and socio-political
‘reality’.
1. Knowledge and understanding of the subject area.
2. Knowledge of the development of Gender Studies as
interdisciplinary field.
3. Knowledge of the uses of the concept of gender in research.
4. Understanding of the interaction between gender and class,
race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation.
5. Ability for abstract thinking, analysis and synthesis.
6. Ability to search for, process and analyse information from a variety
of sources.
7. Ability to apply knowledge in practical situations.
8. Ability to show awareness of equal opportunities and gender issues.
9. Ability for the application of critical and independent thinking on
gender in different professional contexts.
10. Ability to be critical and self-critical.
11. Capacity to generate new ideas (creativity).
12. Interpersonal and interaction skills.
13. Appreciation of and respect for diversity and multiculturality.
14. Ability to work in an international context.
Course description This course presents different schools of feminist theory about
(contents)
subjectivity and epistemology. The common denominator is the idea of
postmodernism, which is defined as the historical and theoretical
moment of questioning established notions of subjectivity and
knowledge. The course concentrates on the ideas of ‘difference’ and
‘diversity’ and it explores different feminist traditions of thinking about
them. These range from post-structuralist notions of ‘sexual difference’
to American theories of multi-cultural and multi-ethnic diversity.
Textbooks
1.Rosi Braidotti, “Towards a Philosophical Reading of
Feminist Ideas”, Chapter 6, in: Patterns of Dissonance
(Cambridge: Polity Press 1991)
2.Sandra Harding, “What is Feminist Epistemology?”, in:
Whose Science? Whose Knowledge (Open University Press
1991)
3.Donna Haraway, “Situated Knowledges: The Science
Question in Feminism and the Privilege of partial
perspective”, in: Simians, Cyborgs, and Women (London: Free
Associations Books 1991)
4.Michel Foucault, “Afterword: the Subject and Power”, in:
H.L. Dreyfus and P. Rabinow (eds), Michel Foucault. Beyond
Structuralism and Hermeneutics (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press 1982)
5.Judith Butler, “Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire”, in: Gender
Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (London
and New York: Routledge 1990)
6.Lucy Irigaray, “Any theory of the subject has always been
appropriated by the “masculine”, in: Speculum of the Other
Woman (Cornell University Press 1985)
7.Rosi Braidotti, “Sexual Difference Theory”, in: A.M. Jaggar
and I.M.Young (eds), A Companion to Feminist Philosophy
(Blackwell 1998)
8.Interpal Grewal and Caren Kaplan (eds.), “Introduction:
Transnational Feminist Practices and Questions of
Postmodernity”, in: Scattered Hegemonies. Postmodernity and
Transnational Practices (Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press 1994)
9.Judith Butler, “Imitation and Gender Insubordination”, in:
Diana Fuss (ed.), Inside/Out: Lesbian Theories, Gay Theories
(New York/London: Routledge 1991)
10.Patricia Hill Collins, “Defining Black Feminist Thought”
and “Toward an Afrocentric Feminist Epistemology”, Chapter
2 and 10, in: Black Feminist Thought. Knowledge,
Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (London:
Routledge 1991)
11.Rosi Braidotti and Gabriele Griffin, “Introduction:
Configuring European Women’s Studies”, in: Thinking
Differently. A Reader in European Women’s Studies (London:
Zed Books 2002)
12.Berteke Waaldijk and Edyta Just, “Introduction to Gender Studies” ,
in: Reference Points for the Design and Delivery of Degree
Programmes in Gender Studies (Deusto: University of Deusto 2010)
Assessment criteria 1. Student’s Active Class Participation= 20%
2. Student’s Creative Presentation = 30%
3. Final Paper= 50%