Feminist Theories and Epistemologies

Recommended Prerequisites

None.

Teaching Methods

After a couple of initial sessions in the course of which the instructors will identify the problems underlying the seminar’s major topics, each seminar session consists of a student’s presentation, drawing on an essay or book chapter from the required readings, followed by general discussion. At the end of the semester a workshop will take place in which each student will present his/her project of final essay. All students are expected to give feed-back and engage in the debate with all presentations. The final written essay will take into account issues and problems raised by the group.

Learning Outcomes

This seminar aims to study in depth some theoretical perspectives of contemporary feminism in different parts of the world and to provide tools and methods to be used in the research and in the production of relevant essays in all the seminars of the programme. Students are expected to develop critical awareness of the process of creating knowledge and of the position of the subject in relation to the object of study, as well as of the politics underlying the mainstreaming – or silencing – of different discourses and forms of knowledge. Epistemological reflection and the understanding of different approaches to social groups, phenomena and cultural products should enable students to carry out their own research using appropriate tools and methods; to present research results, in oral and written form, in a clear and theoretically framed manner; and to discuss them in academic contexts in dialogue with different disciplinary fields and epistemological positions.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

What constitutes knowledge? Who speaks it? Starting from these (apparently) simple questions, and in reading in depth some theoretical perspectives of contemporary feminism in different parts of the world, the seminar provides a space for a discussion on epistemologies and methodologies used – and useful – in structuring knowledge. An important aim is to create awareness of the political issues which underlie what is named “science” or “knowledge” and, indeed, “art”. Disciplinary fields, their limits and potentialities, the advantages and shortcomings of interdisciplinary approaches, the locality and the historicity of knowledge(s), the connection power/ knowledge and the mechanisms of the institutionalization of knowledge are addressed.

Special attention is paid to the processes of engendering and Othering knowledge in the framework of identity politics and the construction of a hegemonic order of discourse.

Assessment Methods

Assessment
In-class participation and oral presentation: 20.0%
Research work: 30.0%
Synthesis work: 50.0%

Bibliography

Braidotti, R. (2001). “Becoming-Woman: Rethinking the Positivity of Difference”. Feminist Consequences.In E. Bronfren & M. Kavka (Eds.). New York: Columbia UP.

Butler, J. (1990). Gender Trouble. Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York and London: Routledge.

hooks, hooks (2011). Feminist Theory. From Margin to Center. Cambridge, MA: South End Press [1984].

Magalhães, M.J., Cruz, A.L. & Soares, R.S. (Orgs.) (2013). Pelo fio se vai à meada. Percursos de Investigação em Histórias de Vida. Lisboa: Ela por Ela.

Oyewùmí, O., ed. (2005).  African Gender Studies. A Reader. New York: Palgrave.

Ramalho, M.I. (2013). “Difference and Hierarchy Revisted by Feminism”. Anglo-Saxónica, Ser. III, nº 6.

Spivak, G.C. (1988). “Can the Subaltern Speak?” Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. In C. Nelson and L. Grossberg (Eds.). (pp 271-313). Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

Tong, R. (2008). Feminist Thought: A More Comprehensive Introduction. 3^rd ed. Boulder: Westview Press.