Transnational Feminisms

This course engages contemporary feminist theories from diverse transnational contexts, as well as the social movements and local resistances they inspire. Through engagement with key works of feminist theory, political manifestos, and creative works of resistance, we will explore how transnational feminist alliances and coalitions have contested and responded to gendered and racialized forms of exploitation, navigating and reshaping territorial and social boundaries. We will engage with debates around the notion of a "global sisterhood"; tensions between universal and local feminist practice; the role of difference, nationality and culture in navigating the possibility of solidarity; the role of the Internet in forging cross-border alliances; human rights-based activism; "women's" work; transgender inclusivity and transfeminisms. Part of our goal will be to ask how feminist theories from diverse geographical locations have influenced the politics of borders, movements for environmental justice, migrations and mobility, resistance to imperialism and the forging of alternative economies. We will also explore the gray areas existing in between binaries such as feminist/anti-feminist; local/global; home/away; global South/North; victim/agent; domination/dependency. Finally, we will ask how processes of knowledge-production take shape within different intellectual and political movements such as post-colonial feminism, decolonial and indigenous feminism, liberal and radical feminism, Marxist feminism and religiously-based feminisms.
Course Attributes: EN S; BU BA; AS LCD; AS SSC; AS SD I; FA SSC; AR SSC; AR SEP

Transnational Feminisms

GLOBAL STUDIES 4370

Section 01