USC Fem Theory Syllabus Spring 2019 FNL Jan 2019 1 2 2 .docx

INTRODUCTION TO FEMINIST THEORY
SWMS 301mg
PROFESSOR KARINA EILERAAS KARAKUŞ
SPRING 2019
Course Schedule: M,W 2:00-3:20 PM
Course Classroom: MHP 101
TA Sections: F 10-10:50 AM VKC 252
F 11-11:50 AM VKC 252
F 12-12:50 AM VKC 252
F 2-2:50 PM VKC 252
F 3-3:50 PM VKC 252
Office: THH 413 (Taper Hall of Humanities)
Office Hours: M, W 12-1 PM (please schedule appointments via email)
Email: [email protected]
“But then, what is philosophy today - philosophical activity, I mean - if it is not the critical
work of thought on itself? And if it does not consist in the endeavour of knowing how and to
what extent it might be possible to think differently, rather than legitimating what is already
known?”-Michel Foucault
Course Description:
This course will provide students with an overview of historical and contemporary debates within
feminist theory and praxis. Our discussions will use an intersectional lens to target three thematic
nodes: body; nation; and representation. Our aim in this course will be to ask “how and to what extent
it might be possible to think differently” about a range of philosophical, political, and aesthetic issues
central to feminist and queer inquiry, including the framing of masculinity, femininity, and sexuality
relative to normative conceptions of “beauty”, “difference”, and “deviance” in medicine and popular
culture; feminist, queer and trans epistemologies and their relation to normative discourses of gender
and embodiment; sexual violence, fantasy, and the gaze; music, film, performance studies and
celebrity culture; the role of gender, sexuality, and ethnicity vis-à-vis nationalism, transnational
trauma, exile and revolution; Orientalism, colonization, and visual culture; international human
rights, religion, and globalization; the interface between sexuality, technology, and cyberspace;
gender and cultural memory; porn and sex work; fashion; nude protest, social media, body politics,
and the evolving forms, tactics, and meanings of transnational feminist praxis in the digital age.
This course will encourage students to critically evaluate competing formulations of “truth” and
“difference” with respect to the geopolitics of knowledge production. More broadly, it will encourage
students to evaluate conflicting histories and understandings of gender, sexuality, and the body by
approaching theory as an ongoing conversation, and as an epistemological site embedded in material
and political practices. This class is interdisciplinary and multi-media in scope, as we will examine a
variety of cultural texts including theoretical essays, film, visual culture, music and performance,
digital media and popular culture.
Learning Objectives:
1

Critical Thinking : identifying and assessing arguments, paying attention to underlying assumptions;
identifying the essential elements of a concept, idea, or text; marshaling appropriate evidence to
develop a persuasive argument
Feminist Theories and Methodologies : understanding a broad range of feminist theories, especially