Courses

MWGS 2011-2012 course timetable (PDF)

WGS 1000H F Theories, Histories, Feminisms
What is the context in which we now study histories and theories of feminism? This course will identify some themes and concepts important to feminisms of the past and evaluate them in light of new historical conditions. It will interrogate the status of feminism and examine its place and value in contemporary thought. What, for instance, can be said in the name of women? How do we understand sexual difference? And under what sign of sex? How do we understand feminism’s relationship to race and class beyond simplified analyses of intersectionality? Why the move to
transnational feminism?

WGS 1001H F Feminism, Transnationalism and Postcolonialism
Over the past fifteen years, feminist studies has been defined by a turn towards transnational and postcolonial perspectives. In this course, we will conduct a genealogy of this turn, reviewing some defining texts and reflecting on their impact. We will examine the political and theoretical milieu in which transnational and postcolonial approaches have gained currency. We will explore the kinds of questions that are facilitated, and also those that are eclipsed, by such approaches.

WGS 1002H S Feminist Methodologies and Epistemologies
This course provides a theoretical and thematic overview of feminist methodologies and epistemologies, incorporating and assessing competing truth claims associated with specific modes of inquiry and knowledge production.  Critical questions of concern pertain to the multiple positionality and gaze of the researcher confronted with intersecting identities, the choice of ideological stances, dilemmas of “otherness,” insider/outsider location, and the ethical and political dimensions of research.  We will critically examine how researchers negotiate subject/identity positions, transcend methodological boundaries and limitations in the construction of knowledge, link theory with practice, and challenge assumptions of the epistemic dominance of specific modes of inquiry.  Emphasis will also be placed on the analytics and pragmatics of feminist inquiry in order to encourage reflexive engagement with feminist methodologies and epistemologies, as applied through self-selected research projects.

WGS 1004H S History and Biopolitics
This course seeks to elaborate Michel Foucault’s concept of “biopolitics,” which identified the historical emergence of methods for governing living-being. It examines the production of “population” as an object of governance through close readings of pivotal texts in political economy and natural philosophy by such authors as Malthus, Marx and Darwin, as well as through an engagement with current interdiscipline, scholarship that re-evaluates biopolitics in relation to capital formulations, race, colonialism, genomics, sex, technoscience, environment, and dispossession. Course not offered in 2011–2012.

WGS  1005Y MA Research Paper
This course provides students with the opportunity to undertake an individual research project on the topic of their choice under the supervision of a Women and Gender Studies core faculty member. The master’s research paper (MRP) is normally 50–60 pages, double-spaced, exclusive of references. Students are expected to demonstrate a thorough engagement with the conceptual frameworks relevant to their topic, to provide a clear formulation of their own perspective, and to provide substantial references to the relevant scholarly literature. Students should submit a two-page proposal to their advisors by January 13, 2012. Students who plan to do research projects which involve human subjects will normally want to submit ethics protocols for review early in the winter semester.

Advisors will, after reviewing proposals, sit down with students to work out more detailed timetables for research and writing that are appropriate for the individual projects. Please keep in mind, when making your plans, that sometimes faculty are not available during (all or much of) the summer. You may need to thoroughly discuss your project in April/May. Your master’s research paper will be read by your advisor and by one other faculty member at U of T (to be decided upon and approached by you and your faculty advisor, during the winter semester). The final mark for the master’s research paper is decided by both readers, and submitted by your academic advisor. Unless alternative arrangements are made with your advisor and second reader, you should plan to submit y our MA research paper no later than August 17, 2012.

WGS 1006Y Women and Gender Studies Practicum
This course provides students the opportunity to study, engage directly in, and reflect upon the multiple definitions of feminist social change work outside the university classroom. Students can choose from among many organizations in the Greater Toronto Area. Students will develop new understandings of the relationship between academic and activist work, thinking critically about the practice of experiential learning. Students will spend approximately 7-10 hours a week in their organization from September through February and will have scheduled progress meetings with an on-site mentor. They will gain exposure to the breadth of tactics organizations use, and will think about the politics of scale, coalition across groups/movements/borders, intersectionality and diversity, and neoliberalism. Students will learn how to conduct feminist social action research and program evaluation, and will gain practical skills in areas such as writing grant applications, press releases, outreach materials, organizational histories, and participating in community organizing. The final project is a written case study that contends with a central organizational problem or contradiction.

WGS 1007H F/S Independent Research and Reading in Women and Gender Studies
Offers students the opportunity to design a reading list, research project and/or writing assignments in their designated area of
interest. Students are only permitted to conduct independent research if there is no course being offered in another department that relates to their project. Also, students must find a faculty member willing to supervise their project. Time, location and course requirements are decided in consultation with the course instructor. Students are required to fill out a Request for Reading and/or Research Course form, subject to approval by the WGSI Graduate Coordinator.

WGS 1009H S Transnational Gender Histories
This course offers an opportunity to assess the theoretical and methodological value of thinking beyond the nation. Gender studies and transnational history are both important sites of questioning the nation as a unit of analysis. We will review recent books that bring together these two intellectual currents in their retelling of colonial history. Quite a few of our readings will focus on the Indian Ocean region because of its prominence in transnational history. This course will therefore be particularly useful for those interested in the movement of people, goods and ideas between South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Africa. Throughout our exploration, we will foreground categories that are important to gender studies, such as the shifting understandings of masculinity and femininity, marriage and family forms, sexual regulation, and practices of racialization. Course not  offered in 2011-2012.

WGS 1017H S Gender, Colonialism, Science
This course provides a thematic overview of the intellectual questions, methodological challenges and historiographical innovations that arise when gender and science as categories of historical analysis are brought to bear on colonialism as a world historical phenomenon. Among the topics under consideration will be the census; biomedical citizenship; sexology; conjugality; and the pharmaceutical industry, all in both western and non-western imperial and colonial settings. Course not offered in 2011-2012.

WGS1021H S Memory, History, Trauma
“Memory” has been one of the central concepts deployed in the human and social sciences for analyzing the problems of power and knowledge, representation, subjectivities and social identities. Concept of memory has also been regarded as a useful tool for questioning the teleological and evolutionary sense of time that underlies dominant modern/Western temporality and historical consciousness. This course will offer several key texts that have been central to recent discussions on philosophy of history, violence, trauma, and the politics of remembering and forgetting. We will also read several recent monographs that, through examining various cultural production, including, the visual media, historical narrative, testimonies, law, social space, etc., successfully explore the workings of power and memory in the production of nationalism, diasporic identities, sense of loss and trauma, vengeance, revolutionary consciousness, and subalternity.

ADDITIONAL WOMEN AND GENDER STUDIES SPECIAL TOPICS COURSES

Please consult the 2011-2012 MA Course Timetable for scheduling details.

WGS Research Seminar

The WGS Research Seminar is a student-focused monthly open forum, for the presentation of work-in-progress engaged in interdisciplinary feminist studies and its many intersections. Similar to a departmental colloquium, the seminar’s goal is to foster friendly, yet critically engaged, conversation and to feature the excellent emerging scholarship by graduate students and faculty. The research seminar’s overarching goal is to create opportunities for regular participation in the intellectual life of interdisciplinary feminist studies research here on campus. The WGS Research Seminar is scheduled monthly on a Wednesday, from 3:00-5:00p.m. Collaborative WGS students must attend 2/3 of the seminars in a year to pass this program requirement; for collaborative PhD students they must also present at least once before graduating, typically near the end of their degree. The WGS Research Seminar will also substitute for and enhance the functions currently performed by the previous pass/fail course WGS3000H, Advanced Research Seminar in Women’s Studies, by moving opportunities to present research to the dissertation phase of the Ph.D., and by more continuously drawing together graduate students at all levels as an intellectual community. Unlike WGS3000H, the WGS Research Seminar is an open forum, not a course. To view the seminar schedule, click here.