Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies Research Seminar

WMGS 208b

Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies Research Seminar

Spring 2018

Wednesdays 5:00–7:50

Brandeis University

Professor Karen V. Hansen Professor Faith Smith

Pearlman 209 Mandel 217

; x62651 ; x62094

Office Hours: Wed. 2 to 4 Office Hours: Tue/Thu 12-2

& by appointment & by appointment

Course Description

This course examines research theories, methods, and practices within the interdisciplinary field of women’s and gender studies. Our goals will be (a) to introduce students to diverse research modes and enable each student to select methods that best support particular research goals; (b) to help students learn to evaluate research in the field; and (c) to guide students in formulating a research topic, developing a proposal, identifying and using sources, undertaking stages of research, and organizing and writing a research paper. We will explore qualitative, literary, historical, and some quantitative methods.

Students’ projects will be individual, diverse, and from a variety of fields. The class will learn to interact productively across these differences to respond to each student’s work at successive stages. In addition, we welcome students’ bringing in additional readings and illustrative materials.

By the end of this course, you will:

Learning Goals

• Understand how we come to know what we know and how knowledge and research relate to social structures.

• Be able to identify research methods that best support your particular research goals.

• Be able to organize a complex research project, review relevant literature, pose trenchant research questions, and evaluate different kinds of evidence.

Unit Hours:

Success in this 4 credit hour course is based on the expectation that students will spend a minimum of 9 hours of study time per week in preparation for class (readings, preparing questions for discussion, writing papers, and the like).

Books

The books are available at the bookstore. They are also on reserve in the library. There are also additional required articles available on LATTE (marked with an * below). Please complete the readings on or before the date listed in the syllabus.

Booth, Wayne C., Joseph Williams, and Gregory Colomb, eds. The Craft of Research,

4th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008. Hereafter CR.

Hesse-Biber, Sharlene Nagy, Feminist Research Practice: A Primer, 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2014. Hereafter FRP.

Course Requirements

The final course grade will be based on several distinct types of work: a research project (and iterative versions along the way); written peer review of student papers; oral presentations about the research project; ongoing class participation (including leading two collaborative discussions about that week’s readings); and weekly Latte posts.

Semester Research Project

(50% of course grade)

The research project for this class comprises a number of different assignments that will culminate in a polished final paper of at least 4,000 and no more than 6,000 words, (15 to 20 pages) including notes and bibliography. Students have the choice of writing a literature review, writing a proposal that they might want to field in the future (for a Master’s project, for example), or conducting original research in the course of the semester and writing a paper about it.

The due dates for separate assignments are noted throughout the syllabus. Assignments are due on the date specified, even if you cannot come to class. The assignments include the following (and are fully detailed on Latte):

1. Preliminary Project Description due: January 24

2. Revised Project Description and Preliminary Bibliography February 14

3. Rough draft of paper (shared with two students) March 14

4. Peer Review (written feedback) on two student papers March 21

5. Oral Presentations April 11 & 18

6. Final paper May 2

Written Peer Review of Two Student Papers

(10% of course grade)

Students will read drafts of papers of two other students in the class. In order to help a colleague improve her or his paper, you will carefully read and comment on the draft, pointing out strengths and weaknesses that may not be apparent to the author. In addition, you will write a 1-2 page cover letter conveying your overarching sense of the paper.

Oral Presentation on Research Project

(10% of course grade)

Each student will present their project in a preliminary form on April 11 and April 18. Each presentation will be ten to fifteen minutes long, with additional time for questions and discussion. You will be graded on both the substance and the quality of your oral presentation.

Class Participation

(15% of final course grade)

This is a significant portion of the grade and a crucial part of a successful seminar. Class participation includes:

· weekly attendance; please be on time out of respect for us and your fellow classmates

· completion of reading assignments by the date listed in the syllabus

· with partners, leading two class discussions (approximately 15 minutes) on the week’s readings

· active participation in workshops and small groups in which we provide constructive feedback on one another’s work

· thoughtful contribution to seminar discussions in class

We encourage you to attend WGS-sponsored or related events over the course of the semester, and to bring your reflections about them into the space of the classroom. Since the class meets only once per week, it is vital that you attend each class. If you must miss a class, please notify both of the instructors by email beforehand and plan to do a five-minute class presentation at a future session on a recommended reading or on another of your choosing, in consultation with at least one of the instructors.

LATTE Discussion Postings (15% of Grade)

For weeks two through ten, you will be required to post a response to the readings that is 200–250 words (less than one page). This response must be posted on the LATTE site by 5pm on TUESDAY--the day before the relevant class discussion. Please respect this deadline! Each posting should demonstrate that you have read and understood the readings for that week. You should synthesize the readings, noting what you might find helpful for your own research project and how you might apply the author’s insights to your work. Alternatively, what about the method or the questions being asked might not be suitable for your research project? If you wish, you may also comment on how these methods and questions could benefit a project that complements your own. You may wish to tie the readings of the week into readings from earlier weeks and class discussions. Everyone in the class is required to read all of these postings before coming to class each Monday. If you wish, you may post a second time in response to others.

Policy on Incompletes, Late Papers, and Class Absences

Planning ahead can mean that you are better able to cope with the crises that will arise during the semester. If you have more than two absences you should consider dropping the class. Please be aware that we do not normally grant incompletes. Only a very major emergency can result in an incomplete. Please also be aware that late papers will receive lower grades. These policies exist out of fairness to all of the students who, in the face of similar crises and overloads, nevertheless complete their work on time. If you know that an assignment will be late or you will be absent from class, please inform us ahead of time.

Intellectual Responsibility

Academic integrity is the ground of trust that sustains a scholarly community. Please honor the words and thoughts of others and credit them faithfully. Whether you are submitting written

work or speaking in class, take care to acknowledge your sources not only for the words you cite

but for the ideas you advance. Sources include not only print but also web materials, ideas you learned in other classes, and ideas gleaned from other students. Please read Section 4 on academic integrity of Rights and Responsibilities, which you can find at: http://www.brandeis.edu/studentaffairs/srcs/rr/index.html.

Accommodations for Disabilities

If you are a student who needs academic accommodations because of a documented disability you should contact us, and present your letter of accommodation, as soon as possible. If you have questions about documenting a disability or requesting academic accommodations, graduate students should contact Jessica Basile at GSAS: . Letters of accommodations should be presented at the start of the semester to ensure provision of accommodations. Accommodations cannot be granted retroactively.

Class Outline

Week 1—January 10: Introduction to the Course

Required Reading:

• Hesse-Bieber, “A Re-Invitation to Feminist Research,” in Feminist Research Practice (FRP), 1–13

Activities:

● Introduction to the course and overview of syllabus

● Seminar participants introduce area of interests – not only “field/discipline” but also theoretical, era, or other category. Also discuss something pressing about writing or a research project that you want to explore/work on this semester.

● Discuss: What is feminist research? Why do we need it?

● Creation of discussion guidelines

Week 2—January 17: What are Feminist Epistemology and Theory?

Guest speaker: Alex Willett, Reference Librarian

Class meets at Goldfarb Library from 5 to 6

Required Reading:

· Naples and Gurr, “Feminist Empiricism and Standpoint Theory: Approaches to Understanding the Social World,” in FRP, 14–41

· Dorothy Smith, “A Sociology for Women,” The Everyday World as Problematic: A Feminist Sociology (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1987), pp. 49-104

· Frost and Elichaoff, “Feminist Postmodernism, Poststructuralism, and Critical Theory,” in FRP, 42–72

· Rinaldo Walcott “Reconstructing Manhood: or, the Drag of Black Masculinity” (2009)

· Craft of Research (CR), chap. 3, “From Topics to Questions,” 29–48

Recommended:

Sandra Harding, “Rethinking Standpoint Epistemology: What is ‘Strong Objectivity’?” in Feminism and Science. Ed. Evelyn Fox Keller and Helen E. Longino. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996, 235–248

Activities:

● Alex Willett, LTS: Bibliographical research (searching and information reliability:

group activity using several students’ topics of interest)

● Discussion: What are feminist epistemology and theory?

● How to choose a meaningful research topic

● How to write the preliminary proposal

● Developing generative and feasible research questions

· Begin LATTE posts

● How to work in a group

Week 3—January 24: Intersectionality—Theory and Method

Required Reading:

• Sumi Cho, Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, and Leslie McCall, “Toward a Field of Intersectionality Studies: Theory, Applications, and Praxis,” Signs 38:4 (2013):785-810

• Catherine A. MacKinnon, “Intersectionality as Method: A Note,” Signs 38 (2013):1019-1030

• Devon Carbado, "Colorblind Intersectionality." 38 Signs (2013)

Recommended:

Kimberlé Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color” in Stanford Law Review (1991)

Activities:

● Small-group work discussion of preliminary project description

● How to write a literature review?

Assignment #1 Due: Preliminary Project Description

Week 4—January 31: Fictions of Ethnography

Guest lecture: Morgen Sarpeshkar, Sponsored Projects Office, Brandeis (invited)

Required Reading:

• Buch and Staller, “What is Feminist Ethnography?,” in FRP, 107-145

• Donna Haraway, “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective,” Feminist Studies 14 (1988): 575-99

• Judith Stacey, “Can There Be a Feminist Ethnography?” in Women's Words: The Feminist Practice of Oral History. Ed. Sherna Gluck and Daphne Patai. New York: Routledge, 1991), pp. 111–120

• CR, chap. 4, “From Questions to a Problem,” 49–63