Category: Gender studies

Assignment #1: Self-Reflection (10% of final grade)
In the first Module of the term, I will encourage you to consider our own relationship with Women’s Studies. You will write a critical analysis of your interactions with gender throughout your life and how you think they are connected to what we will learn in class. You can use the available Guiding Questions as a starting point for your essay – you are not expected to answer all of the questions, this is simply a resource for you to start reflecting on gender. In this assignment, we will use our lived experiences to theorize gender. 
Guiding Questions:
What are some of your own experiences with gender and identity? How do you understand gender? Have you ever systematically considered how you developed your gender identity? Do you think your own identity influenced how you understand gender? 
What are some of the meanings you and the people around you have assigned to your gender? What kind of external messages or gender cues have you received throughout your life? 
What messages do you send to others regarding what it means to be a man or a woman?
Have you ever considered how gender intersects with religion, class, age, and race?  
Growing up, what kind of “roles” were you expected to perform because of your gender? Did you know that gender had something to do with that? Did you ever notice a difference between what was expected of you and other people around you from a different gender? 
When did you start understanding inequality? What about oppression? Why do you think that is the case? 
Did you have a big “eureka” moment that shifted the way you think about gender and identity? When was that? Why at that moment? 
Did you have people around you that pushed you to think differently about gender and identity? Do you think they did that intentionally? How influential were they in your uprising? 
Have binary gender or sex-based terms (man/woman, male/female) limited your identity and/or discussions with others? How? 
How has your schooling played into your understanding of what it means to be a man, woman, transgender person, or otherwise non-binary individual?
Have you ever been ridiculed or denied an opportunity for doing or saying something that others didn’t consider “masculine” or “feminine” enough? How did that make you feel? How did you react? How did it affect your life beyond that single incident?
Have you ever ridiculed someone else for doing something you didn’t consider “masculine” or “feminine” enough? 
Has your understanding of gender identity limited your ability to listen to others?

You will submit two reading responses across the semester. The expected word count of these responses is 750-1000 words. In this assignment you are encouraged to primarily focus on 1 reading. The goal of this assignment is to deeply engage with the main arguments of the reading and discuss the significance to the field of queer and trans studies and/or to consider how the concepts and ideas can be applied to a specific example, case study, or recent event.
reading: Chapter two “What’s wrong with normal?”
in The trouble with normal : sex, politics and the ethics of queer life by Warner, Michael, 1958- authorNew YorkFree Press199941 – 81
Reading Response #1 Prompt:
Select one reading and reflect on how the author thinks about the potential and/or limitations of queer and trans studies. Here are some questions to consider: What kind of story do they tell about queer and trans studies’ past, present, and future. What are their thoughts about queer and trans politics at the time of their writing? What kinds of subject, histories, and social movements do these authors engage in and how does that shape their arguments?
In your response you can include more than 1 reading but it is not required. The main goal of this assignment is to deeply engage with 1 reading.

Asignment Details:
Expected to summarize the interpretations and analyses in those sources. Note that the
process of locating sources of critical knowledge on your topic will require you to locate, read, and
assess more than just the final 8-10 sources you write about. 
Sources I picked but welcome to find more:
Bibliography
Matthews, Aisha. “Gender, Ontology, and the Power of the Patriarchy: A Postmodern Feminist Analysis of Octavia Butler’s Wild Seed and Margaret Atwood’s the Handmaid’s Tale.” Women’s Studies 47, no. 6 (August 2018): 637–56. https://doi.org/10.1080/00497878.2018.1492403. 
Van Engen, Dagmar. “Metamorphosis, Transition, and Insect Biology in the Octavia E. Butler Archive.” Women’s Studies 47, no. 7 (October 3, 2018): 733–54. https://doi.org/10.1080/00497878.2018.1518620. 
Blazan, Sladja. “‘Something Beyond Pain’: Race, Gender, and Hyperempathy in Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower.” Gender Forum, no. 82 (January 2022): 34–52. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=qth&AN=158534680&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Alexis Lothian. Old Futures : Speculative Fiction and Queer Possibility. NYU Scholarship Online. New York: NYU Press, 2019. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1789424&site=ehost-live&scope=site. 
Eleanor Drage. The Planetary Humanism of European Women’s Science Fiction : An Experience of the Impossible. Interdisciplinary Research in Gender. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2024. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=3678083&site=ehost-live&scope=site. 
Lloyd, Vincent. “Post-Racial, Post-Apocalyptic Love: Octavia Butler as Political Theologian.” Political Theology 17, no. 5 (September 2016): 449–64. doi:10.1080/1462317X.2016.1211296. 
Research Question:
How does Octavia Butler’s literary works challenge gender norms and explore the intersectionality of race and gender in a dystopian context, while also addressing prevalent notions of Blackness and racism in science fictions

: EROTICISM,INTERSECTIONALITY,& THECONFESSIONAL MODE，
REQUIREMENTS
This is an academic research essay based on a close reading of a short story, meaning that your thesisstatement must be supported primarily by an analysis of the story itself. Secondary sources are to beused merely to frame and to add context to your argument.
Length: 1200 words (essays of less than 1000 words will receive a failing grade)Format: MLA (double-space & include a word count at the bottom of your introduction)
REQUIRED SECONDARY SOURCES (ON LEA)
Your essay must cite or paraphrase from a minimum of four (4) secondary sources, including thefollowing:
1.Paz, Octavio. “The Kingdom of Pan.” The Double Flame: Love and Eroticism, translated by HelenLane,Harcourt Brace & Co., 1995,pp.1-27.
Bataille, Georges, introduction. Eroticism, 1952, translated by Mary Dalwood, Marion Boyars。
Publishers,2006,pp.11-25.3.Foucault, Michel. “Scientia Sexualis.” The History of Sexuality, vol. 1, translated by Robert Hurley,Vintage Books, 1978, pp.51-74.
4.A peer-reviewed article of your choice on intersectionality (JSTOR is an excellent place to look forpeer-reviewed,academic sources).
ESSAY QUESTION
Develop and defend a thesis that analyzes the impact of intersectionality on the mode of eroticconfession in the story that you have been assigned.
What is intersectionality?
This theory highlights the power relationships which exist between various groups. [..]The term “intersectionality” is used to describe the multiplicity and interconnectednessof various types of discrimination and how these relate to domination and oppression.i.e., the exploitation of one social group by another. Intersectional analysis calls for us toacknowledge our privileges, defined as unearned advantages resulting from one’spersonal circumstances. While such analysis is not always easy, it is important to identifyand understand both who we are and the privileges we have, and determine whichcharacteristics represent either a privilege or an oppression in our environment.”Intersectionality,” The Canadian Encyclopedia,
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/intersectionality

I need 5 reading reflections for my Gender Perspectives class. I will upload 5 different readings and expect you to have 100-200 word reflections for each.
The reflection should be at least one (long) paragraph, but you can write as much as you want. The reflection should not be just a summary. I have read the readings, I don’t need a summary. The reflections should be your interpretation of and reflection on the reading. You can include your reaction to the reading, a discussion of how it relates to your life, questions, or critique. 

I’m in a group project about Gender Discrimination in the Hiring and Promotion process where I need to make 2-3 slides on research about modern Gender pay today in a workplace and what are the improvements over the past to the present. Using 1-2 articles that are peer review from Google Scholar only!! Apa style
https://scholar.google.com

Campuswide colloquia (talks): Some of the best ways of learning about research are hearing from researchers themselves. Besides the visits from faculty this semester, you are also required to attend ONE colloquium around campus that in your best judgment involves some kind of feminist research during the course of the semester, and to write a 1000 word response to the talk (including what is often particularly interesting: the question and answer periodwhich follows the talk). 
When you write your 1000 word responses, don’t spendmore than 200 words retelling what was said, and don’t worry about parts that were difficult to understand; instead,remain as much in dialogue with the speaker as possible, responding in the terms you do understand. What do you think this speaker’s contribution to gender studies and/or feminist research is, given what  you know already about the field? Might you have done a different kind of project, given your own interests/investments, and why? What future research do you imagine for this line of inquiry?
Recording: Deep Care: The Radical Activists Who Provided Abortions, Defied the Law, and Fought to Keep Clinics Open