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Introduction to Feminist Genealogies

Code: 106989 ECTS Credits: 6
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
2503878 Sociocultural Gender Studies FB 1

Contact

Name:
Joanna Genevieve Empain
Email:
joannagenevieve.empain@uab.cat

Teachers

Elisenda Díaz Garcés

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

This subject has no prerequisites, but students are advised to make use of the complementary bibliography found in the bibliography section.

The student must have the necessary linguistic knowledge to be able to express themself correctly both in writing and orally.


Objectives and Contextualisation

The subject proposes to trace the basic conceptual frameworks from which feminism has been understood in the Western tradition, as well as the paradigm changes that justify the different conceptualizations of gender, and its fundamental relationship with the body and identity . The conceptual and contextual connections are raised, as well as the mechanisms and critical instruments, which allow establishing genealogical accounts in the chronology of feminisms, from which specific analytical frameworks are inferred. 


Learning Outcomes

  1. KM29 (Knowledge) Recognise key periods in the history of feminism.
  2. KM30 (Knowledge) Identify the fundamental establishing narratives of different feminist approaches, taking intersectional considerations and context into account.
  3. KM31 (Knowledge) Critically analyse popular discourses, particularly those related to ideology and ethnocentric and sexist biases.
  4. KM33 (Knowledge) Explain the historical links between feminism and other movements against inequality (Black Lives Matter, LGBTIQ+, etc.).
  5. SM27 (Skill) Use genealogical accounts to contextualise different socio-cultural manifestations of gender from different periods.
  6. SM29 (Skill) Interpret artistic and cultural objects from a feminist theoretical and critical perspective by placing them in social and historical context.
  7. SM30 (Skill) Identify the conceptual, historical and social frameworks operating explicitly and implicitly in artistic and cultural phenomena from a given context, and from a gender perspective.
  8. SM31 (Skill) Use organised and correct discourse both in writing and to be performed aloud, in the corresponding language, which relies on inclusive language and is suitable for all kinds of situations.
  9. SM32 (Skill) Analyse social, artistic and cultural manifestations from a feminist, theoretical and practical perspective.

Content

BLOCK I. Feminist genealogies: actions, positions and points of view.

  • Concept of genealogy.
  • Situated knowledge versus universal knowledge.
  • Deconstructing the hegemonic, Eurocentric, white and binary gaze.
  • Feminist tools: intersectionality, preposterous history.

BLOCK II: Re-shaping of feminist knowledge in history.

  • Beginnings of Western feminist thought: feminism of equality and difference.
  • Critical feminisms: materialist feminisms and lesbian feminisms; black feminisms, anticolonial feminisms (post-colonial and decolonial), queer, post-humanist and new materialisms.
  • Difference within difference: intersectionalities.
  • Art, body and politics: the political subjects of feminism and their variation in history and socio-cultural context.
  • Corporealities, relationality and affects.
  • Going beyond anthropocentric and ethnocentric categories of sex and gender.

BLOCK III: Intersectional genealogical narratives (Fanzine)

  • Feminist assemblages with different conceptual, social, cultural and historical positionings.
  • Critical visualities as tools of resistance.
  • Narrative and counter-narrative: dismantling hegemonic narratives.
  • The fanzine as a pedagogical and research tool.

Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Presentation of the course. Theoretical expositions of the main concepts. Text comments. Group activities in the classroom and presentations in class by the students. 45 1.8
Type: Supervised      
Tutorials and monitoring of activities 20 0.8
Type: Autonomous      
Individual work on the proposed activities: readings, preparation of exhibitions and materials. Group work: documentary research, interview, creation of the fanzine. 35 1.4

In this subject, theoretical and practical sessions will be based on feminist art based methodologies, to create a collective, intersectional and transdisciplinary mapping of feminist genealogies. 

This will be done by:

  • Readings and reflections from texts
  • Search for information on the topics discussed in class
  • Oral presentations of the works by the students
  • Creative activities
  • Tutorials and monitoring of activities

Note: 15 minutes of a class will be set aside, within the calendar established by the center/degree, for students to fill in the teacher performance and subject evaluation surveys.

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Group activity 45 % 20 0.8 KM30, KM31, SM29, SM30, SM31, SM32
Self-assessment classroom activity: sharing life and cultural references: who and what has awakened in us a feminist outlook on the world 20% 10 0.4 KM29, KM30, KM31, KM33, SM27, SM30, SM31
Test 35 % 20 0.8 KM29, KM30, KM31, KM33, SM27, SM31

Continuous assessment

Individual activities (55%)

Individual evaluation activities (2 assignments), in which students will reflect on problems related to the concepts developed in class (blocks I and II).

  • Self-assessment classroom activity: sharing vital and cultural references: who and what has awakened in us the feminist view of the world (20%).
  • Written test (35%) 

Group activity (45%)

Elaboration of a fanzine (Block III): In groups of between 2 and 5 people will have to choose a topic related to feminisms in order to complete the genealogy worked in class to create a fanzine in group.

  • Phase 1: Research on the chosen topic and presentation of the pre-project (10%).
  • Phase 2: Realization of the fanzine (35%)

The evaluation of the course is continuous and presupposes the attendance and participation in class and the constant monitoring of the course. In order to take the resit activity, the student must have completed two thirds of the activities of the evaluation. If the student obtains a grade between 3.5 and 5, he/she will have the right to resit. The teacher will inform the students of the procedure and the date of revision of the grades. The group activity is not recoverable given the methodology used. The late delivery of an assignment will result in a penalty of 2 points. Students will receive a grade of "Not Evaluated" when they do not submit any of the individual and group evaluation activities or when they do not take the written test.

Single assessment

This course does not include a single evaluation system.


Bibliography

Ahmed, S. (1998). Differences that Matter: Feminist Theory and Postmodernism. Cambridge University Press.

Amorós, C. y de Miguel, A. (eds.) (2014). Teoría feminista: de la ilustración a la globalización. De la ilustración al segundo sexo. Minerva ediciones. 

Bal, M. (1999). Quoting Caravaggio, contemporary art, preposternous history. University of Chicago Press. 

Braidotti, R. (2004). Feminismo, diferencia sexual y sexualidad nómada. Gedisa. 

Butler, J. (2002). Cuerpos que importan: sobre los límites materiales y discursivos. Paidós. 

Butler, J. (2006). Deshacer el género. Trad. de Patricia Soley-Beltran. Paidós.  

Butler, J. (2007). El género en disputa: el feminismo y la subversión de la identidad. Paidós. 

Ciriza, A. (2020). Tramar/Urdir/Anudar genealogías feministas situadas. Los desafíos del espacio y el tiempo. La Aljaba, Vol. XXIV: pp. 145-157. 

Curiel, O. & Falconí, D. (2021). Feminismos decoloniales y transformación social. Icaria.

Davis, A. (1981/ 2022). Mujeres, raza y clase. Akal.

Federici, S. (2013). Revolución en punto cero. Trabajo doméstico, reproducción y luchas feministas. Traficantes de Sueños.

Foucault, M. (1979). La arqueología del saber. Ed. Siglo XXI. 

Foucault, M. (2022). Nietzsche, la genealogía, la historia. Pre-textos Editores. 

Gotby, Alva (2023). Ellos lo llaman amor. Verso Libros.

Haraway, D. (1995). Conocimientos situados: La cuestión científica en el feminismo y el privilegio de la perspectiva parcial. En: Ciencia, cyborgs y mujeres. La invención de la naturaleza. Cátedra. 

Haraway, D. (2019). Seguir con el problema, Generar parentesco en el Chthuluceno. Edición Consonni.

Haraway, D. (2023). Mujeres, simios y cíborgs. Alianza Ensayo.

Harding, S. (1988). “Is There a Feminist Method?”. Feminism and Methodology. Ed. Sandra Harding. Indiana University Press.

hooks, b. (2020). ¿Acaso no soy una mujer?: mujeres negras y feminismo. Consonni. 

hooks, b., et al. (2004). Otras Inapropiables: feminismos desde las fronteras. Traficantes de sueños. 

Irigaray, L. (1995). La diferencia sexual como fundamento de la democracia. Duoda, Revista d’Estudis Feministes, núm. 8. 

Irigaray, L. (2002). Between East and West: from singularity to community. Columbia University Press.

Lorde, A. (2022). Hermana otra. Editorial Horas y horas.

Mohanty, C.T. (2008). “Bajo los ojos de occidente. Academia Feminista y discurso colonial”. En Liliana Suárez Navaz y Aida Hernández (eds.). Descolonizando el Feminismo: Teorías y Prácticas desde los Márgenes. Cátedra. 

Preciado, P. (2008). Testo Yonqui. Sexo, drogas y biopolítica. Anagrama.

Vergès, Françoise (2022). Feminismo descolonial. Traficantes de sueños.

Wittig, M. (2006). El pensamiento heterosexual. Egales. 

Wittig, M. (2021 1973). El cuerpo lesbiano. Pre-Textos. 


Software

No software is used in this subject.


Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Catalan second semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan second semester morning-mixed