This course is designed to provide you with an introduction to the development of some contemporary feminist theories: local, global, transnational. The theories are interpretive frameworks to analyze, understand and act in the world. The theorists/writers offer concepts to critically analyze structures and practices of oppression, privilege, resilience, and resistance; they provide frameworks for conducting feminist research, advocacy, and activism for personal, social, intellectual, and/or political change and transformation. In this course, we will examine how these theoretical perspectives seek to understand and address various systems of inequality and power and the method(s) that we - theorists, scholars, researchers, advocates, activists, artists, writers - propose for change. We will discuss how these various feminisms continue to develop and evolve in relation to one another and to changing historical, political, social, economic contexts.

This course examines how gender-based inequities are linked to global and transnational politics of power, security, political economy, militarism, and ecology. There will be a focus on how gender roles, relationships, and identities are constructed, deployed, challenged, and resisted around the globe, paying particular attention to how systems and structures of gender, race, class, sexuality, age, ability, culture, religion, nation etc. are interconnected. It will explore how resistance to structural inequities is constructed within and across national boundaries, paying particular attention to the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) worldwide and how the responses of NGOs to crises (e.g., nuclearism, uneven economic development, environmental degradation) highlight the shortcomings of state-centered decision making.