SOCI 367 - Feminist Perspectives

3 Credit(s)

Popular conceptualizations of feminism in contemporary U.S. society suggest that feminists share a unified set of priorities, interests and political goals. This course seeks to deconstruct popular and academic constructions of a singular feminist perspective and explore the diversity of feminist viewpoints that have emerged over time and within/across different cultures in the US. We will begin by exploring feminist theories spanning the first, second, and third wave women’s movements. We will focus on the social conditions and movements from which feminist scholarship emerged and pay special attention to the dialogic nature of feminist perspectives. In the second half of the course we will draw on these theories and other feminist perspectives with the goal of applying theory to understand a diversity of social issues, including the body, technology, sexuality, violence, work and popular culture. The ultimate goals of this course are to (1) examine what constitutes feminist thought, (2) explore current debates among contemporary feminist scholars and activists, and (30 apply feminist perspectives to explain issues that impact our lives and society. Fall.

Prerequisite(s): SOCI 101 or SOCI 150.