Honors Senior Seminar: Newest Sexes/Genders/ and Races (Fall 2010)

Professor Zillah Eisenstein
Eisenste@ithaca.edu
Muller 316
Office Hours: Tu/Thurs: 2:30-3:30 Wed. 2:00-3:00
Honors Senior Year Capstone:
IISP40000
NEWEST SEXES/GENDERS/ANDRACES
Spring 2010
Theoretical Underpinnings of the Course:
This course asks students to think or re-think the static ways they think about sexes, races
and genders. At the core will be attempts to de-naturalize and de-normalize the
constructions of these categories to see what is known and unknown; what is historical
construction and what is biological necessity; whether there is such a thing as biology or
sexual and/or racial difference to `begin with’—so-to-speak. The framework of the
course is to open up possibilities for knowing `deeply’ about what we see and the way
that we see it; what we look at and what we don’t, and why. I will use notions of `new’,
and `old’, and `new-old’ (my notion developed in my book Global Obscenities) to trace
and track the way genders and races have changed, and have not changed. And we will
also use the notions of `newest-new’ and `newly-new’ to underscore how the very notion
of `new’, itself, is always in process, and changing.
Students are asked to theorize about the queries about color and race; sex and gender;
specificity and universality in order to find their own thinking about the place of
racialized gender and engendered racism in cultural construction. You are asked to
interrogate the `captured’ language of diversity (as in racial) and equality (as in gender)
and reconceptualize it in more fluid democratic formulation. But such a vision will differ
for each student. Theory is the ability to imagine and envision beyond the self—and
beyond individualized contained moments. Theory, in this sense, allows one to think
big—with a history, with a future, with an understanding of the political narratives that
operate both silently and loudly. My aim is to push students to draw connections
wherever this may be possible so that you will see in enlarged fashion FROM these
multiple and mixed sites.
The General Focus of the Course
This course has evolved from several of my newest books with Zed Press. The premise of
this new work is that genders and races can operate as floating signifiers—in other words
that the sign/symbol of gender and race can operate in disconnected fashion from the
actual sexed and colored body. There are new, and old, and new-old formulations of this,
and this seems especially true in times of militarization and war. We will discuss the 2
Obama campaign and presidency as a site in which to see the fluidity and statisticity of
race and gender.
The focus here is to unsettle the intellectual borders that have become naturalized and
normalized: same/difference; self/other; nature/culture; white/black; etc. I will pluralize
each side in such a way as to unsettle the clarity of the border lines especially between
sex and gender; race and color; and race and gender.
This course uses multi-racial and intercultural visionings to see the body, especially
female bodies in more complex, diverse fashion. I use the body—or bodies—as a
racialized and sexualized site to re-look at the notion of universality and real
democracy—from the site of black slave women, women voting in Iraq, females in the
Bush administration, etc.

Some More Specific Themes:
More specifically many of the readings will engage the following:
1. A redefinition of `the’ body per se and with it understandings of the sexual body
2. A redefinition of `the’ body as raced
3. A rethinking of the notions of male and female; man and woman; black and
white
4. A reviewing of the meanings nature, political, culture, universal
5. An exposure to multi-cultural and multi-racial notions of gender and race
6. An examination of historical changes and diverse expressions of genders and
races alongside
7. The continuity of gender and race
8. An examination of sites like Abu Ghraib, the Afghan and Iraq wars, the 2008
presidential election, for locations of sexual and racial decoys and their fluidity
9. A rethinking of feminisms and democratic theories from the pluralized site or
genders and races
COURSE EXPECTATIONS: Each student is expected to be prepared and
participatory in each seminar session and will complete two analytical papers based
on the course readings.
Course books at the I.C. Book Store
1.Anne Fausto-Sterling. SEXING THE BODY, preface, chap. 1-7, skim 8)
2. Judith Butler. UNDOING GENDER3
3. Zillah Eisenstein. AGAINST EMPIRE; and also read the electronic reserve article
Zadie Smith, “Speaking in Tongues”, New York Review of Books, Vol. LVI, No. 3
(Feb. 26, 2009), pp. 41-44.
4. Richard Trexler. SEX AND CONQUEST
5. Michel Foucault. HISTORY OF SEXUALITY, AN INTRODUCTION
6. W.E.B. Dubois. THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK, and also read the electronic
reserve article Hua Hsu. “The End of White America?”, Atlantic Monthly, vol. 303,
no. 1 (February 2009), pp. 46-61.
7. Robert Young. COLONIAL DESIRE
8. Tram Nguyen. WE ARE ALL SUSPECTS NOW
9. Edward Said. THE QUESTION OF PALESTINE
10. Afsaneh Najmabadi. WOMEN WITH MUSTACHES, MEN WITHOUT
BEARDS
11. Ruth Morgan and Saski Wieringa. TOMMY BOYS, LESBIAN MEN AND
ANCESTRAL WIVES
12. Zillah Eisenstein. SEXUAL DECOYS; GENDER, RACE AND WAR IN
IMPERIAL DEMOCRACY

Power: Economic Class, Sex and Race (Fall 2010)

Essential Reading–Books at I.C. Bookstore

C. B. MacPherson. The Real World of Democracy.
Bell hooks. Class Matters
Ted Fishman. China Inc.
Zillah Eisenstein. Against Empire
S. Jeffords and L. Rabinovitz. Seeing Through the Media.
Arundhati Roy. The Cost of Living
Maria Mies. Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale.
Zillah Eisenstein. Global Obscenities.
Toni Morrison. Birth of a Nation’hood.
Howard Zinn. Terrorism and War
Optional: Zillah Eisenstein. Sexual Decoys
Course Packet I , “Course Reader”(listed contents of packet purchased as one
unit at bookstore
Amanda Spake. “A New American Nightmare.”
Ackerman and MacEwan. “Energy and Power.”
El Salvador: Important Facts and Dates
Dahl, Mills and Sweezy. “On Theories of Power.”
“Race or Class?” New York Times Magazine, 1980.
Cynthia Enloe. “Banana’s, Bases and Patriarchy.”
Cynthia Enloe. “Women and Children: Making Sense of the Persian Gulf
Crisis.”
Marcia Gilespie. “A Crime of Race and Sex.”
Barbara Smith. “Notes for Yet Another Paper on Black Feminism.”
Course Packet II Mohsen Makhmalbaf. “Limbs of No Body”.
Marc Cooper. “Pinochet and Me”
COURSE GOALS
The purpose of this course is to examine the way power is distributed in
the U.S. and its global network along economic class, sexual hierarchy, and
racialized lines. This will involve us in discussions about the meaning of
power and how it is maintained. Our discussions about power will locate the
consequences within the United States as well as Third World nations via the
lens of capitalism, patriarchy, and racism. Our discussions will be positioned
within a post-cold war, post-Gulf War`91, post-Sept. 11, and Gulf-War `03—to the
present along with the Afghan war.
We will attempt to develop ways of conceptualizing and thinking about
politics that recognize the international web of power. This will require
rethinking the concepts of: nation, domestic vs. international, public vs.
private, and the ‘new’ globalism, etc.
1. What is the relationship between capitalism and democracy? Between
capitalism and liberal democracy? Between liberal democracy and
democracy? Between capitalism and socialism?
Read: C. B. MacPherson. The Real World of Democracy, ch. 1, 2, 3, 5.
Z. Eisenstein. Against Empire, Ch. 1
Show the blurb, “one story” (email folder)-2-
Suggested:
C. B. MacPherson. The Life and Times of Liberal Democracy.
Ralph Miliband. The State in Capitalist Society and Marxism and Politics.
Karl Marx. The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 (International
Publ.).
J. K. Galbraith. The New Industrial State (Houghton Mifflin Co.).
C. B. MacPherson. The theory of Possessive Individualism (Oxford Univ.
Press).
Dye and Ziegler. The Irony of Democracy (Duxbury).
Edwards, et. al. The Capitalist System (Prentice-Hall).
Michael Lerner. The New Socialist Revolution (Dell).
Fallman and Brandt. The Deceived Majority (Transaction).
Kirkpatrick Sale. The Power Shift.
Bertram Gross. Friendly Fascism.
Alan Crawford. Thunder on the Right.
Peter Steinfels. The Neoconservatives.
2. What does the concept “economic class” mean? How is power distributed
along these class lines within any one country? within the global
network? What is happening to the working class? to the middle class? to
the working poor?
Read: Ted Fishman. China Inc. especially the Introduction, and chapters 1
through 6, and 9
Bell hooks. Class Matters
Amanda Spake. “A New American Nightmare.” (packet)
Zillah Eisenstein. Global Obscenities, ch. 4.
Suggested:
Henry Braverman. Labor and Monopoly Capital.
Barbara Garson. All the Livelong Day.
Studs Terkel. Working.
George Lukacs. History and Class Consciousness.
Baran and Sweezy. Monopoly Capital.
Alain Tourain. The Post Industrial Society.
Ralf Dahrendorf. Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society.
R. Hamilton. Class and Politics in the United States.
T. B. Bottomore. Classes in Modern Society.
Sennett and Cobb. The Hidden Injuries of Class.
Andrew Levison. The Working Class Majority.
Stanley Aronowitz. False Promises.
Gevigakas and Surkin. Detroit: I Do Mind Dying.
E. E. LeMasters. Blue Collar Aristocrats.
Michael Burawoy. Manufacturing Consent.
Harley Shaiken. Work Transformed: Automation and Labor in the Computer
Age.
David Noble. Forces of Production.
3. Theoretical discussion of the meaning of power. What are the contours of
the distribution of power–concentrated or dispersed? Consequences of the
distribution? Who forms the ruling class in the United States? in the
global network? A discussion of the 1974 and 1979 oil crises; the Gulf
Wars, etc. Discuss the neoconservative state, the New Right, the ‘new’
Democrats, and Obama.-3-
Read: Dahl. “Power in New Haven.”
Mills. “The Structure of Power in America.”
Sweezy. “The American Ruling Class.”
Ackerman and MacEwan. “Energy and Power.”
Eisenstein. Against Empire, ch. 2
Eisenstein. Global Obscenities, ch. 2.
Suggested:
W. Domhoff. Who Really Rules New Haven?
Robert Dahl. Who Governs? (Yale University Press).
C. W. Mills. The Power Elite (Oxford University Press).
C. W. Mills. White Collar (Oxford University Press).
M. Olsen. Power in Societies (Indiana University).
G. W. Domhoff. Who Rules America? (Spectrum).
G. W. Domhoff. The Higher Circles.
Peter Bachrach. The Theory of Democratic Elitism (Little-Brown).
Richard Parker. The Myth of the Middle Class.
Andreano. Superconcentration/Super Corporation.
Kevin Phillips. The Rich and the Poor.
Barbara Ehrenreich. Fear of Falling.
Tanzer. The Political Economy of International Oil and the Underdeveloped
Countries.
Tanzer. The Energy Crisis.
Peter Odell. Oil and World Power.
Christopher Rand. The Case of Big Oil.
4. The Gulf Wars `91 to the present; and post Sept. 11, 2001. Discuss the
connections between capitalism, the global network, patriarchy, and
imperialism. A discussion of the global imperialist policies of the
United States in the Gulf and Afghan Wars and post-Sept. aftermath.
Read: Jeffords and Rabinowitz. Seeing Through the Media, Introd. and
articles beginning on pp. 25, 59, 77, 81, 143, 147, 189, 211, 249,
263.
Cynthia Enloe. “Women and Children.” (packet)
Cynthia Enloe. “Banana’s, Bases and Patriarchy.” (packet)
Z. Eisenstein. Against Empire, chap. 1 and 7.
Makhmalbaf. “Limbs of No Body”
Howard Zinn. Terrorism and War
Film: “The War We Left Behind”
Film: “Killing the Children of Iraq”
Film: Kandahar
Film: Fallajuh
Suggested:
H. Schiller et. al. Triumph of the Image: The Gulf War.
Richard Barnet. Globan Reach.
H. Magdoff. The Age of Imperialism (Monthly Review).
Barnet. Roots of War (Penguin).
G. Lichteim. Imperialism.
William A. Williams. The Tragedy of American Diplomacy (Dell).
C. Lindblom. The Intelligence of Democracy (Free Press).
Joyce Kolko. America and the Crisis of World Capitalism.
William A. Williams. Empire as a Way of Life.
Gabriel Kolko. America’s Folreign Policy.-4-
5. A discussion of the 1973 coup in Chile as a paradigm case of U.S.
imperialism. Discuss post-coup developments under Pinochet. Students
will read on developments in post-cold war politics. Does the term
imperialism still apply? We will discuss the imperial model discussed by
Arundhati Roy for understanding Chile.
Visit http://www.seas.gwv.edu/nsarchive/ and
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/ChileKHhtml
Read:
Cooper. Pinochet and Me (in packet II)
On El Salvador. Important Facts and Dates (packet)
Arundhhati Roy. The Cost of Living
Film: “When the People Awake”
Film: “By Reason or Force”
Suggested:
Salvador Allende. Chile’s Road to Socialism.
Regis Debray. Conversations with Allende and the Chilean Revolution.
NACLA Book. The New Chile, 1973 ed.
Zimbalist and Stallings, “Showdown in Chile,” Monthly Review, Vol. 25
(October 1973), pp. 1-24.
Paul Sweezy. “Chile: The Question of Power,” Monthly Review, Vol. 25
(December 1973, pp. 1-11.
James Petras. “Chile After Allende: A Tale of Two Coups,” Monthly
Review, Vol. 25 (December 1973), pp. 12-20.
NACLA. “The Invisible Blockage: Chile,” Vol. VII, no. 8, October 1973.
Burns. The End of Chilean Democracy.
Dale Johnson. The Chilean Road to Socialism.
James Petras. U.S. Imperialism and Chile.
Amando Uribe. The Black Book of American Intervention in Chile.
Sweezy and Magdoff (eds.). Revolution and Counterrevolution in Chile.
Diane Katzenberger, ed. First World, Ha, Ha, Ha,
6. Power as it connects and relates to sex and gender. A discussion of
oppression in terms of sex as implicated in power relationships. An
examination of the historical dimensions of woman’s situation in
capitalist patriarchy. An examination of the relationship between
patriarchy and capitalism and the way this changes over time. A
discussion of patriarchy and its racialized aspects.
Read: Maria Mies. Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale.
Zillah Eisenstein. Global Obscenities, ch. 3, 5.
Zillah Eisenstein. Against Empire, chap. 1, 3, 7, 8
Film: “Love Women and Flowers”
Film: “Lip”
My cd of changing gender images

Suggested:
Eleanor Flexnor. Century of Struggle (Atheneum).
Altbach (ed.). From Feminism to Liberalism (Shenckman).
Juliet Mitchell. Woman’s Estate (Pantheon).
Schulman (ed.). Red Emma Speaks (Vintage).
NACLA. “Toward a Science of Woman’s Liberation” (December 1972).
Sheila Rowbotham. Women, Resistance and Revolution (Pantheon).
Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Women and Economics (Harper-Torchbooks).
Hilda Scott. Does Socialism Liberate Women?
Agnes Smedley. Daughter of Earth.
Eli Zaretsky. Capitalism, the Family and Personal Life.-5-
Ann Oakley. Woman’s Work.
Margaret Randall. Cuban Women.
Roberta Hamilton. The Liberation of Women: A Study of Patriarchy and
Capitalism.
Lydia Sargent, ed. Women and Revolution.
Hansen and Philipson, eds. Women, Class and the Feminist Imagination.
Michele Barrett. Women’s Oppression Today.
7. The connections between power distribution and the system of racism and
racialized patriarchy. To explore the inequalities resulting from power
relationships in White North America. An examination of the relationships
between racism, patriarchy, and capitalism.
Read: Toni Morrison. Birth of a Nation’hood, chs. starting on pp. vii, 3,
31, 97, 273.
Zillah Eisenstein. Against Empire. Ch. 3, 4, 6.
“Race or Class?” New York Times Magazine. (packet)
Marcia Gillespie. “A Crime of Race and Sex.” (packet)
Barbara Smith. “Another Paper on Black Feminism.” (packet)
Film: “When the Nation Erupts”
You tube from Obama Campaign
Suggested:
Cornel West. Race Matters.
William Wilson. The Declining Significance of Race.
William Wilson. The Truly Disadvantaged.
Shelly Steele. The Content of Our Character.
Stephen Carter. Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby.
Edsall and Edsall. Chain Reaction.
Angela Davis. Women, Race and Class.
Angela Davis. If They Come in the Morning.
Articles in Black Scholar.
James Boggs. Racism and the Class Struggle.
Winthrop Jordan. The White Man’s Burden.
Oliver Cox. Caste, Class and Race.
Gerda Lerner. Black Women in White America.
Eldridge Cleaver. Soul on Ice.
Eldridge Cleaver. Post Prison Writings and Speeches.
Robert Blauner. Racial Oppression in America.
William Tabb. The Political Economy of the Black Ghetto.
John Bracey. Black Nationalism in America.
Robert Allen. Black Awakening in Capitalist America.
Eugene Genovese. Roll Jordan Roll.
Franz Fanon. The Wretched of the Earth.
Franz Fanon. A Dying Colonialism.
Ofari. The Myth of Black Capitalism.
“Perspectives on the Political Economy of Racism,” URPE, Vol. 7, no. 3 (Fall
1975).
Jo Durden Smith. Who Killed George Jackson.
George Jackson. Soledad Brother.
Ralph Ellison. The Invisible Man.
La Frances Rodgers Rose (ed.). The Black Woman.
Bell, Parker, Gray-Sheftall. Sturdy Black Bridges.
L. Bethel and B. Smith. Conditions: Five, The Black Woman’s Issues 1979.
Herbert Gurman. The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750-1925.
Jean Noble. Beautiful, Also, Are the Souls of My Black Sisters.
Ntozake Shange. For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The
Rainbow is Enuf.
Bell Hooks. Ain’t I A Woman.
Bell Hooks. Black Looks.
Bell Hooks. Talking Back.
Barbara Smith, et. al. And Some of Us Are Brave.-6-
C. Moraga and Anzaldua. This Bridge Called My Back.
Bell Hooks. Feminist Theory: From Periphery to Center.
Alphonso Pinkney. The Myth of Black Progress.
Ezorsky. Racism and Justice.
Patricia Williams. The Alchemy of Race and Rights.
Toni Morrison. Racing Justice, Engendering Power.
Internet Sites that are Useful:
ON GLOBAL
http://www.mcspotlight.org
http://corpwatch.org
http://orandon.guggenheim.org
http://www.ithac.edu/key
ON RACE
The Unbearable Whiteness of Being: African American Critical Theory and
Cyberculture.
http://www.kalital.com/Text/Writing/Whitenes.html
Bridging the Digital Divide: The Impact of Race on Computer Access and
Internet
use. Good access for blacks is key; especially through educational
opportunity.
http://www2000.ogsm.vanderbilt.edu/papers/race/science.html
What it Means to be Black in Cyberspace. Good site.
http://www.panix.com~mbowen/cz/identity/blakCMC.html
Cyborg Diaspora: Virtual Imagined Community.
http://ernie.bgsu.edu/~radhik/sanov.html
High Technology and Low-Income Communities: Prospects for the Positive Use
of Advanced Information Technology.
http://web.mit.edu/sap/www/high-low/
Losing Ground Bit by Bit: Low-Income Communities in the Information Age.
Good.
http://www.benton.org/Library/Low-Income/
New Data on the Digital Divide.
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/net2/
NetNoir.com=20
htto://www.netnoir.com — or Keyword AOL: NetNoir (bookmark)
Bringing Technology to the Barrio.
http://www.latinolink.com/news/news98/0923nbar.htm

Marxism and Liberalism: Historically Theorizing Patriarchy, Slavery, and Capitalism (Fall 2010)

Essential Reading–books at Campus Bookstore
Zillah Eisenstein. The Radical Future of Liberal Feminism. (Packet#1)
Zillah Eisenstein. Against Empire; Feminisms, Racism and the West
John Locke. The Two Treatises on Government
J.J. Rousseau, ed. A. Bloom. Politics and the Arts.
J.J. Rousseau. The First and Second Discourse
J.S. Mill. On Liberty and Other Writings
Karl Marx. The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844
Karl Marx. The German Ideology
Rosa Luxemburg. Reform or Revolution
Maria Stewart, ed. M. Richardson. America’s First Black Political Writer
Sri Aurobindo. The Human Cycle; The Ideal of Human Unity
Packet #2, “Marxism and Liberalism Reader” (available at the bookstore):
Clarke and Lange, “Introduction: The Sexism of Social and Political Theory.”
Rousseau, Emile, “Education of Girls.”
Rosa Luxemburg, “Women’s Suffrage and Class Struggle.”
Christine diStefano, “Liberalism and Its Feminist Critics.”
Zillah Eisenstein, “Liberalism.”
Susan Buck-Morss. “Hegel and Haiti”
To be bought from dept. assistant: David Theo Goldberg. “Racist Culture”,
chap. 1 (introd) and chap. 2
ALTHOUGH THIS COURSE STUDIES THE HISTORICAL THEORETICAL ORIGINS OF
LIBERALISM AND MARXISM, IT ALSO WILL ENGAGE THESE DISCOURSES IN THEIR POST-
’89, POST-COMMUNIST FORMULATIONS IN EASTERN EUROPE. WE WILL ALSO ADDRESS THE
PRESENT GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS IN TERMS OF THESE HISTORICAL TEXTS. LECTURES
WILL PLAY BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN THESE TWO FRAMES OF REFERENCE: HISTORICAL
AND CONTEMPORARY.
This course deals with the history of modern political theory using an antiracist, feminist, and Marxist deconstructive method. We will study Marx’s
writings first—although chronologically out of order–in order to develop a
critical visor on class and liberalism, and to clarify the meaning of
dialectics and social relations. Then we will critique this anti-capitalist
method from an anti-slavery, anti-patriarchal stance, using this critical
deconstruction as the model for the rest of the course.
We will explore the constructions—silent and explicit–of sexual, racial, and
economic class in Marx, Locke, Hobbes, Rousseau, J.S. Mill, Maria Stewart, R.
Luxemburg, and Sri Auribindo. We will examine the history of patriarchy in
the transition from feudalism to capitalism and the way it is reproduced in
liberal and marxist theory. We will also examine the silences about the
slave trade alongside the promissory of capitalism. And we will also examine
the different racialized and sexualized conceptions of private property and
economic class in liberalism, marxist analysis, and post-communist
developments. We will construct a critical dialogue between feminism, antiracism, liberalism, marxism, and post-communism.
Some of the key questions and issues which we will be examining are:
Conceptions of human nature–what is natural or innate; the importance of
private property in modern theory; individualism and slavery; the importance
of order and security as opposed to human development; the posing of “person”
against “woman”; competition or conflict; reform or revolution; the sexual -2-
division of labor and sex difference; racialized hierarchy and the class
structure. A major concern will be to develop the distinction between
liberty and freedom; exploitation and oppression; economic and racialized
sexual class; patriarchy, slavery and capitalism.
Approximately three-four sessions will be devoted to each theorist. There
will be two 5-7 page analytic papers, both of which must be completed for
course credit. The latter part of the course will be based in discussion
groups both inside and outside class meetings.
1. The silencing of slavery and sexual differentiation in political theory
Read:
Play the one voice video
Eisenstein, Radical Future, packet #1 chapter 2 and 3
Clark and Lange (packet)
diStefano (packet)
Eisenstein (packet)
Ollman (packet)
Eisenstein, preface, Against Empire
Goldberg, packet for sale from dept. assis.
2. Karl Marx–theory of alienation, concept of species being, human needs,
concept of class, class conflict, revolutionary social change, bourgeois
family, dialectics, ideology, and social relations, absence of critique
of slavery.
Read: Karl Marx. The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844
Karl Marx. The German Ideology.
S.Buck-Morss, “Hegel and Haiti”
Eisenstein, Against Empire, chap. 2
Suggested:
Marx, Karl. Capital 1, 2, 3, (New York: International Publishers, 1967).
Marx, Karl. The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, (New York: International
Publishers, 1963).
Marx, Karl. “Introduction to the Critique of Political Economy,” in David
Horowitz (ed.), Marx and Modern Economics. (New York: Modern Reader,
1968).
Marx, Karl. The Grundisse, (New York: Harper and Row, 1971).
Meszaros, Istvan. Marx’s Theory of Alienation. (London: Merlin Press,
1970).
Avineri, Sholomo. Karl Marx: Social and Political Thought. (New York:
Cambridge, 1968).
Ollman, Bertell. Alienation. (New York: Cambridge, 1971).
Ollman, Bertell. “Toward Class Consciousness Next Time: Marx and the
Working
Class,” Politics and Society, 3 (Fall, 1972), p. 1-25.
Balubs, Isaac. “The Negation of the Negation,” Politics and Society, 3
(Fall,
1972), pp. 49-65.
Wood, Allen. “The Marxian Critique of Justice,” Philosophy and Public
Affairs
l (Spring, 1972), pp. 244-282.
Glass, James. “Marx, Kafka, and Jung: The Appearance of Species Being,”
Politics and Society, 2 (Winter, 1972), pp. 255-27l.
Eisenstein, Zillah, ed. Capitalist Patriarchy and the Case for Socialist
Feminism.
Elshtain, Jean Bethke. Public Man, Private Woman.-3-
Hegel
Marcuse, Reason and Revolution. (Boston: Beacon Press, 1960).
Avineri, Shlomo. “Labor, Alienation, and Social Classes in Hegel’s
Realphilosophie,” Philosophy and Public Affairs, l (Fall, l971), pp. 96-
119.
Hartman, Robert, trans., Hegel’s Reason in History. (New York: Bobbs
Merrill,
1953).
Kojeve, Alexandre. Introduction to the Reading of Hegel. (New York: Basic
Books, 1969).
Avineri, Shlomo. Hegel’s Theory of the Modern State.
3. Thomas Hobbes–Innate tendencies; the idea of equality; scarcity in
market society; relation of ruler to ruled; naturalizing of the concept
of hierarchy as part of equality.
I will briefly lecture on Hobbes as an introduction to John Locke
Suggested:
C.B. MacPherson. The Theory of Possessive Individualism
Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan, I, II. (New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1958).
Hill, Christopher, “Thomas Hobbes and the Revolution in Political Thought,”
in
Judith Shklar (ed.), Political Theory and Ideology. (New York:
MacMillan,
1966).
MacPherson, C.B. Democratic Theory. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973).
Cranston and Peters (eds.) Hobbes and Rousseau. (New York: Anchor Books,
1972).
Lamprechit, Sterling. “Hobbes and Hobbism,” in American Political Science
Review, 34.
Strauss, Leo. The Political Thought of Hobbes. (Chicago: Phoenix Books,
1936).
Encyclopedia of Philosophy. “Thomas Hobbes.”
4. John Locke–idea of property, relations of state to protection of
“natural rights,” alienable labor. A discussion of patriarchal power,
and statements as well as silences on slavery; the articulation of
whiteness as natural.
Read:
John Locke. The First Treatise of Government.
Z. Eisenstein. The Radical Future of Liberal Feminism, chapter 3.
De Stefano. “Liberalism and Its Feminist Critics” (review again).
Z. Eisenstein. Against Empire, chap. 3
David Goldberg. Racist Culture (Blackwell, 1993)
C.B. MacPherson. The Theory of Possessive Individualism
Barker. Social Contract, Locke, Hume, and Rousseau. (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1947).
Laski, H.J. Political Thought in England from Locke to Bentham. (London:
Oxford U niversity Press, 1920).
Laski, H.J. The Rise of European Liberalism. (New York: Unwin Books,
1936).
Locke, John. The Second Treatise of Government. (New York: Bobbs-Merrill,
1952).
Larkin, Parchal. Property in the Eighteenth Century with Special Reference
to
England and Locke. (London, 1930).
Clark, Lorenne. “Women and Locke: Who Owns the Apples in the Garden of
Eden?”-4-
in Clark and Lange, The Sexism of Social and Political Theory.
Discussion of Proudhon. “What is Property?”
5. Jean Jacques Rousseau–The conception of the general will as collective
living; analysis of property in social and political organization; his
view of personal development; his phallocratic treatment of women
specifically in relation to Emile, querying of individualism for free
blacks and slaves.
Read: Rousseau. “A Letter to D’Alembert” in Politics and the Arts.
Rousseau. The First and Second Discourse. Read Second Discourse.
Z. Eisenstein. The Radical Future of Liberal Feminism, Chapter 4.
Rousseau, Emile, “Education of Girls,” (packet).
Eisenstein, Against Empire, chap. 4
Suggested:
Elshtain, Jean Bethke. Meditations on Modern Political Thought.
Okin, Susan. Women in Western Political Thought, Chapter on Rousseau.
Rousseau, J.J. Social Contract. (New York: Gateway, 1954).
Shklar, Judith. “Rousseau’s Two Models: Sparta and the Age of Gold,”
Political Science Quarterly, 71 (March, 1966), pp. 25-5l.
Kateb, George, “Aspects of Rousseau’s Political Thought,” Political Science
Quarterly 76, pp. 519-543.
Durkheim, Emile. Montesquieu and Rousseau, Forerunners of Sociology. (Ann
Arbor, M I, 1965).
Riley, Patrick. “A Possible Explanation of Rousseau’s General Will,”
American
Political Science Review, 1970.
Berman, Marshall. Politics of Authenticity. (New York: Atheneum, 1970).
Especial ly chapters 2 and 3.
6. John Stuart Mill–liberalism; human choice through competing
alternatives; private vs. public; statement on women reflective of his
liberal stance; sexual division of labor and racialized views of
individualism; colonial slave positions.
Read: J.S. Mill. On Liberty.
J.S. Mill. On the Subjection of Women.
Z. Eisenstein. The Radical Future of Liberal Feminism, Chapter 6.
Suggested:
David Goldberg, Racist Culture, chapter 6.
Wolff, R.P. The Poverty of Liberalism. (Boston: Beacon Press, 1968).
Nagel, Ernest (ed.) John Stuart Mill’s Philosophy of Scientific Method.
Mill, J.S. On Liberty. (New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1956).
Berlin, Isaiah. Four Essays on Liberty. (New York: Oxford University
Press,
1969).
Lerner, Max (ed.) Essential Works of John Stuart Mill. (New York: Bantam
Books, 19 6l).
Duncan, Graeme. Marx and Mill. (Cambridge).
Himmelfarb, Gertrude. On Liberty and Liberalism. (Knopf).
Jaggar, Alison. Feminist Politics and Human Nature.-5-
7. Maria Stewart—an anti-slavery statement by a free black woman who embraces
much of liberalism and its religiosity; examine the contrast of her focus
from Mill and Marx due to her views on slavery, and examine the similarities
with Mill’s liberal views.
Read: Maria Stewart. America’s First Black Political
Writer, through p. 85.
Eisenstein, Against Empire, chap. 6-6-
Suggested:
David Brion Davis. The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture
Frederick Douglass. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American
Slave
Eugene Genovese. The World the Slaveholders Made
Vincent Harding. There is a River
Orlando Patterson. The Sociology of Slavery
William B. Cohen. The French Encounter with Africans
8. Rosa Luxemburg–reform or revolution? Participatory democracy, socialism
vs. nationalism; role of the trade unions, woman’s suffrage and the class
struggle; patriarchy and capitalism and racial silences.
Read: Rosa Luxemburg. Reform or Revolution
“Women’s Suffrage and Class Struggle” (packet).
Suggested:
Nettl, Peter. Rosa Luxemburg. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1966).
Waters, Mary-Alice (ed.) Rosa Luxemburg Speaks. (New York: Pathfinder
Press,
1970).
Luxemburg, Rosa. The Mass Strike. (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1971).
D. Howard (ed.) Luxemburg, Rosa. Selected Political Writings. (New York:
Monthly Review, 1971).
9. Sri Aurobindo—examine his notion of humanity, the notion of unity and
inclusivity and compare this with the liberal and Marxist viewings; think
about his anti-colonial writing/thought in the ways it denies clear
separations between marxism and liberalism.
Read: Sri Aurobindo, The Ideal of Human Unity
chap. 1-4, 12, 13, 17, 18, 20, 22, 32, 33, 35
Eisenstein, Against Empire, chapter 5
Suggested:
Sri Aurobindo. The Future Evolution of Man
Sri Aurobindo. Speeches
Sri Aurobidno. Reason and Beyond Reason
Dennis Dalton. Indian Idea of Freedom
M.K. Gandhi. Communal Unity
Rabindranath Tagore. Towards Universal Man
Reading to help you better understand the economic historical context:
Braudel, Fernand. Capitalism and Material Life 1400-1800, Harper Colophon.
Mantoux, Paul. The Industrial Revolution in the Eighteenth Century, Harper
and Row.
Wallerstein, Immanuel. The Modern World System, Capitalist Agriculture and
the Origins of the European World Economy in the 16th Century, Academic -7-
Press.
Laslett, Peter. The World We Have Lost. Scribners.
Pireene, Henri. Economic and Social History of Medieval Europe, Harvest
Books.
Bloch, Marc. Feudal Society, vol. l and 2, Chicago University Press.
Hobsbawm, E.J. The Age of Capital, 1848-1875.
Readings in the feminist critiques of liberalism:
Jaggar, Allison and Paula Struhl. Feminist Frameworks.
Crimshaw, Jean. Philosophy and Feminist Thinking.
Glennon, Lynda. Women and Dualism.
Susan Mother Okin. Women in Western Political Thought.
Paterman, Carole. The Sexual Contract.
Donovan, Josephine. Feminist Theory.
Elshtain, Jean Bethke. Public Man/Private Woman.

Seminar: Elsewheres (Fall 2010)

Course Expectations: It is expected that all students be present at each class, prepare
presentations for class discussion of the reading materials, and complete two writing
projects dealing with the queries of the course.
Theoretical Underpinnings
This course asks you to think `deeply’ about what you see and the way you see it; what
you look at and what you don’t, and why. In this sense I ask you to theorize both a
notion of `presence’ and `absence’—specifically in terms of queries about color and race;
sex and gender; colonialism and `the’ west, civilization and modernity, and so on. I want
you to think as inclusively as you can, as well as theoretically.
Theory is the ability to imagine and envision beyond the self—and beyond
individualized contained moments. Theory, in this sense, allows one to think big—with a
history, with a future, with an understanding of the political narratives that operate both
silently and loudly. My aim is to push my students to draw connections wherever this
may be possible so that they will see in enlarged and inclusive fashion. Part of the aim of
the course is to take students to new sites for understanding and enriching the meanings
of political—power-filled–life.
The General Focus of the Course
The course has evolved out of and along with my newest research, travel, and writing
related to the deconstruction and reconstruction of the so-called WEST/NON-WEST and
their constructions of the sex/gender; color/race divides. I want students to rethink their
thinking about what the terms west and non-west mean. I want you to do this both
historically and contemporarily. In other words—given the origins of democratic theory-
– are these origins `truly’ and `simply’ of the west? More specifically, what place does
the colonization of the Tainos, and the practice of the African slave trade, play in these
formulations? And, I want you to think about this question—today—during the
globalization of capitalism when ideas travel and change continuously. What is the
vested political interest, of both the powerful and the powerless, in this divide? How do
the events of September 11, 2001 and its aftermaths in Afghanistan and Iraq inform this
discussion?I also want to then take this divide—WEST/NON-WEST and pluralize it further by
diversifying the very notion of unity and diversity themselves. Once diversity becomes a
part of each side of the construction, the neat divides of positivism are challenged from
within. The next query is to rethink how these discussions impact on the very idea/s of
democracy, individuality, and freedom. The focus here is to unsettle the intellectual
borders that have become naturalized and normalized: same/difference; self/other;
nature/culture; white/black; sex/gender, etc. I will pluralize each side in such a way as to
unsettle the clarity of the border-lines between modernity and antiquity.
This course continues to develop from my writing and teaching which uses multicultural/racial and intercultural/racial visionings as well as fluid notions of sex and
gender to see the body, especially female bodies in more complex, diverse fashion. I use
the body—or bodies—as a racialized and sexualized site to re-look at the notion of
universality and real democracy from places outside or critical of `the’ western canon. By
`seeing’ complex bodies I hope you will be encouraged to entertain an inclusivity that
follows from this starting point. And of course, the conundrum is that there is no singular
body–meaning across cultures and nations–and yet the human body speaks in entirely
similar ways in `other-than-western’ form.
A Few General Themes to Explore
Several of the themes that I wish to probe are: pluralizing the notion of the political
across the boundaries of public and private, east and west, liberal and Marxist, feminist
and anti-racist. We will explore the similarities and differences between colonialism and
global capitalism; the notion of western as much more diverse and owing much of what it
is to so-called non-western sites. I will examine the role of the slave-trade in the
determination of enlightenment theory and the place of the slave woman’s body in this
process. We will challenge the bordered arenas of sex, gender, color and race. We will
question the place-origin of the idea of `freedom’. Students will develop a notion of what
I term POLYVERSAL identity and humanity depending on the way they travel through
and use the materials of the course.
Some More Specific Themes:
More specifically the readings engage the following:
1. A redefinition of democracy as a polyversal historical construction
2. A viewing of the wars of/on terror and their aftermath for the viewings of the
globe that they open and close
3. An examination of diasporic visions of rationality in Islamic thought
4. A discussion of a recoding of universality to embrace multi-inter- and polyglot
meanings
5. Theorize the intersections of racialized gender and engendered race especially in
the slave trade
6. Examine the particular relations of global, and translocal cultures for a richer
notion of inclusivity 7. Utilize while developing methodologies of the 21
st
century: translation,
comparison, translocality, interpretative traveling
8. Embrace the relationship between power-locations and the embrace of nonimperial universalisms
9. Rethink the relationship between the constructions of sex and gender; and color
and race in fluid, open, contextualized ways
Essential Readings—Books at I. C. Bookstore
1. Zillah Eisenstein. AGAINST EMPIRE
2. Kenzaburo Oe. HIROSHIMA
3.Martin Bernal. BLACK ATHENA
Vol. 1 Preface, introd., chap iv, chap.v pp. 225-246, chap vi pp.281-297, chap
vii, chap viii pp. 337-344, chap. vix pp. 367-373
4. Jack Weatherford. INDIAN GIVERS
5. Arundhati Roy. POWER POLITICS
6. Marcus Rediker. THE SLAVE SHIP
7. George Breitman, ed. THE LAST YEAR OF MALCOLM X
8. Ahmed Rashid. JIHAD
9.Salmun Rushdie. THE WIZARD OF OZ
10. W. E. B. Dubois. THE WORLD AND AFRICA
11. Zillah Eisenstein. SEXUAL DECOYS, GENDER, RACE AND WAR IN
IMPERIAL DEMOCRACY

Feminist Theory/ies (Spring 2010)

Essential Readings (Books at IC Bookstore)
Zillah Eisenstein. The Radical Future of Liberal Feminism (packet)
Catherine MacKinnon. Feminism Unmodified.
Monique Wittig. The Straight Mind.
bell hooks. Talking Back.
Gloria Anzaldua. Making Face / Making Soul.
Chandra Mohanty. Feminism Without Borders
Uma Narayan. Dislocating Cultures
Slovenka Drakulic. How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed.
Margot Badran and Miriam Cooke, eds. Opening the Gates, A Century of Arab
Feminist Writing.
Saba Mahmood. The Politics of Piety
Zillah Eisenstein. Sexual Decoys
This course introduces and then explores SOME of the multiple meanings and
varieties of feminism. I try to be inclusive in scope in terms of the themes and political
commitments of feminisms both here, and across the globe, but also know that this is an
impossible endeavor. We will first examine `western feminisms’ in order to clarify
several of the theoretical/political themes usually associated with feminism in general:
liberal feminism, radical feminism, and lesbian feminism. We will examine how any one
of these theoretical constructs can be further pluralized as well as connected to each
other.
But first we will interrogate the very meaning of both sex and its relation to
gender in order to pluralize our thinking about sex(es) and gender(s). I will ask you to
wonder whether there are simply two sexes and two genders, and what the complex
relationship is between these two realms. In the end we will query how the multiplicity
of gender itself more fully pluralizes feminisms themselves.
We will next examine Third World Feminisms as: women of color critiques of
western feminism; Black U.S. feminism; Chicana/Mexicana feminism; and Arab
feminisms. Next we will examine Eastern European post-socialist and communist
feminisms along with a discussion of the theoretical meaning of socialist feminism.
We will examine the unique features of each, their intersection with each other, and their
dialogue with the construct `western feminism’. You will be asked to query whether you
think feminism is a diversely constructed politics rather than an inherently `western’
construct. We query whether feminism(s) is always plural in meaning and how this
impacts on the idea of feminisms across the globe. 2
The discussion and comparison of western feminisms, women of color feminisms,
post-communist feminisms, and Arab feminisms will be directed by a series of analytic
queries and theoretical constructs. These queries will be used to construct the similarities
and the differences that exist between feminisms and within any one feminism.
The theoretical queries explore the relations between:
sex/gender
sexes/genders/races
personal/political
public/private
masculine/feminine
nature/culture
difference/sameness
universal/specific
in order to better understand the intertextuality between racism, patriarchy, and
capitalism.
We will utilize a method of radical pluralism to explore the false oppositions
constructing the concept of sex/gender ‘difference’ and its relation to its racialized
meaning. And, we will rethink feminisms from the notion that there are more than two
sexes and more than two genders and many races.
Our course assumes that there are many feminisms today, and that they are both
similar and different to earlier historical understandings and political strategies and
movements. I ground our study in some of the early historical discussions that dominated
“western” feminism because this is our location—and then we branch outward both in
terms of time and space to embrace feminist struggles at this particular militarist moment
in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq,
Each student will be expected to write two analytical papers in the course with the
intent of defining their notion of a radically ‘inclusive’ and `polyversal’ feminist theory.
Each student is expected to attend every session ready to participate in class discussion.
We will follow the format below:
I. Western Feminisms in Dialogue
1. Liberal Feminism and Its Critique
Read: Zillah Eisenstein. The Radical Future of Liberal Feminism,
(entire packet)
2. Radical Feminism
Read: Catherine MacKinnon. Feminism Unmodified, Introd., ch. 1, 2, 3,
7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 16.
3. Lesbian Feminism
Read: Monique Wittig. The Straight Mind, Forward, Preface, ch. 1, 2, 3,
6, 8.3
4. Women of Color Third World Feminisms
Read: Chandra Mohanty. Feminism Without Borders, ch. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9.
5. U.S. Black Feminism
Read: bell hooks. Talking Back, ch. 1, 2, 4, 6, 10, 12, 13, 17, 18, 21, 23,
24, 25.
6.Chicana/Mexicana Feminism
Read: Gloria Anzaldua. Making Face/Making Soul, Introd. and articles
beginning on pp. 20, 25, 29, 55, 139, 142, 174, 182, 194, 203, 245,
256, 197, 304, 321, 326, 335, 370, 371, 377, 390.
II. Eastern European Post-Communist Feminisms
Read: Slovenka Drakulic. How We Survived Communism and Even
Laughed.
III. Arab Feminism(s)
Read: Margot Badran and Miriam Cooke, eds. Opening the Gates,
Introd. and articles beginning on pp. 3, 26, 54, 63, 72, 104, 137, 160, 168,
186, 220, 227, 257, 296, 317, 337, 343, 352, 366, 372, 394.
IV. Rethinking Islamic Feminisms and their practices
Read: Saba Mahmood. The Politics of Piety
V. Interrogating `western’ and `third world feminisms
Read: Uma Narayan, Dislocating Cultures , ch. 1, 2, 3.
VI. Polyversal Feminisms and the problem of Imperial Feminism
Read: Zillah Eisenstein, Against Empire, ch. 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8
Partial Suggested Reading List
1. Historical Readings
Eleanor Flexner. Century of Struggle.
Aileen Kraditor. The Ideas of the Women’s Suffrage Movement, 1890-1920
(Doubleday Anchor)
William O’Neill. Everyone Was Brave (Quandrangle).
Mary Beard. Woman as Force in History (Collier Books).
Judith Hole & Ellen Levine. Rebirth of Feminism (Quandrangle).
Alan Grimes. The Puritan Ethic and Woman’s Suffrage (Oxford).
Mary Ryan. Womanhood in America (Viewpoints)
Midge MacKenzie. Shoulder to Shoulder (Knopf).4
Nancy Cott. The Bonds of Womanhood.
Linda Gordon. Woman’s Body, Woman’s Right.
Ann Douglas. The Feminization of American Culture.
Edward Shorter. The Making of the Modern Family.
Carol George, ed. Remember the Ladies (Syracuse, 1975).
Gail Parker. The Oven Birds (Doubleday, 1972)
Alice Rossi. The Feminist Papers (Columbia, 1973)
Ehrenreich & English. “Witches, Midwives and Nurses,” Feminist Press pamphlet.
Gordon, Mari Jo Buhle, Nancy Schrom. “Women in American Society,” Radical
America 5 (July-August 1971), pamphlet form.
Sheila Rowbotham. Women, Resistance and Revolution (Pantheon Books, 1972).
Sheila Rowbotham. Hidden from History (Pluto Press, 1973).
Dorothy Anne Liot Backer. Precious Women (Basic Books, 1973).
Martha Vincinius. Suffer and Be Still: Women in the Victorian Age (Indiana, 1973).
David Morgan. Suffragists and Liberals (Basil Blackwell, 1975).
Ross, Evans, Paulson. Women’s Suffrage and Prohibition (Scott, Foresman).
Baxandall, Gordon, Reverby. America’s Working Women (Vintage).
H. Guttman. The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750-1925.
2. The Western Liberal Tradition
Mary Wollstonecraft. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Norton, 1967)
Miriam Kramnick, ed. Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Penguin, 1975)
Margaret George. One Woman’s Situation – A Study of Mary Wollstonecraft
(University of Illinois Press, 1970).
Edna Nixon. Mary Wollstonecraft, Her Life and Times (Dent & Sons, 1971).
Ralph Wardle. Mary Wollstonecraft. A Critical Biography (University of
Nebraska Press, 1951).
Eva Figes. Patriarchal Attitudes (Fawcett, 1970).
Claire Tomalin. The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft (Harcourt Brace, 1974).
Janet Todd. “The Biographies of Mary Wollstonecraft,” in Signs (Spring 1976),
vol. 1, no. 3, part 1, pp. 721-35
J.S. Mill. On the Subjection of Women (Fawcett).
Alice Rossi, ed. Essays on Sex Equality (Chicago Press).
Gertrude Hummelfarb. On Liberty and Liberalism (Knopf).
J. Kamm. John Stuart Mill in Love.
Salper. Female Liberation.
Schneir. Essential Writings of Feminism.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Eighty Years and More (Schochen Books, 1971).
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, et. al. History of Woman’s Suffrage (Fowler and Wells,
1881; seven volumes).
Mary Ann Oakley. Elizabeth Cady Stanton (Feminist Press).
Elinor Rice Hays. Lucy Stone (Tower Publishers).
Ellen Dubois. “On Labor and Free Love: Two Unpublished Speeches of Elizabeth
Cady Stanton,” in Signs, vol. 1, no. 1 (Autumn 1975), pp. 257-269.
Ellen Dubois. Feminism and Suffrage.5
3. Radical and/or Cultural Feminism
Shulamith Firestone. The Dialectic of Sex.
Robin Morgan. Going to Far.
Ingrid Bengis. Combat in the Erogenous Zone (Alfred Knopf).
Kate Millett. Sexual Politics (Doubleday).
Robin Morgan, ed. Sisterhood is Powerful (Vintage, 1970).
Robin Morgan, ed. Monster (Vintage, 1972).
Ellen Frankfurt. Vaginal Politics (Quandrangle, 1972).
Collective. Our Bodies Ourselves (Simon and Schuster, 1971).
Red Stockings. Feminist Revolution (pamphlet, 1975).
Adrienne Rich. Of Woman Born.
Dorothy Dinnerstein. The Mermaid and the Minotaur.
Nancy Chodorow. The Reproduction of Mothering.
Lin Farley. Sexual Shakedown.
Andrea Dworkin. Woman-Hating.
Andrea Dworkin. Right Wing Women.
Susan Griffin. Pornography and Silence.
Susan Griffin. Woman and Nature.
4. Radical Lesbianism
Ti Grace Atkinson. Amazon Odyssey.
Jill Johnston. Lesbian Nation.
Sidney Abbott and Barbara Love. Sappho Was a Right-on Woman, A Liberated
View of Lesbianism (Stein and Day, 1972).
Ingrid Bengis. Combat in the Erogenous Zone, chapter 2.
Rita Mae Brown. Ruby Fruit Jungle (Dauthers, Inc.)
Anne Koedt. “Loving Another Woman,” in Notes from the Third Year: Women’s
Liberation (booklet by Bell & Howell, pp. 25-30).
Anne Koedt. “Lesbianism and Feminism,” in Notes from the Third Year.
Donna Martin. “The Lesbian Love Ethnic,” Amazon Quarterly, vol. 1, Issue 3,
pp. 49-56.
Robin Morgan, “Lesbianism and Feminism: Synonyms or Contradiction,” Second
Wave, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 14-23.
Betty Friedan. “Up From the Kitchen Floor,” New York Times Magazine Section
(March 4, 1973), pp. 8-37.
Betty Wysor. The Lesbian Myth (Random House).
5. Women of Color Feminisms
Angela Davis. Women, Race, and Class.
“Combahee River Collective Statement,” in Capitalist Patriarchy and the Case for
Socialist Feminism.
Barbara Smith. “Notes for Yet Another Paper on Black Feminism,”6
Conditions: Five.
Alice Walker. “Porn at Home,” Ms. Magazine, 1980.
Combahee River Collective. “Why Did They Die,” Radical America, 1979.
Barbara Smith. “Ain’t I a Woman: Spreading Confusion.”
Ellen Willis. “Sisters Under the Skin.”
bell hooks. Ain’t I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism.
Angela Davis. “Reflections on the Black Woman’s Role in the Community of
Slaves.”
Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua, eds. This Bridge Called My Back.
Lorraine Bethel and Barbara Smith, eds. Conditions: Five, The Black Womens’
Issue, 1979.
Ellen Dubois. Feminism and Suffrage.
“Why Did They Die? A Document of Black Feminism,” Radical America, B,
No. 6 (Nov-Dec. 1979).
Sara Evans. Personal Politics, 1979.
Beverly Fisher. “Race and Class: Beyond Personal Politics,” Quest 3, no. 4
(Spring 1977).
Herbert Guttman. The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750-1925 (New
York: Pantheon, 1976).
Diane Lewis. “A Response to Inequality: Black Women, Racism and Sexism,”
Signs 3, No. 2 (Winter 177).
Margaret Simons. “Racism and Feminism: A Schism in the Sisterhood,”
Feminist Studies 5, No. 2 (Summer 1979).
Carol Stack. All Our Kin, Strategies for Survival in a Black Community
(New York: Harper & Row, 1974).
Off Our Backs. “Special Issue on Racism and Sexism,” 9, no. 10 (November 1979).
Michele Wallace. Black Macho and the Myth of the Super Woman, 1978.
Alice Walker. “Born at Home,” Ms. 8, no. 8 (February 1980).
Jean Noble. Beautiful Also Are the Souls of My Black Sisters.
Ntozake Shange. For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the
Rainbow is Enuf.
Zora Neale Hurston. Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Toni Morrison. The Bluest Eye and Jula.
Dexter Fisher Rose, ed. The Third Woman
La Frances Rodgers, ed. The Third Woman
Bell, Parker, and Guy-Sheftall, eds. Sturdy Black Bridges.
Alice Walker. In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens.
Barbara Smith, ed. Home Girls.
Hull, Scott, Smith, eds. But Some of us are Brave.
6. Feminisms in Islam and/or Muslim and Islamic Feminisms
Asma Barlas. `Believing’ Women in Islam
Margot Badran. Feminism, Islam and Nation
Deniz Kandiyoti. Women, Islam and the State7
Fatima Mernissi. Women’s Rebellion and Islamic Memory
Leila Ahmed. A Border Passage
Haideh Moghissi. Feminism and Islamic Fundamentalism
Nawal el Saadawi. A Daughter of Isis
Valentine Moghadan. Gender and National Identity
Sunita Mehta. Women for Afghan Women
Miriam Cooke. Women Claim Islam
Khalida Messaoudi. Unbowed
7. Socialist Feminism
Zillah Eisenstein. Capitalist Patriarchy and the Case for Socialist Feminism.
Lydia Sargent, ed. Women and Revolution.
Sheila Rowbotham. Woman’s Consciousness, Man’s World.
Juliet Mitchell. Women’s Estate.
Louise Kapp Howe. Pink Collar Workers.
Nancy Seifer. Nobody Speaks for Me, Self-Portraits of American Working
Class Women.
Kathryn Johnson. “Presentation by Kathryn Johnson to Feminism/Socialism
Conference,” New American Movement Women’s Newsletter (December 1972).
Branka Magas. “Sex Politics: Class Politics,” New Left Review, No. 66
(March-April 1971), pp. 69-96.
NACLA Newsletter. Volume VI, no. 10 (December 1972).
Isabel Largeria and John Dumonlin. Women in Struggle, specifically
“Toward a Science of Women’s Liberation,” pp. 3-20.
Susan Sontag. “The Third World of Women,” Partisan Review, 1973.
Sheila Rowbotham. Women, Resistance and Revolution (Pantheon).
Juliet Mitchell. Psychoanalysis and Feminism (Pantheon).
Hilda Scott. Does Socialism Liberate Women? (Beacon).
Wally Secombe. “Housework Under Capitalism,” in New Life Review 83
(January-February 1973).
Radical America. “Women’s Labor,” vol. 7, nos. 4 & 5: “The Earthly Family,”
Lise Vogel; “Domestic Work and Capitalism,” Ira Gerstein.
Rayna Reiter. Toward an Anthropology of Women (Monthly Review).
Sara Evans. “The Origins of the Women’s Liberation Movement,” Radical America,
vol. 9, no. 2 (March-April 1975).
Nancy Hartsock. “Fundamental Feminist Process and Perspective,” Quest,
vol. 2, no. 2 (Fall 1972).
Jean Westin. Making Do, How Women Survived the 50’s.
Jean Tepperman. Not Servants, Not Machines, Office Workers Speak Out (Beacon).
Roberta Hamilton. The Liberation of Women.
Michele Barrett. Woman’s Oppression.
Barbara Taylor. Eve and the New Jerusalem.
Rosalind Coward. Patriarchal Precedents.
8. Revisionist Feminism8
Jean Elshtain. Public Man, Private Woman.
Jean Elshtain. “Antigone’s Daughters.”
Carol Gilligan. In a Different Voice.
Sara Ruddick. “Maternal Thinking.”
Zillah Eisenstein. “Feminism and Sexual Equality.”
Naomi Wolff. Fire with Fire.
Katie Roiphe. The Morning After.
9. Anarcha Feminism
Emma Goldman. Living My Life, vol. I and II (Dover).
Emma Goldman, R. Dannon, eds. Anarchism and Other Essays (Dover, 1969).
Jo Freeman. “The Tyranny of Structurelessness.”
Carol Ehrlich. “Socialism and Anarchist Feminism.”
Alix Shulman, ed. Red Emma Speaks (Vintage).
Bakunin, S. Dolgoff, eds. On Anarchy (Praeger, 1972).
Marshall Shatz, ed. The Essential Works of Anarchism (Bantam, 1971).
10. Economic Feminism
Carl Degler. “Charlotte P. Gilman: The Economics of Victorian Morality,”
Ms. 1 (June 1973), pp. 22-28.
Charlotte P. Gilman. The Home: Its Work and Influence (University of
Illinois Press, 1972).
Charlotte P. Gilman. The Yellow Wallpaper (Feminist Press).
Charlotte P. Gilman. Women and Economics.
Gail Parker, ed. The Oven Birds (Anchor Books, 1972).
Mariarosa Dalla Costa. “Women and the Subversion of the Community,” and
Selma James, “A Woman’s Place,” in The Power of Women and the Supervision
of the Community, a pamphlet of Falling Wall Press, Ltd.
June Schchen. The New Woman in Greenwich Village, 1910-1920 (Quandrangle).
C.P. Gilman. The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: An Autobiography
(Harper & Row).
11. Socialist Tradition and Feminism
Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin. The Woman Question (International Publishers).
Margaret Benston. “The Political Economy of Women’s Liberation.”
Frederick Engels. “The Early Development of the Family,” Free Press pamphlet.
(It is the first two chapters of The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the
State, International Press, 1942).
Roxanne Dunbar. “Female Liberation as the Basis for Social Revolution,”
Free Press pamphlet.
Evelyn Reed. “Feminism and the Female Eunuch,” Internationalist Socialist Review
32 (July-August 1971), pp. 10-36.9
Evelyn Reed. “The Myth of Women’s Inferiority,” Free Press pamphlet.
Evelyn Reed. “Women: Caste, Class, or Oppressed Sex,” International Socialist
Review 31 (September 1970), pp. 14-42.
V.I. Lenin. The Emancipation of Women (International Publishers).
Linda Jenness. Feminism and Socialism (Pathfinder).
12. Feminisms in Islam/Muslim Feminists

Internet Resouces:
MAKE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE LARGE NUMBERS OF FEMINIST ZINES
TODAY at: http://www.grrrlzines.net
Other sites:
Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO)
gopher.igc.apc.org:70/11/orgs/wedo/wedo.un/wcw
The Women’s Economic Network based in Canada
http://web.t10-laba.mum.ca/aldyke/
Women Today in China
http://www.ihep.ac.cn/women/main.html
The Network of East-West Women, a communication network linking more than
800 women’s advocates in more than 30 countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the
former Soviet Union and Western Europe, and North America.
http://www.igc.apc.org/womensnet/beijing/ngo/neww.html
Women’s Online Media Project – Tokyo
http://tsuru.suehiro.nakano.tokyo.jp/WOM/English/index.html
Coordination Region de ONGS de America Latina
http://www.nando.net/prof/beijing/
United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women Home Page
http://www.undp.org/fwcw/dawfwcw.htm
Linkages WWW Page on the Fourth World Conference on Women
http://www.iisd.ca/linkages/women.html
WOMEN’SNET @IGC
http://www.igc.apc.org/womensnet/
Listing of Feminist Organizations Across the Globe, huge, very interesting scope
http://www.feminist.org/other/beijing2.html10
Digital Images of Women’s Artwork, seen as a global women’s exhibition format
http://wwol.inre.asu.edu/toc.html
Feminist Site for Peace and Social Justice for a Shared Jerusalem
http://www.batshalom.org/
Listings of Women’s Groups and Actions in Russia and Other Post-communist
societies
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2533/russfem.html
Cyberfeminism, huge and great set of sites; from these listings one can go just about
anywhere to find cyberwomen stuff
http://206.251.6.116/geekgirl/oolstick/sadie/sadie.html
Online Zine – great and interesting
http://www.geekgirl.com.au/geekgirl/index.html
Teen/Girls Guide to the Internet
http://www.womenspace.com/
Virtual Sisterhood
http://www.igc.apc.org/vsister/vsister.html
Amy Goodloe
http://www.lesbian.org/
Cybergrrl
http://www.cybergrrl.com/
Digital Sojourn
http://www.digitalsojourn.org/
Feminist Majority Foundation
http://www.feminist.org/
Geekgirl
http://www.geekgirl.com.au/geekgirl/
Netchick
http://www.cyborganic.com/people/carla
Octavia Project
http://www.shef.ac.uk/uni/projects/wivc/
Spiderwoman
http://primenet.com/~pax
Virtual Sisterhood
http://www.igc.apc.org/vsister/vsister.html11
Women’sSpace
http://www.softaid.net/cathy/vsister/w-space/vol13.html
World’s Women On-Line Electronic Art Networking Project
http://wwol.inre.asu.edu/
Women’s Web
http://www.womweb.com/
REFERENCES
DeLoach, A. 1996. “Grrrls Exude Attitude,” Computer-Mediated Communication Magazine 3(3) 1 March
1996.
geekgirl issue 1 (see Web sites).
Haraway, D.J. 1989. Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World of Modern Science. New
York: Routledge.
Haraway, D.J. 1991a. Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. London: Free Association
Books.
Haraway, D.J. 1991b. “The Actors Are Cyborg, Nature is Coyote, and the Geography is Elsewhere:
Postscript to ‘Cyborgs at Large’.” in C. Penley and A. Ross (eds) Technoculture. Minneapolis: University
of Minnesota Press, pp. 21-6.
Heath, D. 1995. “Modest Interventions and the Technologies of Feminist Science Studies.” Paper presented
at CRICT workshop, in Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK, 23 June 1995.
Hine, C. 1994. Virtual Ethnography. CRICT Discussion Paper No. 43. May. Brunel University, Uxbridge,
UK.
Martin, E. 1996. “Citadels, Rhizomes, and String Figures,” in S. Aronowitz, B. Martinsons and M. Menser
(eds) Technoscience and Cyberculture. London, Routledge, pp. 97-109.
Miller, L. 1995. “Women and Children First: Gender and the Settling of the Electronic Frontier,” in J.
Brooks and I.A. Boal (eds) Resisting the Virtual Life: The Culture and Politics of Information. San
Francisco: City Lights, pp. 49-57.
Plant, S. 1995. “The Future Looms: Weaving Women and Cybernetics,” Body and Society 1(3-4), 45-64.
Rheingold, H. 1993. The Virtual Community. New York: Addison-Wesley.
Shade, L.R. 1996. “The Gendered Mystique,” Computer-Mediated Communication Magazine 3(3) 1 March
1996.
Spender, D. 1995. Nattering on the Net: Women, Power and Cyberspace. Melbourne: Spinifex.
Stone, A.R. 1991. Will the Real Body Please Stand Up?: Boundary Stories about Virtual Cultures,” in M.
Benedikt (ed.) Cyberspace: First Steps. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 81-118.
Ullman, E. 1995. “Out of Time: Reflections on the Programming Life,” in J. Brook and I. A. Boal (eds)
Resisting the Virtual Life: The Culture and Politics of Information. San Francisco: City Lights, pp. 131-43.12
Wakeford, N.S. 1996. “Sexualized Bodies in Cyberspace,” in W. Chernaik and M. Deegan (eds) Beyond
the Book: Theory, Text and the Politics of Cyberspace. London: University of London.
Wiley, M. 1995. “No Place for Women,” Digital Media 4(8) January.
Woolgar, S. 1991. “Configuring the User: The Case of Usability Trials,” in J. Law (ed.) A Sociology of
Monsters: Essays on Power, Technology and Domination. London: Routledge, pp. 57-99.

Honors Seminar: Sexing The Gender Of War (Spring 2006)

I. THEORETICAL FRAMING OF THE COURSE
This course examines the historical, political, and cultural construction of gender in its
racialized formulations within the context/construct of militarization. We will attempt to
see and understand the integral relations of war as part of politics; that “war is politics in
another form”, and see what new meaning can be found in viewing war and its
relationship to a wider militarization as part of articulating the racial and sex/gender
hierarchy of the nation and globe.
We will focus on the singularity of U. S. capitalism and its militarist phase, or what can
be termed “war capitalism” and the way it reconstructs patriarchal relations through a redivisioning of the relationships between: war and peace, public and private, combatant
and noncombatant, civilian and citizen. Given that these relationships are key to the
practices of patriarchy across the globe; given that women and girls disproportionately
make up the new global proletariat; given that women and girls are a majority of refugees
and migrants; given that there is a great increase of women in the U.S. military; given
that suicide bombers are increasingly girls/women in Israel, Palestine, and Chechnya;
given that rape is continually used as a part of war we will theorize the centrality of
gender (re)formulation for human rights work being done by the United Nations.
Part of our examination of gender will involve an inquiry into the relationship between
sex and gender; between the relationship of being female and becoming a woman—and
being male and becoming a man. We will explore pluralizing sex beyond the usual
notion of male and female; as though there are more than two sexes. And we will
pluralize the notion of gender to more than two—meaning man and woman—as well.
What happens when both sex and gender are more fluid and multiple and how is this
defined in times of war?
I want students to be able to better `name’ the present system of power relations usually
defined as globalization. You will therefore examine the sexed, gendered and racialized
constructions of present day capitalist market `fundamentalism’. I term the extremist
embrace of the privatized market and its neo-liberal justification `market
fundamentalism’. This phrase is meant to bring critical viewing to the way neo-liberal
`fundamentalism/extremism’ is used to justify constrained and regulatory notions of men and women’s lives. You will be asked to think through and find your thoughts in this
arena.
Besides bringing attention to the structural relations of patriarchy within the global
economy we will continue to seek a better way of representing and understanding the
multiple and varied expressions of women’s resistance to their oppression and
exploitation. We therefore will trace the multiple and varied practices and resistances by
women to this moment of globalized war economies. I hope to give voice to the myriad
practices committed to women’s rights, justice, equality, determination, and liberation.
We will query whether feminisms, as a term, although plural, is a terminology that
sufficiently grasps the cacophony of practices and beliefs that embrace women’s
struggles for self-determination in multiple cultural forms.
This then leads to our main intellectual query for this course that is to clarify the
difference between cultural relativism and polyversal humanism. Polyversal humanism is
the term I have developed in my last two books for moving beyond a singular universal
standard for democratic and feminist practices while recognizing the requirements of
human rights while not denying cultural particularities. Culture and rights are not locked
in opposition here.
Some more particular concerns will focus on the tension between diversity (pluralism)
and equality (sameness) that will interface with the discourse of cultural relativism.
Interestingly, affirmative action initially was developed to create equality of access, not
diversity per se. So how does pluralism embrace the universal recognition of human
equality? A connected issue to explore is the way the wars of/on `terror’ underpin the
justification of the new militarism. Yet the war on terror led by the United States is
bringing more terror to the majority of women’s lives in Afghanistan, Iraq, Algeria,
India, etc. I want to theorize this and engage in the international dialogues surrounding
this discussion as a citizen of the United States in order to flesh out the present
restructuring of the U.S. state for war capitalism. This seems particularly interesting with
a president who fully embraces and engages in a new militarism and masculinism, while
he has done no military service and rallies for `wars on terror’.
II. COURSE EXPECTATIONS:
Each student is expected to attend every class session prepared. There will be two
analytic papers based on the course readings required for course credit.
Please buy the books listed below at the I.C. Bookstore.
REQUIRED READING:
1. Anne Fausto Sterling. Sexing the Body
2. Michel Foucault. Society Must be Defended (omit 115-180; and 218-246)3. Cynthia Enloe. Maneuvers
4. Richard Trexler. Sex and Conquest
5. Zillah Eisenstein. HATREDS
6. Arundhati Roy. War Talk
7. Mahmood Mandani. When Victims Become Killers
8. Yoshimi Yoshiaki. Comfort Women
10. Brenda Moore. Serving Our Country; Japanese American Women in the Military in
WWII
11. Sunita Mehta. Women for Afghan Women
12. Zillah Eisenstein. Against Empire

Tutorial: Gender in Cyberspace (Spring 1999)

Required Readings (books at IC Bookstore)
Power/Knowledge, M. Foucault, Colin Gordon, ed. (Pantheon).
America, J. Baudrillard (Norton).
Habermas and the Public Sphere, Craig Calhoun, ed. (MIT Press).
Flame Wars, Mark Dery, ed. (Duke Univ. Press).
Resisting the Virtual Life, James Brook and Iain Boal (City Lights Books, San
Francisco).
Open Sky, Paul Virillio.
Wired Women, L. Chung, Elisabeth Weise, ed. (Seal Press).
Net Chick, Carla Sinclair (Henry Holt & Co.).
Electronic Eros, Claudia Springer (U of Texas P).
Global Obscenities, Zillah Eisenstein.
Purposes of the Course:
1. To theorize cyberspace as a political location defining sex and gender
relations.
2. To examine the meaning of `virtuality’ in light of the relationship
between real/ideal and public/private.
3. To explore the re-construction of gender in and on cyberspace.
4. To query the democratizing potential of the technologies defining and used
in cyberspace.
5. To examine the `new’ publics defined by virtual reality.
6. To rethink the contours of politics and power for “netizens.”
Course Schedule
1. Examine the dimensions of the internet and set up sites to explore in
order to do research on:
a. sex on the net
b. privacy on the net
c. etc.
Read: Net Chick
2. Theorize dispersed power relations.
Read: Power/Knowledge-2-
3. Theorize virtuality.
Read: America
4. Theorize Publicness.
Read: Habermas and the Public Sphere
5. Discuss the new interrelations and publics on the internet.
Read: (a) week one – Open Sky
(b) week two – Electronic Eros
(c) week three – Wired Women
(d) week four – Resisting the Virtual Life
(e) week five – Flame Wars
(f) week six – Global Obscenities
Requirements:
Two papers:
(1) an 8-10 page paper theorizing the relations of
cyperspace
(2) an 8-10 page paper researched on the net
Internet Sites to be Used:
ON GENDER
Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO)
gopher.igc.apc.org:70/11/orgs/wedo/wedo.un/wcw
The Women’s Economic Network based in Canada
http://web.t10-laba.mum.ca/aldyke/
Women Today in China
http://www.ihep.ac.cn/women/main.html
The Network of East-West Women, a communication network linking more than
800 women’s advocates in more than 30 countries of Central and Eastern
Europe, the former Soviet Union and Western Europe, and North America.
http://www.igc.apc.org/womensnet/beijing/ngo/neww.html
Women’s Online Media Project – Tokyo
http://tsuru.suehiro.nakano.tokyo.jp/WOM/English/index.html
Coordination Region de ONGS de America Latina
http://www.nando.net/prof/beijing/
United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women Home Page
http://www.undp.org/fwcw/dawfwcw.htm-3-
Linkages WWW Page on the Fourth World Conference on Women
http://www.iisd.ca/linkages/women.html
WOMEN’SNET @IGC
http://www.igc.apc.org/womensnet/
Listing of Feminist Organizations Across the Globe, huge, very interesting
scope
http://www.feminist.org/other/beijing2.html
Digital Images of Women’s Artwork, seen as a global women’s exhibition
format
http://wwol.inre.asu.edu/toc.html
Feminist Site for Peace and Social Justice for a Shared Jerusalem
http://www.batshalom.org/
Listings of Women’s Groups and Actions in Russia and Other Post-communist
societies
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2533/russfem.html
Cyberfeminism, huge and great set of sites; from these listings one can go
just about anywhere to find cyberwomen stuff
http://206.251.6.116/geekgirl/oolstick/sadie/sadie.html
Online Zine–great and interesting
http://www.geekgirl.com.au/geekgirl/index.html
Teen/Girls Guide to the Internet
http://www.womenspace.com/
Virtual Sisterhood
http://www.igc.apc.org/vsister/vsister.html
ON GLOBAL
http://www.mcspotlight.org
http://corpwatch.org
http://orandon.guggenheim.org
http://www.ithac.edu/key
ON RACE AND THE NET
The Unbearable Whiteness of Being: African American Critical Theory and
Cyberculture.
http://www.kalital.com/Text/Writing/Whitenes.html
Bridging the Digital Divide: The Impact of Race on Computer Access and
Internet
use. Good access for blacks is key; especially through educational
opportunity.
http://www2000.ogsm.vanderbilt.edu/papers/race/science.html-4-
What it Means to be Black in Cyberspace. Good site.
http://www.panix.com~mbowen/cz/identity/blakCMC.html
Cyborg Diaspora: Virtual Imagined Community.
http://ernie.bgsu.edu/~radhik/sanov.html
High Technology and Low-Income Communities: Prospects for the Positive Use
of
Advanced Information Technology.
http://web.mit.edu/sap/www/high-low/
Losing Ground Bit by Bit: Low-Income Communities in the Information Age.
Good.
http://www.benton.org/Library/Low-Income/
New Data on the Digital Divide.
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/net2/
NetNoir.com=20
htto://www.netnoir.com — or Keyword AOL: NetNoir (bookmark)
Bringing Technology to the Barrio.
http://www.latinolink.com/news/news98/0923nbar.htm