Coll: Transnational Feminism

NOTE: apply through Barnard Political Science department (https://polisci.barnard.edu/course-requirements#colloquia-2)

What do women need in order to thrive? Is it becoming a “girl boss”? Moving to a rich nation? Getting a loan? The opening of a new multinational factory in their town? Stricter laws punishing people who try to harm them? Removing their veil? 

This course examines the way transnational feminists challenge the limitations of so-called “white feminism”; make sense of intersecting oppressions; and propose transformative solutions to many feminist concerns. From a variety of global perspectives, we will explore topics including: electoral politics, sex work, borders, religion, land, abortion, domestic labor, and more. 

Our readings this semester focus on revolutionary feminist thinkers from across the globe who insist that in order to understand women’s lives—and properly diagnose what might remedy the harms they experience—we must root our inquiries at the heart of institutional overlap, or intersectionality.  In other words, how do women’s race, class, gender, sexuality, nationality and more, shape their experiences of the world and their understanding of the transformations necessary to make them not only safe, but also free?