In Mathew Arthur’s course GSWS 321 “Making Feminisms: Technoscience, Disability, DIY,” students explore concepts and methods from feminist science and technology studies, cyberfeminisms, and disability studies through hands-on critical making practices that include origami, crochet, beading, cooking, board game design, and more. Across disciplines and activist movements, feminist concepts inform and are formed around bodies, things, books, devices, artworks, buildings, and places. Together, we experiment with how feminist theories are made and what they can make.
Making Feminisms: Not Just a Class
By Ravraj Gill, Tzoalli Escobar, and Helen Dinh
In this wild ride of GSWS 321 “Making Feminisms,” we've come to appreciate the power of feminist practice. It's not just about theory—it's about rolling up our sleeves and challenging the status quo, digging deep into how gender, race, and other social and bodily layers shape our scientific and tech landscapes. By stirring up some thought-provoking discussions, we unpacked how politics play into science and tech. We dove into how race and gender are more than checkboxes: they're fundamental to understanding the inequalities baked into our systems. Before taking this class, we didn't know that picking up a crochet hook could be so empowering. For example, our in-class experiments with crochet weren't just about yarn and stitches. They were about reclaiming traditionally feminine crafts as sources of knowledge and strength in a world that often sidelines them. Working in groups, we navigated different standpoints and realized how our backgrounds and home disciplines shape our approaches and group dynamics, highlighting the social web we live in. Ultimately, “Making Feminisms” isn't just a class—it's a mindset that challenges us to question, learn, play, and grow, both personally and in our broader communities.
Play can be a tool. It can be a source of agency for feminists and activists. Rather than refuting the logic of the killjoy, a playful feminism is one that relies on the very tensions that undergird it. It is meant as a reminder to feminists to invite play into their everyday lives while simultaneously considering the value of play as a mode of protest
—Shira Chess, Play Like a Feminist
For our final “Making Feminisms” assignment, students were asked to “make an object, artwork, website, video, podcast, poster, map, comic strip, board game, mood board, fashion accessory, recipe, scale model, zine, or anything else that embodies what you have learned from feminist science and technology studies over the course of the term.” Bachelor of General Studies student Ravraj Gill designed a board game that asked players to make interdisciplinary connections across terms and concepts from feminist technoscience, cyberfeminisms, and disability studies in a playful manner.
The “Making Feminist Instructions” assignment entailed designing instructions for “a loaf of sourdough, a Minecraft building, a TikTok makeup tutorial, a family recipe, a Yoga routine, a budget, a knitted washcloth, etc.” with the goal of exploring how feminist practices and knowledges are documented and transmitted. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry student Tzoalli Escobar created an accessible DIY pottery booklet that explores how the “interchange between maker and material promotes the collaborative, inclusive, process-oriented tenets of feminist art” (Potter, 2).
Reflecting on the process of designing instructions and the implications for feminist knowledge production, Tzoalli writes,
Part of the difficulty in writing the instructions came from a need to explain how the clay will feel under your hands at certain moments versus others. How during trimming you can check whether to keep going or to stop by tapping and listening. How with some practice you get to know the different kinds of clay, in which ways they’re similar or different. This sort of knowledge can’t quite be translated into words, as it’s something that your body learns the more you do. Maya Hey writes about the knowledge that is carried in one’s body: “Embodied knowledge recognizes that knowledge is not absolute, located inside the brain; it is dispersed throughout the peripheral body and across many bodies” (Hey 2019, 258).
The final assignment asked students to work with key concepts from feminist science and technology studies like “implosion” and “figuration.” English and GSWS student Helen Dinh’s project, Nourishing Connections explores “food as a complex and multifaceted phenomenon shaped by . . . lived experiences and cultural backgrounds” to show how feminist knowledges are not just held in bodies—but in communities. Helen writes,
The impetus behind Nourishing Connections stems from a desire to challenge dominant narratives surrounding food and cooking and to amplify marginalized voices within the food system. By centering the culinary knowledge and experiences of individuals within my personal network, this project seeks to disrupt hierarchies of expertise and celebrate the richness and diversity of food cultures
Student Biographies
Ravraj Gill is pursuing a Bachelor of General Studies (with triple minors in Curriculum and Instruction, Counselling and Human Development, and Early Learning) and will be continuing studies to obtain a teaching certificate.
Tzoalli Escobar is pursuing a BSc in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry with a certificate in Genomics.
Helen Dinh is in her last semester as an English major with a minor in GSWS.
References
Chess, Shira. Play like a Feminist. MIT Press, 2020.
Hey, Maya. "Fermentation and the Possibility of Reimagining Relationality." In Feminist Food Studies: Intersectional Perspectives, pp. 249-268. Edited by Barbara Parker, Jennifer Brady, Elaine Power, and Susan Belyea. Canadian Scholars, 2019.
Potter, Melissa. "Material Engagements: Craft and Feminist Futures." Bomb Magazine, 2019.