This course will tackle the contentious and troubling question of what has become of feminism: we will consider the rise and fall of ‘feminist’ as a culturally pervasive self-ascription, and study the main trajectories of feminist theory, research and pedagogy from its ‘glory days’ to the present. Our undertaking will be to make feminist theory and pedagogy reflexive, by interrogating the purposes and roles that feminist theories and practices have played and now play in the ‘lived actualities’ of our research and practice. Students will be invited to share and to extend their present understandings of what feminism has to offer to their work, and what it demands of it and of them; colleagues for whom feminism has been and continues to be a core element in the purposes and the practices of their research will be invited to talk about that work from the particular standpoint of how feminist theory and criticism impacts on, guides, constrains, enables or inhibits the research and pedagogical work they have done and are now doing. Many of the course readings will be announced as guest speakers suggest them from one class to the next, and readings will be made available online.

Assignments: Assignments will be of two types: ‘scholarly’, and ‘practical’. Both will be driven by students’ own research agendas, and both will articulate course readings and visiting scholar presentations in relation to specific challenges of students’ own work.

Evaluation: Each element (‘scholarly’ and ‘practical’) will be weighted at 50% of the overall course mark.
Evaluation criteria for the first (scholarly work) will be the demonstrated quality, depth and significance to the students own work of their engagement with the literatures that form the overall ‘curriculum’ of the course, including work assigned by guest speakers. Selecting for themselves, and pursuing in depth, a clearly specified question, problem or theme in feminist criticism, each student will be expected to organize and accurately represent a well-researched body of ideas whose meaningfulness within and usefulness to their own work is made evident---this may take the form of, but is not restricted to, a well-written scholarly paper of about 15 pages.
Evaluation criteria for the second (practical work) element will be the demonstrated usefulness of the project (doing or making something) to the advancement of the student’s own practical purposes. Depending upon one’s situation, this could involve a syllabus for a new course, a policy brief, a funding application, a community art program, or an online game for high school students. Please, do take great and creative and innovative liberties in conceiving your version of the ‘practical’ assignment, then make sure you check in with instructor before proceeding with it!