[bioundgrd] Fwd: Spring 2009 Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies Courses

Fri Dec 5 08:03:13 EST 2008

>
>From: Andi Sutton <arsutton at MIT.EDU>
>Subject: Spring 2009 Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies Courses
>Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2008 17:34:21 -0500
>
>
>
>Please read below to find out about the Graduate Consortium in 
>Women's Studies seminars offered in Spring 2009. Courses are open to 
>graduate students from GCWS member schools (Boston College, Boston 
>University, Brandeis University, Harvard University, MIT, 
>Northeastern University, Simmons College, Tufts University, and 
>UMass Boston.)   Students from any discipline may apply; Masters and 
>PhD students are eligible to apply as well as advanced 
>undergraduate students doing work in a discipline related to the 
>course topics.
>
>There is an application process for GCWS courses; applications are 
>accepted until the enrollment deadline and are reviewed by the 
>seminar instructors immediately following.  Students will be 
>notified of their final acceptance two to three days after the 
>deadline.
>
>Spring 2009 application deadline: January 9, 2009
>
>If you decide to enroll in a course after the deadline, please call 
>GCWS to arrange entry.
>
>Please visit our web site at http://web.mit.edu/gcws to find out 
>more about our programs and submit an online application.  For more 
>information, contact Andi Sutton, GCWS Coordinator, at 
>arsutton at mit.edu
>
>
>
>SPRING 2008 COURSE DESCRIPTIONS:
>
>
>Gender, Race, and the Complexities of Science and Technology: A 
>Problem-Based Learning Experiment
>
>Thursdays, 5:00 - 8:00 PM  /  1.29.09 - 5.14.09
>Meets at MIT, building and room TBA
>
>Science and technology are relatively insulated from wider public 
>deliberation-art and literary criticism is familiar, but not 
>"science criticism."  Yet there is a large body of social 
>interpretation of science and technology, to which feminist, 
>anti-racist, and other critical analysts and activists have made 
>significant contributions.  
>Building on this work, this course sets out to challenge the 
>barriers of expertise, gender, race, class, and place that restrict 
>wider access to and understanding of the production of scientific 
>knowledge and technologies.  In this spirit, students participate in 
>an innovative, problem-based learning approach that allows them to 
>shape their own directions of inquiry and develop critical faculties 
>as investigators and skills as prospective teachers.  In these 
>inquiries students are guided by individualized bibliographies 
>co-constructed with the instructors and by the projects of the other 
>students.  
>Students from all fields and levels of preparation are encouraged to 
>join and learn about gender, race, and the complexities of science 
>and technology.
>
>FACULTY
>
>Anne Fausto-Sterling is Professor of Biology and Gender Studies in 
>the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology and Biochemistry at 
>Brown University and is a visiting professor at the Women's and 
>Gender Studies Program at MIT in 2009. Author of scientific 
>publications in developmental genetics and developmental ecology, 
>she has achieved recognition for works that challenge entrenched 
>scientific beliefs while engaging with the general public.
>
>Peter Taylor is a Professor at the UMass Boston, where he directs 
>the Programs in Science, Technology and Values and Critical & 
>Creative Thinking.  His teaching spans biomedical and environmental 
>sciences, science and technology studies, critical pedagogy and 
>reflective practice.  He is author of Unruly Complexity: Ecology, 
>Interpretation, Engagement and co-editor of Changing Life: Genomes, 
>Ecologies, Bodies, Commodities.
>
>
>Gender, Armed Conflict, and Peacemaking
>
>Wednesdays, 6:00 - 9:00 PM  /  1.28.09 - 5.13.09
>Meets at MIT, building and room TBA
>
>Peace Keeping operations involving both military and civilian 
>personnel have been deployed in a number of countries such as 
>Bosnia, Kosovo, East Timor and Afghanistan.  These interventions 
>have come about following intense levels of violence, breakdown in 
>law and order, systems of governance and social systems as well as 
>violations of human rights.  This course is designed to review the 
>phenomena of conflict, forced migration and militarization from a 
>gender perspective to highlight the policy and operational 
>implications that arise from this analysis.
>
>The gendered nature of conflict and intervention will be explored 
>from a multi-disciplinary framework involving anthropology, 
>sociology, policy analysis, philosophy and the arts.  Presenters 
>will utilize literature, poetry, film, witness testimonies from the 
>field, ethnographic narratives and other resources to explore the 
>complex ways in which women and men experience,
>manage and respond to violence and situations of protracted crisis.
>
>FACULTY
>
>Carol Cohn is the Director of the Boston Consortium on Gender, 
>Security, and Human Rights.  Her research and writing has focused on 
>gender and international security, ranging from work on discourse of 
>civilian defense intellectuals, gender integration issues in the US 
>military, and, most extensively, weapons of mass destruction.
>
>Gordana Rabrenovic is Associate Professor of Sociology and Education 
>and Associate Director of the Brudnick Center on Violence and 
>Conflict at Northeastern University.  Her substantive specialties 
>include community studies, urban education and inter group conflict 
>and violence.
>
>Lisa Rivera is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University 
>of Massachusetts, Boston. Her areas of specialization are moral and 
>political theory, feminist philosophy and ethics in international 
>affairs.
>
>
>Feminist Inquiry
>
>Thursdays, 5:30 - 8:30 PM / 1.31.08 - 5.8.08
>Meets at MIT, building and room TBA
>
>      This course investigates theories and practices of feminist 
>inquiry across a range of disciplines.  Doing feminist research 
>involves rethinking disciplinary assumptions and methodologies, 
>developing new understandings of what counts as knowledge, seeking 
>alternative ways of understanding the origins of problems/issues, 
>formulating new ways of positing questions and redefining the 
>relationship between subjects and objects of study.
>
>All research grows out of complex connections between 
>epistemologies, methodologies and research methods. We shall explore 
>how these connections are formed in the traditional disciplines and 
>raise questions about why the traditional disciplines are inadequate 
>and/or problematic for feminist inquiry.  What, specifically, are 
>the feminist critiques of these disciplines? The course will 
>consider methodology, i.e., the theory and analysis of how research 
>should proceed.  We shall be especially attentive to epistemological 
>issues-pre-suppositions about the nature of knowledge. We shall 
>examine the theoretical positions our authors take, and evaluate the 
>usefulness of their methodological approaches.
>
>As feminist inquiry has developed over the last thirty-some years, 
>it has become increasingly clear that its practice is inherently 
>interdisciplinary. Our aim is to promote the development of feminist 
>theory and methods by providing a forum for sharing, assessing, 
>discussing and debating strategies used by feminist scholars in an 
>array of fields such as literary and cultural studies, history, 
>philosophy, sociology, psychology, political science, religion, and 
>international studies.  We will also explore in what specific ways 
>feminist inquiry is, or can be, interdisciplinary.  What topics are 
>especially illuminated by an interdisciplinary gendered approach to 
>the world?  We will examine how feminist theorists may create the 
>wider interdisciplinary spaces with which to explore problems that 
>cut across, and expose as arbitrary, traditional disciplinary 
>boundaries.
>
>FACULTY
>
>Renee Bergland is Professor of English and Gender/Cultural Studies 
>at Simmons College. She teaches courses in American literature and 
>culture, gender studies, and literary and cultural theory. Her books 
>include The National Uncanny: Indian Ghosts and American Subjects 
>and Computer of Venus: Maria Mitchell and the Sexing of Science.
>
>Frinde Maher is Professor of Education at Wheaton College, where she 
>directs the Secondary Education Program and is a Visiting Scholar at 
>the Brandeis Women's Studies Research Center.  She has taught 
>Women's Studies courses for many years, including, for the past 
>decade, Feminist Theory.  She has published widely in the fields of 
>feminist pedagogy and women in education, and is co-author, with 
>Mary Kay Tetreault, of two books:  The Feminist Classroom (1994; 
>second edition 2001) and Privilege and Diversity in the Academy 
>(2007).
>
>_________________
>Andrea Sutton
>Program Coordinator
>Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies
>Building 16 Room 287, MIT
>77 Massachusetts Avenue
>Cambridge, MA  02139
>(617) 324-2085
>http://web.mit.edu/gcws
>
>
>__________________
>Andrea Sutton
>Program Coordinator
>Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies
>Building 16 Room 287, MIT
>77 Massachusetts Avenue
>Cambridge, MA  02139
>(617) 324-2085
>http://web.mit.edu/gcws
>
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