Course Objectives:
- To familiarize students to with an in depth history of gender studies as an academic discipline in Pakistan, South Asia and in the West.
- To familiarize students with the classical and contemporary debates within gender studies.
- To identify main contours of gender studies, its branches and emerging debates within the discipline.
Course description:
The course will cover basic concepts in gender studies scholarship such as gender, patriarchy, feminism, women’s experience, gender construction, gender role ideology and gender inequality etc. This course will familiarize students with key tenets, contemporary debates and emerging issues in Gender Studies. It will trace the history of the discipline as it emerged in the West, as well as its emergence in Pakistan and the larger region of South Asia. Students will be introduced to the discipline and its distinguishing features, both in content and pedagogy. Through exposure to the former and current debates present in academic texts, interactive and experiential learning, this course will be a foundational course in key concepts and educational philosophy of Gender Studies.
It will explore how gender manifests itself across cultures in social, cultural, legal, economic and political arenas. The course will discuss sociology of knowledge production and theories/debates surrounding the status of women/gender studies as an academic discipline.
Another significant aspect of the course will be to review the status of women’s/gender studies in Pakistan and the issues/challenges at societal and institutional levels face by the discipline. The need for women’s studies and its linkages with other traditional disciplines will also be explored. The integration/autonomy debates of women’s studies in the academic context of Pakistan will be examined in detail.
Course Contents:
- Introduction to foundational concepts in gender studies (gender, feminism, patriarchy)
- Understanding the importance of pedagogies and educational philosophy.
- History of gender studies as an academic discipline in the West
- Locating the emergence of Gender Studies in the context of ‘waves’ of feminism.
- History and development of Gender Studies as an academic discipline in Pakistan.
- Integration versus autonomy debates in Gender Studies
- Challenges for Gender Studies in Pakistan and globally.
Recommended Readings:
- Aftab, Tahera. et.al. (2003). Triangular Linkages between Women's Studies Centers. Technology and Development , 2, 279-304.
- Beauvoir, S. d. (1974). The Second Sex. New York: Vintage Books.
- Bhadra, C. (1995). Women's Studies in Nepal: Context, Concept and Content. Pakistan Journal of Women's Studies , 35-57.
- Bowles, G. and Renate, K. (1983). Theories of Women's Studies. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
- S (ed) (2004), Encyclopaedia of Women’s Studies, Cosmo, New Delhi
- Cranny-Francis, An (2003), Gender Studies, Terms and Debates, Palgrave McMillan, New York.
- Francis-Cranny, A. (2003). Gender Studies: terms and debates. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Grewal, Inderpal, Caren Kaplan (2005), Introduction to Women’s Studies, McGraw-Hill, New York
- Hobson, B.; Lewis, J. & Siims, B. (2002) Contested Concepts in Gender and Social Politics. Edward Elgar Publishing.
- Kaplan, I. G. (2006). An Introduction to Women's Studies: Gender in a Transnational world. Boston: Mc-Graw-Hill Higher Education.
- Kathy Davis, M. E. (2006). Handbook of Gender and Women's Studies. London: Sage.
- Lorber, Judith (2007), Sociology of Gender, Oxford University Press, Oxford
- Marchbank, Jennifer (2007), Introduction to Gender, Longman, Boston
- Menon, N. (2012) Seeing Like A Feminist. Delhi: Penguin Books, India.
- Picher, J. and Whelehan, I. (2017) 50 Key Concepts in Gender Studies. Virginia: SAGE. (First published 2004).
- Richardson, D. and Robinson, V. (eds.) (2015).Introducing Women’s and Gender Studies. Macmillan.
- Richardson, Diane (1993), Introduction to Women’s Studies, Guilford Press, New York
- Robinson, Victoria, and Diane Richardson. 2008. Introducing gender andwomen's studies. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: PalgraveMacmillan.
- Suryakumari, A (1993), Women’s Studies: An Emerging Academic Discipline, Gyan, New Delhi
- Vivar, M.T.H. (2016) Framing Intersectionality: Debates on a multi-faceted debate in Gender Studies. New York: Routledge.
- Zaidi, S. A. (2003) The State of the Social Sciences in Pakistan: Vol. 2. Social Sciences in Pakistan in the 1990s. Islamabad: Council of Social Sciences.