Core Courses

1. GS-600:  Issues and Perspectives in Gender Studies

Course Objectives:

  • To introduce the academic discipline of gender studies.
  • To familiarize students with key concepts related to gender.
  • To show how gender manifests itself across cultures in social, cultural, legal, economic and political arenas.

Course Description:

The course will provide an overview of knowledge produced within the remit of women/gender studies as an academic discipline, in national and international contexts, with particular focus on the history of women’s rights and struggles. The impact of culture, religion, economy, politics and societal values on women's lives will be explored and the emergence of gender oppression historicized. Gender relations will be explored in conjunction with race/ethnicity, class and other social relations to illustrate their inter-connectedness. An enhanced understanding of key issues in gender studies such as performativity, social construction of femininity and masculinity, the practice of gender and intersectionality (an awareness of gender and how it intersects with social, cultural and biological categories such as race, ethnicity, nationality and class) will be a key component of the course. In this context, the course will also highlight alternative perspectives such as Black, Latina/Chicana and Third World feminisms to introduce multiple theoretical perspectives, on these core concepts, and impart an understanding regarding the variety of cultural contexts in which theories of gender are produced, performed and negotiated.

Recommended Readings:

  • Abu-Lughod, Lila. (2013). Do Muslim Women Need Saving? Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
  • Berger, M. T., & Radeloff, C. L. (2011). Transforming Scholarship: Why Women's and Gender Studies Students Are Changing Themselves and the World (1st ed.). New York: Routledge.
  • Berlant, Lauren. (2008). The Female Complaint. 1st edition. Durham: Duke University Press Books.
  • Butler, J. (2004). Undoing Gender. New York: Routledge.
  • Chanter, T. (2006). Gender: Key Concepts in Philosophy. London: Continuum International Publishing Group .
  • Freedman, E. (2007). The Essential Feminist Reader. London: Modern Library .
  • Grewal, I., & Kaplan, C. (2005). An Introduction to Women's Studies: Gender in a Transnational World (2nd ed.). London: McGraw-Hill Education.
  • Lorber, J., & Moore, L. J. (2010). Gendered Bodies: Feminist Perspectives (2nd ed.). London: Oxford University Press.
  • Marchbank, J. (2007). Introduction to Gender. Boston: Longman.
  • Mahmood, Saba. (2005). Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  • McCann, Carole R. and Seung-kyung Kim (eds). (2013) Feminist Theory Reader: Local and Global Perspectives. New York: Routledge.
  • Orr, C. M., Braithwaite, A., & Lichtenst, D. (Eds.). (2011). Rethinking Women and Gender Studies. London: Routledge.
  • S.Channa (Ed.). (2004). Encyclopaedia Of Women Studies (Vol. 5). New Delhi: Cosmo Publications
  • Shaw, Susan M. and Janet Lee (eds). (2014) Women’s Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings. New York: McGraw Hill.
2. GS-601: Classical and Contemporary Feminist Theories

Course Objectives:

To critically analyze different intellectual traditions that have shaped debates within feminist theories.

To help the students know about contemporary debates in feminist theories and scrutinize these traditions from an explicitly interdisciplinary perspective, highlighting the methodological contributions made by feminist scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds.

Course Description:

The course will familiarize students with theories of feminism as well as develop their analytical skills to assess their relevance in the social context of Pakistan. The course will examine major theories of contemporary feminisms such as liberal feminism, radical feminism, Marxist/socialist feminism, standpoint feminism, psychoanalytical feminism, postmodern feminism, global and transnational feminism. The course will have a particular focus on the development of feminist theories in developing countries. The nature of issues raised and the strategies adopted in the first, second and third wave of feminisms will also be interrogated. The intersection between feminist theories, feminist research and women’s movements globally and in Pakistan will be explored. This course will historicize and critically examine the movement from classical' feminist theories to more recent trends, emphases and interests within feminist scholarship, and will attempt to understand, analyze and explain these shifts in feminist theory as well as assess their implications for feminist politics.

Recommended Readings:

  • Cathia, J. (2007). Introducing Feminism. Cambridge: Icon Books Ltd.
  • Chesler, P. (2005). The Death of Feminism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Farrell, W. (2007). Does Feminism Discriminate Against Men?A Debate. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Parati, G., & West, R. J. (2002). Italian Feminist Theory and Practice: Equality and Sexual Difference. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
  • Singh, M. K. (2014). Feminist Theory and Practice. New Delhi: Anmol Publications.
  • Smith, B. G. (Ed.). (2000). Global Feminisms since 1945. London and New York: London and New York: Routledge.
  • Spivak, G. C. (1999 ). A Critique of Postcolonial Reason. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
  • Tong, R. (1989). Feminist Thought: A Comprehensive Introduction. London: Routledge.
  • Welch, S. (2012). A Theory of Freedom: Feminism and the Social Contract. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
3. GS-602: Feminist Epistemology and Research Methodologies

Course Objectives:

  • To introduce philosophical issues in feminist research and feminist epistemology.
  • To provide students with a framework for studying methods of research from a feminist perspective.
  •  To engage with feminist concerns regarding ethics, representation and the politics of feminist inquiry.

Course Description:

The course sets out to analyze the processes of knowledge construction critically examining the methods and methodologies used in traditional disciplines to examine men, women and social life. The course will highlight the male bias in knowledge production through emphasizing the neglect of women’s experiential knowledge as part of knowledge construction. The course will give an overview of feminist methodologies and feminist research ethics and how they challenge dominant theories of knowledge and the major methodologies employed in the social sciences and humanities. It will discuss the key contribution of feminist epistemology exploring how gender theory and feminist politics shape the kinds of research questions asked, the types of materials used, and the relationship of the researcher with subjects.

Students will also be introduced to debates amongst feminists themselves on questions of what constitutes feminist research methodology (to the extent of questioning whether there is a 'feminist' methodology at all). Finally, this course will familiarize students with scholarly works produced from different epistemological and methodological positions to enable them to identify and observe the effects/consequences of these positions (in terms of  knowledge forms, content, process and more) which will help them to understand the centrality of epistemology and methodology to knowledge production.

Recommended Readings:

  • Buikema, R., Griffin, G., & Lykke, N. L. (Eds.). (2011). Theories and Methodologies in Postgraduate Feminist Research: Researching Differently . London: Routledge.
  • College, C. R. (2002). Feminist Methodology Challenges and Choices. Sage.
  • Creswell, J. (2007). Qualitative inquiry and rsearch design: choosing among five approaches. California: Sage.
  • Harding, S. (Ed.). (1988). Feminism and Methodology: Social Science Issues. Indiana, USA: Indiana University Press.
  • Hesse-Biber, N. S. (Ed.). (2012). The Handbook of Feminist Research and Practice. Sage.
  • Hesse-Biber, S. N. (Ed.). (2011). Handbook of Feminist Research: Theory and Praxis (2nd ed.). New York: Sage.
  • Hesse-Biber, S. N. (Ed.). (2013). Feminist Research Practice: A Primer (2nd ed.). Sage.
  • Kvale, S. (2012). Doing Interviews . University of Aarhus: Sage.
  • Livholts, M. (Ed.). (2012). Emerging Writing Methodologies in Feminist Studies. London: Routledge.
  • Melanie Birks, J. M. (2012). Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide. London: Sage.
  • Olsen, W. (2011). Data Collection: Key Debates and Methods in Social Research. New York: Sage.
  • Sharon M. Ravitch, J. M. (2011). Reason & Rigor: How Conceptual Frameworks Guide Research. New York: Sage.
4. GS-603: Debates in Gender and Development

Course Objectives:

To critically examine development paradigms and the emergence of woman as a category in the field of development.

To explore the gendered impact of development policies and processes

Course Description:

The course will provide a theoretical and conceptual grounding to the major perspectives and debates around women/gender and development. The historical shift from Women in Development (WID) to Gender in Development (GAD) will be historically traced. The role of development agencies, national and international and Non-Governmental organizations (NGOs) will also be examined. Various policy approaches to women’s development such as welfare, anti-poverty, equality, efficiency and empowerment will also be introduced. The course will also explore the gendered impact of development policies and processes by examining substantive issues. It will also evaluate how competing perspectives on women and development are connected to particular interests and concerns, and be able to develop a critical awareness of issues facing women of the South.

Recommended Reading:

  • Boserup, E. (1970). Women's role in Economic development. London: George Allen and Unwin.
  • Cornwal, A., Harrison, E., & White, A. (Eds.). (2006). Feminisms in Development: Contradictions, Contestations and Challenges. London: Zed Books.
  • Elson, D. (Ed.). (1995). Male Bias in the Development Process. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
  • Kabeer, N. (1994). Reversed Realities: Gender Hierarchies in Development Thought. London: Verso.
  • Kapadia, K. (Ed.). (2002). The Violence of Development: The Politics of Identity, Gender, and Social Inequalities in India. London: Zed Books.
  • Moser, C. (Ed.). (1993). Gender, Planning and Development: Theory, Practice and Training. London: Routledge.
  • O.N.Moser, C. (1993). Gender planning and development: theory, Practice and training. London: Routledge.
  • Pearson, R., & Sweetman, C. (Eds.). (2011). Gender and the Economic Crisis. Routledge.
  • Rai, S. M., & Waylen, G. (Eds.). (2013). New Frontiers in Feminist Political Economy (ist ed.).  London: Routledge.
  • Saunders, K. (Ed.). (2003). Feminist Post-Development Thought: Rethinking Modernity, Post-Colonialism and Representation. London: Zed Books.
  • Visvanathan, N., Duggan, L., & Wiegersma, N. (Eds.). (2011). The Women, Gender and Development Reader. London: Zed Books.
  • Young, K., wolkowitz, C., & Mcgullagh, R. (1981). Of Marraiage and the Market: women's subordination in International perspective. London: CSE Books.

Optional Courses

1. GS-604: Language, Gender and Power

Course Objectives:

To explore the role language plays in gender construction.

To interrogate the relationship of language, gender hegemony and power in society.

Course Description:

This course will explore how an individual learns gender roles through the power of language and how it is then reflected in culture, economics and politics. It will also explore ways in which gender identities are implicated in language use and the relationship between language and power and dominance. The role of language as symptom (reflecting the gender divisions and inequalities already present within our structures) and its role as cause (as having an active role in perpetuating these gender divisions) will be examined. Within this context the variations in language according to sex, in the sense of language used by and for women and the stereotypical terms used for women and other marginalized groups will also be deconstructed.

It will follow a cross-cultural and cross-ethnic exploration of approaches that range from ground-breaking feminist linguistic anthropology and the study of gender, hegemony, and class, to contemporary debates on gender as performance and transgender identities. It will also investigate the multiple connections among gender identities, socialization, language use in private and public spheres, forms of authority, and class and ethnic identities.

Recommended Reading:

  • Adler, L. L. (1991). Women in Cross-cultural Perspective. New York: Praeger.
  • Blood, S. K. (2005). Body Work: The Social Construction of Women's Body Image. New York: Routledge.
  • Caplan, P. (1987). The Cultural Construction of Sexuality. New York: Tavistock.
  • Connell, R. (2011). Confronting Equality: Gender, Knowledge and the Global Change. Sydney: Polity Press.
  • Connell, R. W. (1997). Gender and Power. Cambridge: Polity Press.
  •   Crawford, M. (1994) Talking Difference. On Gender and Language. London: Sage
  •   Eckert, P., & McConnell-Ginet, S. (2003) Language and Gender. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Giddens, A. (2006). The Social Construction of Gender and Sex. Cambridge: Polity Press.
  • Leonardo, M. d. (Ed.). (1991). Gender at the Crossroads of Knowledge: Feminist Anthropology in the Postmodern Era . Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Lewin, E. (Ed.). (2006). Feminist Anthropology: A Reader. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, ltd.
  • McClaurin, I. (Ed.). (2001). Black Feminist Anthropology: Theory, Politics, Praxis, and Poetics. New York: Rutgers University Press.
  • McConnell-Ginet, S. (2010). Gender, Sexuality, and Meaning: Linguistic Practice and Politics. London: Oxford University Press
  • Rosaldo, M., & Lamphere, L. L. (Eds.). (1974). Woman, Culture, and Societ. Stanford:  Stanford University Press.
  • Seidman, S. (2009). The Social Construction of Sexuality (2nd ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
  • Siddiqui, S. (2015). Language, Gender and Power. London: Oxford University Press.
  • Sparke, P. (1995) As Long as it’s Pink: The Sexual Politics of Taste, California: Pandora
  • Talbot, M. (2010). Language and Gender. Cambridge: Polity Press.
2. GS-605: Feminism, Transnationalism and Post colonialism

 Course Objectives:

  • To examine postcolonial/transnational feminist discourses
  • To critically analyze intersectional dimensions of gender, race nationalism, class and heteronormative views in transnational feminist discourses.
  • To scrutinize how postcolonial feminists expose and question the implicit and invisible whiteness of western feminisms.

Course Description:

This course will discuss a range of postcolonial transnational feminist perspectives within the context of global capitalism, nationalism and migration. The emphasis will be on women of colour and difference, transnational production and consumption, transnational feminist/ women’s movements and transnational trafficking of women and sex trade. In addition, the course will explore key concepts of feminist transnational analysis in relationship to gender, including colonialism and post colonialism; borders and borderlands; and diaspora.  The course purports to examine key concepts in transnational feminist theory by exploring the meaning of ‘transnationalism’  and its relationship with other key terms such as ‘planetarity’ , locationality and plural feminisms. Thus, the course will critically examine key developments in postcolonial theory, the gendered dimensions of the effects of colonialism, feminist postcolonial consciousness and the feminist implications of both the colonizing process as well its forms of resistance.

Recommended Readings:

  • Grewal, I. (n.d.). Transnational America: Feminisms, Diasporas, Neo-Liberalism. 2005: Durham: Duke University Press.
  • Hedge, R. S. (2011). Gender and Transnational Media Cultures. New York: New York University Press.
  • L, E., & M, R. (Eds.). (2010). Womens movements in Asia: feminisms and transnational activism. New York: Routledge.
  • Moghadam, V. M. (2005). Globalizing Women: Transnational Feminist Networks. Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press.
  • Mohanty, C. T. (2003). Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity. Durham: Duke University Press Books.
  • Naples, N. A., & Desai, M. (Eds.). (2002). Women's Activism and Globalization: Linking Local Struggles and Global Politics. New York: Routledge.
  • Roy, A. (2003). War Talk . Cambridge, Massachusetts: South End Press.
  • Said, E. W. (1979). Orientalism.  London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd.
  • Steans, J. (2006). Gender and International Relations: Issues, Debates and Future directions. Cambridge: Polity Press.
  • Thampan, M. (2005). Transnational Migration and the Politics of Identity. New York: New York University Press.
3. GS-606: Gender and Globalization

 Course Objectives: 

  • To find out the effect of globalization on different levels and to examine the different critiques on globalization to develop the critical thinking among the students
  • To study the effect of trade liberalization and free market economy on women in the context of developed world and underdeveloped countries.

 Course Description:

This course will cover the discourse of globalization from a gender perspective enabling a better understanding of globalization processes and their consequences for women. Problematizing globalization it will analyze its impact on gender relations within three tiers: economic, political and social. It will examine the concerns of critics who fear that globalization can and will increase gender inequality; as well as the other side of the debate, arguments by advocates who believe that globalization affects different strata differently and can alleviate women’s condition through mobilization and creation of new standards.  This course will also look into how free trade and economic liberalization impacts the status of women across the world. This course will be Gendering the discourse of globalization will help to develop a better understanding of the globalization process and their consequences on women.

 Recommended Readings:  

  • Afshar, H. a. (Ed.). (1999). Women, Globalization and Fragmentation in the Developing World. New York: St Martin’s Press, London and Basingstoke.
  • Barker, D. K. (2004). Liberating Economics: Feminist Perspectives on Families, Work, and Globalization. Michigan: University of Michigan Press.
  • Chang, H.-C. (2003). Globalization, Economic Development and the Role of the State. London: Zed Books.
  • Erica G. Polakoff, L. L.-M. (Ed.). (2011). Gender & Globalization: Patterns of Women's Resistance. de Sitter Publications.
  • Inderpal Grewal, V. B. (Ed.). (2014). Theorizing NGOs: States, Feminisms, and Neoliberalism (Next Wave: New Directions in Women's Studies. Durham: Duke University Press Books .
  • J. Timmons Roberts, A. B. (Ed.). (2014). The Globalization and Development Reader: Perspectives on Development and Global Change. Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Lourdes Beneria, G. B. (2015). Gender, Development and Globalization: Economics as if All People Mattered.  New York: Routledge.
  • Lucas, L. E. (2007). Unpacking Globalization: Markets, Gender, and Work. Lexington: Lexington Books.
  • Luna, R. (2015). Developing Countries: Gender, Poverty, and Globalization. Cognella Academic Publishing.
  • Mies, M. (1998). Patriarchy and Accumulation On A World Scale: Women in the International Division of Labour. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Parikka, T. (2015). Globalization, Gender, and Media: Formations of the Sexual and Violence in Understanding Globalization. Lexington Books.
  • Parrenas, R. S. (2001). Servants of Globalization: Women, Migration, and Domestic Work. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
  • Ponzanesi, S. (Ed.). (2014). Gender, Globalization, and Violence: Postcolonial Conflict Zones . New York: Routledge.
  • William K. Carroll, Y. A. (2003). Global Shaping and Its Alternatives. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
4. GS-607: Gender Based Violence

 Course Objectives:

  • To provide theoretical landscape to understand gender based violence and present the connections between different perspectives on gender based violence
  • To cover various international and national commitments and their analysis regarding violence against women

Course Description:

The course will introduce theories of gender-based violence on the basis of sex, caste and class. It will define the term violence and discuss direct, cultural and structural forms of violence. The impact of violence on women will be discussed as human right, as a development and as a health issue. The sites of violence: the family, the community and the state and the forms of gender based violence that takes places within these settings will be discussed in detail. The review of support mechanisms available to survivors of violence and the strategies adopted by women’s groups and their effectiveness to address the issue of gender based violence will also be examined. Various national and International commitments will also be reviewed in relation to the issues of violence against women in local as well as global contexts. This course will examine the politics of gender based violence through understanding the main challenges in countering it as a key issue. The overview will include the history of feminist mobilization around violence against women and various feminist approaches towards it, along with available mechanisms for redress developed by the state and non-governmental agencies. In this context, the course will pay particular attention to some specific forms of gender based violence such as sexual harassment, domestic abuse and trafficking and violence in conflict and post conflict situations.

 Recommended Readings:

  •  Aili Mari Tripp, M. M. (Ed.). (2013). Gender, Violence, and Human Security: Critical Feminist Perspectives. New York: New York University Press
  • Chang,I. (2012). The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II. New York: Basic Books
  • Fatima, M. (2011). Gender and Violence in Middle East. India: Routledge.
  • Felson,B,R.(2002). Violence and Gender Reexamined. Washington, DC:  American Psychological Association)
  • Gangoli,G.,Aghtaie,N.( 2014). Understanding Gender Based Violence: National and International Contexts: New York: Routledge.
  • Goonesekere, S. (2004). Violence, Law and Women's rights in South Asia. Sage.(South Asia)
  • Hedgepeth,S & Saidel, R. (2010). Sexual Violence Against Jewish Women During the Holocaust: USA: Brandies.
  • Heineman,E,D. [Ed.].(2013). Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones: From the Ancient World to the Era of Human Rights. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press.
  • Hudson,M,H., Spanvill,B,B.,&  Caprioli,M.,&  Emmett,F,C.( 2012)Sex and World Peace. New York: Columbia University Press
  • Kligman,G.(1998).The Politics of Duplicity: Controlling Reproduction in Ceausescu's Romania.  California: University of California Press
  • Leatherman,J.(2011). Sexual Violence and Armed Conflict. Cambridge: Polity
  • Mooney,J. (2000). Gender, Violence and Social Order. London: Macmillan Press.
  • Merry, S. E. (2006). Human Rights and Gender Violence:Translating International Law into Local Justice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Miller,M,S.(1995). No Visbile Wounds: Identifying Nonphysical Abuse of Women by their Men. New York: Cornell University Press.
  • Marie,G.( 2010). Ideologies of Forgetting: Rape in the Vietnam War
    New York: State University of New York Press
  • Prescott,J.,& Madsen,M,A. (Eds).(2011). Sexual Violence in Africa’s Conflict Zones. Nova Science Pub Inc.
  • Schuler, M. (1992). Freedom from Violence. New York: Routledge.
  • Simister, J.(2012). Gender Based Violence:Causes and Remedies. New York: Nova Science Publishers Inc
  • Terry, G. (Ed.). (2007). Gender-Based Violence. London: Oxfam Publishing.
  • Toole,o,L.,  Schiffman,J.,& Margie Edwards [eds.].(2007). Gender Violence: Interdisciplinary PerspectivesNew York: New York Press
  • Westren,D.(2013). Gender Based Violence and Depression in Women: A Feminist Group Work Response. New York: Springer
  • Yanyi K. Djamba, S. R. (Ed.). (n.d.). Gender-Based Violence: Perspectives from Africa, the Middle East, and India. New York: Springer
5. GS-608: Women, Gender and Public Policy Planning 

Course Objectives:

  • To explore why, how and when gender matters in public policy.
  • To discuss gender based disparities in public policy targeting specific policy issues.

 Course Description:

The course will broadly explore the extent to which gender matters within the public policy context. It will go on to examine the impact of implicit and explicit views about gender on different policy issues. It will also include a study of specific policy issues, some of which are clearly directed at women and others that are not explicitly gendered but that differentially impact women. Women's legal rights; work and pay; women's health and health care; women's educational status; women and family issues; are some of the examples of specific policy arenas that will be investigated in detail. A comprehensive gender review of the process of policy making itself will be conducted to explore its discriminatory aspects in the context of gender as well as its lack of protective policies in Pakistan.

 Recommended Readings:

  • Barlett, K. (2006). Gender and Law. New York: Aspen Law and Business.
  • Conway, M. ( 2005). Women & Public Policy: A Revolution in Progress. U.S.A: Library of Congress Press.
  • Fainstein,S., Servon,L .(Ed).  (2005). Gender and Planning: A Reader. United Kingdom: Library of Congress Press.
  • Freeman, S. (1997). Women and Law. New York: Springer.
  • Graycar, R. (2002). The Hidden Gender of Law. New York: Aspen Law & Business.
  • Hoard,S.(2015). Gender Expertise in Public Policy toward a Theory of Policy Success. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Holcomb,B.,Turshen,M. ( 1993). Women's Lives and Public Policy: The International Experience. London:  Green Wood Press
  • Jahangir, A. (1992). Divine Sanctions. Lahore: Sang e Meel Publications.
  • Josane, M. & Winstn, K. (1993). Gender and Public Policy: Cases and Concepts. New York: West view press
  • Moore, E. P. (2001). Gender, Law, and Resistance in India . Arizona: University of Arizona Press.
  • Parker,B. (2012). In Crane,R. & Weber,R. (Ed). Gender, Cities and Planning: The Oxford Handbook of Urban Planning. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
  • Pulkingham, J.& Griffin, M. (Ed). 2009. Public Policy for Women: The State, Income Security and Labour Market Issues. Scholar publishing Division. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
  • Shaheed, F. (1998). Shaping Women's Lives: Laws;Practices and strategies in Pakistan. Lahore.
  • Sunder, M. (2007). Gender and Feminist Theory in Law and Society. London: Ashgate Publications.
  • Swers, L, M. ( 2013). Women in the Club: Gender and Policy making in the Senate. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
6. GS-609:Women and Politics

Course Objectives:

  • To familiarize students with basic theories and policy issues around politics and gender
  • To understand the role of women in politics of Pakistan
  • To provide an overview and analysis of women political empowerment strategies in Pakistan.

Course Description:

This course focuses on the key topics in politics and gender. Looking at the political implications of gender inequality, it explores various dimensions such as the gendered nature of political structures and processes as well as the dominant paradigms that define the general sphere of political activity. Emphasis will be on the factors that lead to women’s exclusion and gender bias. A comprehensive historical analysis of women’s roles in politics as voters, as representatives, as political party workers in the context of Pakistan will be examined. Students will become familiar with the strategies adopted to empower women politically through adopting gender quotas and how it can or has impacted women, the nature of politics and the public policy.  At a different level, the course explores two key issues: First, how do women act or think differently from men and what are the underlying causes of these differences. Second, how does feminist politics play out in various political forums and  to what extent can the activities of women politicians be categorized as feminist.  The course will expose students to varied theories regarding the subscribed roles of women in politics; gender gaps between men and women in political participation; and underlying  causes of those differences.  Finally, the course will focus on women in political offices in Pakistan and how their performance compares with that of both male counterparts as well as other women political office holders around the world.

Recommended Reading:

  • Aazar Ayaz and Andrea Fleschenberg (eds.), (2009). The Gendered Face of Asian Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Chappell Louise and Lisa Hill (2006), The Politics of Women’s Interests. New York: Routledge.
  • Childs, Sarah. (2010). Women, Gender and Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Dahlerup, Drude (2006), Women, Quotas and Politics. New York: Routledge.
  • Brush, Diane (2003) Gender and Governance.  California: Altamira Press.
  • Dolan, Julie and Deckman, Melissa (2007). Women and Politics: Paths to Power and Political Influence. 
  • Enloe, C. (2000). Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women's Lives. California: University of California Press.
  • Fernandez, Leela. (2014). Routledge Handbook of Gender in South Asia. New York: Routledge.
  • Goetz, G (2007). Gender and Governance in the Tropics. London: Routledge.
  • Mona Lena Krook, S. C. (Ed.). (2010). Women, Gender, and Politics: A Reader. Oxford:  Oxford University Press.
  • Sarah L. Henderson, A. S. (2013). Women and Politics in a Global World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
7. GS-610: Gender,  Nation and Citizenship

 Course Objectives:

  • To study the interplay of the modernity, freedom and citizenship
  • To help students understand  citizenship and modernity in post-medieval period
  • To provide a gender lens to understanding citizenship

Course Description:

Nationalism is an enduring feature of global social organization. Within nation-states, racial, ethnic and/or religious groups use nationalist ideologies for a variety of political purposes. Whether wedded to nation state power, or used to fuel resistance movements against state power, nationalist ideologies remain powerful in shaping contemporary global politics. The course will analyze intersections between nationalism and gender looking at the gendered histories of nations and nationalism. Students in this course will examine the diverse ways in which gender has shaped the related projects of nation-building, imperialism, and national identity by exploring a range of topics like modernity, citizenship, voting rights, sexuality, nationalist movements, feminism and transnationalism.

It will also look into the ways in which ideas of gender structure and influence notions of citizenship. This course will provide an overview of how the rights and privileges of citizens of the nation states are defined under the move from feudalism and agrarianism to capitalism, rationalization industrialization and secularization.

Recommended Readings:

  • Anderson, B. (1983). Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread ofNationalism. New
York:
Verso
  • Clzadita, H, O. (2009). Intimate Citizenship: Gender Sexualities and Politics. New York Routledge.
  • Enloe, C. (1989). Bananas, Beaches, and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics. Berkeley: University
of
California
Press.
  • Felski, R. (1995) The Gender of Modernity. Massachusetts:  Harvard University Press.
  • Fleming, M. (2005). Emancipation and Illusion: Rationality and Gender in Habermas' Theory of Modernity. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvaina State University Press.
  • Hirschmann N. J. (2008). Gender, Class and Freedom in Modern Political Theory. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  • Jervis, J. & Collins, J. (ed) (2008) Uncanny ModernityCultural Theories, Modern Anxieties. UK; Palgrave Macmillan
  • Lister, M. & Pia, E. (2007). Citizenship in Contemporary Europe. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
  • Martha, A.S.(2010). Resisting Citizenship: Feminist Essays on Politics, Community and Democracy.             Routledge: United Kingdom
  • S. Hall & B. Gieben (eds) (1992) Formations of Modernity. Trowbridge: Redwood Books.
  • S. Hall, D. Held & T. McGrew (eds) (1992) Modernity and its Futures. Trowbridge: Redwood  Books.
  • Stotz, P., Svensson, M, Zhongxin, X. & Wang, Q. (2010). Gender Equality, Citizenship and Human Rights. New York: Routledge.
  • Yuval Davis, N. (1997). Gender and Nation. London: Sage Publications
8. GS-611: Gender in Media and Communication

 Course Objectives:

  • To introduce students to a variety of issues related to gender in mass media such as the representation of gender.
  • To examine the role media plays in the construction of gender.
  • To critically look into media advocacy around gender issues.

Course Description:

This course examines various images of gender in media. Borrowing from cultural studies, film and communication studies, it will explore different processes and practices of gender, specifically in terms of media representations of femininity and masculinity. It will also give an insight into the ways in which gender, and its intersections with race, ethnicity and class, is enacted, represented and has an impact on cultural formations and communication. It looks at the role media plays in "constructing" gender, and “popular” views of what appropriate gendering is.

This course will examine the link between media advocacy campaigns on gender issues and how it can play the role in creating awareness about social and gender inequalities which can pave the way for the social justice in the country. In addition, this course will critically look into the issues and debates around media strategies in different gender issues and tools to find solutions for moving toward neutral representation of women.  Finally, this course will also critically engage with popular media in Pakistan (both print and electronic) to explore emergent fictional depictions of femininity and how these have evolved over the years.

Recommended Readings:

  • Lughod, Lila. (2005). Dramas of Nationhood: The Politics of Television in Egypt. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
  •  Brunsdon, C. (eds) (1997) Feminist Television CriticismA Reader. Open University Press
  • Brusndon, C. (ed) (1986) Films for Women, London: British Film Institute
  • Carter, C. & Stiener, L. (eds) (2003) Critical Readings: Media and Gender, Cambridge: Open University Press
  • Devasia, V.V; Devasia, Leelna, (2009): Women Social Justice and Human Rights. APN Publications.
  • Douglas, K. (2000) Media Spectacles, London: Routeledge
  • Gauntlett, D. (2002) Gender and Identity: An Introduction. , London & New York: Routeledge.
  • Gill, R. (2007) Gender and Media, London: Polity Press
  • Gunter, B. (1995) Television and Gender Representation, John Libbey and Co.
  • Hall, S. (1997) Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices, London: Sage Publications
  • Hapgood, Lynne. 2010. Margins of Desire: The Suburbs in Fiction and Culture 1880 1925. 1 edition. Manchester; New York; New York: Manchester University Press.
  • Herman, E. S. & McChesney, R. W. (1997) The Global Media: The New Missionaries of Global Capitalism, London: Cassell
  • Humm, M. (1997) Feminism and Film. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
  • Jansen,C,S., J, Pooley, & L, Taub .(2011). Media and Social Justice. Pervizpour. Palgrave MacMillan.
  • Jones, A. (ed) (2002) The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader, London and New York: Routeledge
  • Larkin, Brian. (2008). Signal and Noise: Media, Infrastructure, and Urban Culture in Nigeria. Durham, Duke University Press.
  • Littau, Karin. (2006). Theories of Reading: Books, Bodies, and Bibliomania. Cambridge, UK ; Malden, MA: Polity.
  • Macdonald, M. (1995) Representing Women: Myths of Femininity in the Popular Media
  • Raboy, M. & Dagenais, B. (1992) Media, Crisis and Democracy: Mass Communication and the Disruption of Social Order, London: Sage Publications.
  • Radway, Janice R. 1984. Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy and Popular Literature. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
  • Sorrells, Kathryn. (2013). Intercultural communication: Globalization and Social Justice. Sage publication.
  • Thornham, S. (1999) Feminist Film Theory: A Reader. New York: New York University Press.
  • Thornham, S. (2007) Women, Feminism and Media. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
  • Thornham, S., Basset, C. & Marris, P. (eds) (2009) Media, Studies: A Reade. New York:  New York University Press.
  • Tomlinson, J. (1991) Cultural Imperialism: A Critical Introduction, London: Pinter
9. GS-612: Women’s Movements in South Asia

Course Objectives:

  • To learn about women’s history in South Asia.
  • To provide an overview of women’s movements in South Asia.
  • To inquire how adequately have these social and political movements addressed the diverse needs of women?

Course Description:

This course will introduce the contextual background of South Asian women by giving a historical overview of sub-continent and socio political contributions of women. It will briefly review global women’s movement and then discuss the history of women’s movements in South Asia. The issues and challenges faced by women’s movement, and the strategies adopted by advocating women’s rights and its successes/failure will be examined. The role of women in the independence movement of sub-continent will also be discussed. An analysis of women’s oppression and its articulation in women’s movement in Pakistan will be given prime importance. The links between women’s movement and academia (like the establishment of gender studies departments) as well as other social movements will also be reviewed.  Lastly, it will also look into the internal politics of such movements by asking how adequately these social movements have addressed the needs of a diverse set of women.

Recommended Readings:

  • Barbara N. Ramusack, S. S. (1999). Women in Asia: Restoring Women to History. Indiana: Indiana University Press.
  • Channa, S. (Ed.). (2004). Encyclopaedia of Women Studies. New Delhi: Cosmo Publications.
  • Khullar, M. (2005). Writing the women's movement: A reader. New Delhi: Zubaan.
  • Kumar, R. (1993). The History of Doing: An Illustrated Account of Movements for Women's Rights and Feminism in India, 1800-1900. New Delhi: Zubaan.
  • Menon, R. (ed) (2011) Making a Difference: Memoirs from the Women's Movement in India, New Delhi: Women Unlimited.
  • Minault, Gail. (1998). Secluded Scholars: Women’s Education and Muslim Social Reforms in Colonial India. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Patel, R. (2010). Gender Equality and Women empowerment in Pakistan. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Ray, R. (1999) Fields of Protest: Women’s Movement in India, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press
  • Ring, Laura A. 2006. Zenana: Everyday Peace in a Karachi Apartment Building. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
  • Roy, M. S. (2011). Gender and Radical Politics in India : Magic Moments of Naxalbari (1967-1975). New York: Routledge.
  • Sangari, Kumkum, and Sudesh Vaid, eds. 1990. Recasting Women: Essays in Indian Colonial History. New Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press
  • Shaheed, K. M. (1987). Women of Pakistan : Two steps forward, one step back? Lahore: Vanguard Books..
  • Singh, V. (eds) (1988) Movements for the Emancipation of Women: Three Essays by Clara Zetkin, New Delhi: Kamgar Prakashan Press.
  • Tetreault, M. A. (Ed.). (1994). Women and Revolution in Africa, Asia, and the New World. South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press.
  • Visram, R. (1993). Women in India and Pakistan: The Struggle for Independence from British Rule. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
10. GS-613: Feminism and International Relations

Course Objectives:

  • To provide an understanding of the state, power in the context of women in an international political milieu.
  • To reintroduce the question of gender in international relations.

Course Description:

In the study of International Relations the emphasis on international relation theories and systems, until recently, largely excluded the experiences and political perspective of women. This course will offer an approach that challenges some of the foundations of the discipline by identifying the sources of gender bias in international relations theory. It will establish how the works of classical and contemporary thinkers promote a masculine conception of man, state and power. Within that context, the course will critically review the realist theory and the concepts of national interest in international relations. The course will help the students to look at International Relations through the lens of gender. In doing so, the purpose is to rediscover the question of gender in International Relations. One of the tasks of feminist theories and gender studies in IR, therefore, is to address this oversight. Further, in addressing International Relations through a gender lens, ways in which femininity and masculinity have been implicitly incorporated into foundational concepts and categories of political and international relations theory such as the state, sovereignty, war, politics, rights, labour, production and order will be revealed. In this way, a gender analysis will also bring to the fore the way in which men and women both play – and have been represented as playing – systematically different roles in international relations and both are affected – and have been represented as being affected – in systematically different ways by world politics.

Recommended Readings:

  • Brooke A. Ackerly, M. S. (Ed.). (2006). Feminist Methodologies for International Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Enloe, C. (2014). Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Gulay, C. (2013). Feminist strategies in International Governance. New York:  Routledge.
  • J. Ann Tickner, L. S. (Ed.). (2011). Feminism and International Relations: Conversations about the Past, Present and Future (Critical Concepts in International Relations). New York: Routledge.
  • John Baylis, S. S. (2014). The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations (6th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Jones, A. (2011). Gender Inclusive: Essays on Violence, Men, and Feminist International Relations. New York: Routledge.
  • Kaufman, J. P. (2013). Introduction to International Relations: Theory and Practice. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
  • Peterson, V. S. (1992). Gendered States: Feminist (Revisions of International Relations Theory). Lynne Rienner Publications.
  • Robinson, F. (1999). Globalizing Care: Ethics, Feminist Theory, And International Relations (Feminist Theory and Politics). Oxford: Westview Press.
  • Shepherd, L. J. (Ed.). (2014). Gender Matters in Global Politics: A Feminist Introduction to International Relations.  New York: Routledge.
  • Sjoberg, L. (2009). Gender and International Security: Feminist Perspectives. New York: Routledge.
  • Steans, J. (2013). Gender and International Relations. Cambridge: Polity Press.
  • Sylvester, C. (1994). Feminist Theory and International Relations in a Postmodern Era (Cambridge Studies in International Relations).  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Sylvester, C. (2012). War as Experience: Contributions from International Relations and Feminist Analysis. New York: Routledge.
  • Tickner, J. A. (2014). A Feminist Voyage through International Relations (Oxford Studies in Gender and International Relations). London:  Oxford University Press.
  • Zalewski, M. (2013). Feminist International Relations. New York: Routledge.
11. GS-614: Understanding Masculinities

Course Objectives:

  • To develop an understanding of masculinities and related concepts
  • To analyze how masculinity is influenced by race, ethnicity, caste, class and nationality.
  • To provide an overview of  hegemonic masculinities in South Asia

 Course Description:

As a basic start in understanding masculinities, this course will look at wide variety of topics like the construction of masculinities and the male gender, contemporary theories of masculinity, male socialization and enculturation, male rites of passage, men and aggression, men and work, men and their bodies, and male sexualities.. One of the key questions will be to examine how a particular gendered order shapes both men’s self-perceptions and the ways in which they view other men, women and social situations.  In other words, the filters that form perceptions of self, others and social dynamics will be closely examined.  In addition, the course will also explore how masculinities are created and recreated in various social contexts. This course will also explore prospects for social change and issues such as ideas of socialization, male aggression and the varying notions of masculinities in diverse cultures. The course will follow the not one version of masculinity but rather multiple masculinities influenced by gender, race, ethnicity, class, nationality, sexuality, disability and subcultures. As such, it will conduct an intersectional exploration into how masculinity is embodied and lived out in various cultures. This course will also situate and problematize masculinities in the context of South Asian cultures.

 Recommended Readings:

  • Adams, R., & Savran, D. (Eds.). (2002). The Masculinity Studies Reader. Singapur: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Beynon, J. (2002). Masculinities and Culture. Buckingham: Open University Press.
  • Bourdieu, P. (1998). Masculine Domination. Cambridge: Polity Press.
  • Brittan, A. (1989). Masculinity and Power. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
  • Brod, H. (Ed.). (1987). The Making of Masculinities: The New Men’s Studies. Boston: Allen and Unwin.
  • Brod, H. M. (Ed.). (1994). Theorizing Masculinities. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
  • Clatterbaugh, K. (1997). Contemporary Perspectives on masculinity: Men, Women and Politics in Modern Society. Westview Press, Boulder.
  • Connell, R. W. (2005). Masculinities. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Edley, N., & Whterall, M. (1995). Men in Perspective. London: Prentice Hall.
  • Edwards, T. (2004). Cultures of Masculinity. New York: Routledge.
  • Faludi, S. (1999). Stiffed: the Betrayal of Modern Man. London: Chatto and Windus.
  • Ghaill, M. M. (2000). Understanding Masculinities. Buckingham and Philadelphia: Open University Press.
  • Kaufman, M. (1987). Beyond Patriarchy: Essays by Men on Pleasure, Power and Change. Toronto & New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Kimmel, M. S., & Messner, M. A. (2012). Men's Lives (9th ed.). New York: Pearson.
  • Kimmel, M. S., Hearn, J. & Connell, R. W. (2005). Handbook of studies on men & Masculinities. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Ltd.
  • Malik, A. A. (2015). Of Migration, Marriage and Men: Rethinking masculinity of transnational husbands from rural Pakistan. In O. Gul, Gender and Sexulaity in Muslim cultures. Ashgate Publications.
  • Murphet, N. L. (2014). Modernism and Masculinity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Murphy, P. F. (2004). Feminism and Masculinities. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Pease, B. (2000). Recreating Men: Postmodern Masculinity Politics. London: Sage.
  • Reddock, R. (Ed.). (2004). Masculinities. Kingston: The UWI Press.
  • Reeser, T. W. (2010). Masculinities in Theory. Singapore: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Seidler, V. J. (1989). Rediscovering Masculinity: Reason, Language and Sexuality. London: Routledge.
  • Whitehead, S. M. (2012). Men and Masculinities: Key Themes and New Directions. Cambridge: Polity Press.
12. GS-615: Debates in Gender and Education

Course Objectives:

  • To understand the role of women's education in the overall development of Pakistan.
  • To understand the relationship of education as a contributory factor to women empowerment both at social and economic levels.
  • To understand the linkage of women's education to women's employability and income generation

Course Description:

This course is designed to provide a broad overview of the themes and debates falling under the rubric of gender and education. It particularly focuses on the ways in which factors such as race and ethnicity, class, gender and nationality play a role in  student and teacher subjectivities and shape the processes and organization of schooling.  Contemporary and historical issues will be explored through the dynamics of marginialization, power, authority, location, and privilege, both within and outside the classroom, as well as the impact of gendered ideologies on the production of knowledge, teaching, learning, identities, and communities.   The second key focus of the course will be on women and education in Pakistan. In this context, the proposed course will comprehensively review the education sector considering perspectives such as challenges, political commitment, opportunities, policy planning processes and gaps in implementation of the planned policies, quantitative and qualitative factors and financing of education. The course will also draw linkages of women education to their empowerment and their rights in all aspects- political, economic, social and humanitarian. As economic empowerment is closely linked to social and political empowerment, the course will also take into account the underlying social and cultural factors that constrain Pakistani women’s ability to participate in, and benefit from, the market or engage in employment.

Recommended Readings

  • Alison Griffith and Dorothy Smith. (2005) Mothering for Schooling.  New York: Routledge Falmer
  • Ann Arnett Ferguson (2001),  Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making of Black 
  • Masculinity. Michigan:  University of Michigan Press.
  • Elbow, P. and P. Belanoff (1999). Sharing and Responding, McGraw-Hill Humanities.
  • Elizabeth Higginbotham. (2001) Too Much to Ask: Black Women in the Era of Integration. University of North Carolina Press.
  • Government of Pakistan 2013, National Plan of Action 2013-16: Achieving Universal Primary Education
  • Government of Pakistan (2009), National Education Policy-2009, Ministry of Education.
  • hooks, bell (1996). Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood. New York: Henry Holt.
  • Hussain, Khadim (2012) Rethinking Education: Critical Discourse and Society. Islamabad: Narrative Books/
  • Jane Kenway and Sue Willis. (1998) Answering Back: Girls, Boys and Feminism in Schools. New York: Routledge.
  • Julie Bettie. (2003) Women Without Class: Girls, Race, and Identity. California: California University Press.
  • Margaret Lowe. (2003) Looking Good: College Women and Body Image. John Hopkins.
  •  Nicholson, L. (1997). The Second Wave. NY: Routledge.
  • Siddiqui, Shahid (2016), Education Policies in Pakistan: Politics, Projections and Practices, London: Oxford University Press.
  • Siddiqui, Shahid (2015), Language, Gender and Power: The Politics of Representation and Hegemony in South Asia. London: Oxford University Press.
  • UNESCO (2016), Global Education Monitoring Report: the People and Planet.
  • UNICEF- Ministry of Education (2008) Education For All, Mid Decade Assessment, Pakistan, Country Report.
  • Wendy Luttrell. (1997) School-smart and Mother-wise: Working-Class Women’s Identity and Schooling. New York: Routledge
13. GS-616: Gender Sensitive Budgeting and Policy Planning

 Course Objectives:

  • To critically analyse government budgets and policy planning and its effect on various gendered groups.
  • To equip the students with analytical tools to evaluate government budgets.

 Course Description:

This course aims at equipping students with tools for analysing and assessing government budgets, in the context of their impacts on women and other marginalized genders. It will also critically assess the current budgeting practices and policy planning. Emphasis will be on teaching students systematic application of the current tools in use, in the developed as well as developing world. Particular focus will be on the seven frameworks currently in use: gender-aware policy appraisal, gender-disaggregated beneficiary assessments, gender-disaggregated public expenditure incidence analysis, gender-disaggregated tax incidence analysis, gender-disaggregated analysis of the impact of the budget on time use, gender-aware medium-term economic policy framework and gender-aware policy statement.  In addition, the debate regarding the relative efficacy of these tools will also be examined.

 Recommended Readings:

  • Budlender, D. (2005). Expectations Versus Realities in Gender Responsive Budget initiatives. UN Research Institute for Social Development.
  • De Bruyn, J., & Seidman-Makgetla, N., 1997,  Engendering the budget process, in Budlender, D., (ed.). The Second Womens Budget, Institute for Democracy in South Africa: Cape Town
  • Debbie Budlender, R. S. (Ed.). (2000). How to do a Gender-Sensitive Budget Analysis: Contemporary Research and Practice. Commonwealth Secretariat.
  • Demery, L., (1997).Gender and Public Social Spending: Disaggregating benefit incidence. mimeo, Poverty and Social Policy Department, Washington:  World Bank.
  • Elson, D. (Ed.). (2006). Budgeting for Women's Rights: Monitoring Government Budgets for Compliance with CEDAW (Concepts And Tools) . Kumarian Press.
  • Hewitt,G.,&Budlender,D.( 2002). Gender Budgets Make More Cents: Country Studies and Good Practices. United kingdom: Commonwealth Secteriat.
  • Hewitt,G.,Budlender,D.( 2003). Engendering Budgets: A Practiocioner's Guide to understadning and implementing Gender Responsive budgets.United kingdom:common Wealth Secteriat.
  • Marianne H. Marchand, A. S. (2010). Gender and Global Restructuring: Sightings, Sites and Resistances. Routledge.
  • Mukhopadhay,T.,Hewitt,G.,Elson,D.,&Budlender,D.( 2002).Gender Budget Make Cents: Understanding Gender Responsive Budget. United Kingdom: Commonwealth secretariat
  • Ng, C. (Ed.). (2016). Gender Responsive and Participatory Budgeting: Imperatives for Equitable Public Expenditure. Springer.
  • Pascall, G. (2012). Gender Equality in the Welfare State? Policy Press.
  • Sharp, R. (2003). Budgeting for equity: gender budget initiatives within a framework of performance-oriented budgeting. UN development fund for women.
  • Singh, A. K. (2010). Gender Budgeting and Women Empowerment in India. Serials Publications.
  • Singh, A, K., Sutaria,D,S. and Singh, S, P. ( 2010). Gender Budgeting and Women Empowerment in India. India: Serial Publications
14. GS-617: Gender and Discourse

 Course Objectives:

  • To critically examine the understanding of gender as discourse.
  • To examine the debate around gender and discourse and the role of language in the construction of reality
  • To help the students to learn the techniques of discourse analysis

Course Description:

This course aims to explore the diverse aspects in the debates regarding discourse and gender. It looks into how language not only reflects the existing construction of gender but also helps preserve the gendered order. It will also critically examine how gender and sexuality is normalized or demonized within various political, medical and legal discourses. It will also look into issues of subjugation of various people, races, and ethnicities through hegemonic gendered discourses. The second part of the course will enable students to employ methods that can help them examine and interpret and deconstruct everyday gendered discourses whether they be spoken, written or performed.  In this context, the course examines theories that position discourse as a shaping factor, i.e how discourse normalizes or marginalizes certain identities, concepts or ideologies. The role of language in shaping reality, the power of discourse in bestowing negative or positive connotations and the interplay of power as a Foudauldian web in these frameworks will be critically examined.

Recommended Readings: 

  • Allan, E. J. (2010). Policy Discourses, Gender, and Education: Constructing Women's Status. New York: Routledge.
  • Allen, D. and Hardin P. K. (2001) Discourse Analysis and the Epidemiology of Meaning.Nursing Philosophy 2 (2):163-176.
  • Barriteau, V. E. (2012). Love and Power: Caribbean Discourses on Gender. University of the West Indies Press.
  • Baxter, J. (2003). Positioning gender in discourse. A feminist methodology. Hampshire New York: Palgrave Macmillan
  • Bucholtz, M., Liang, A. C., & Sutton, L. A. (eds.) (1999) Reinventing identities. The Gendered Self in Discourse. New York: Oxford University Press
  • Burman, E. (1991). What Discourse is Not.Philosophical Psychology 4 (3):325-342
  • Butler, J. (1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.
  • Eckert, P. a.-G. (2003). Language and Gender. New York: Cambridge University Press.
  • Fisher, S. and Todd. A. D. (1988). Gender and Discourse: The Power of Talk. Norwood NJ: Ablex
  • Foucault, M. (1998) The History of Sexuality Volume 1: The Will to Knowledge (Translated by Robert Hurley, Random House 1978) : London: Penguin
  • Lazar, M. M. (ed) (2005). Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis: Gender, Power, and Ideology in Discourse. Palgrave Macmillan
  • Macdonald, M. 2003: Exploring Media Discourse. London: Edward Arnold
  • Said, Edward W. (1979). Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books.
  • Spivak, G. C., Landry, D., & MacLean, G. M. (1996). The Spivak reader: Selected works of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. New York: Routledge.
  • Spivak, G.C. (1988). Can the Subaltern Speak? In Nelson, C.  and L. Grossberg (eds.), Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, pp 271-313. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
  • Sue Wilkinson, C. K. (Ed.). (1996). Feminism and Discourse: Psychological Perspectives. Sage.
  • Sunderland, J. (2004) Gendered Discourses UK: Palgrave Macmillan
  • Tannen, D. (1994). Gender and Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Wilkinson, S. &  Kitzinger, C. (ed) (1995)  Feminism and Discourse: Psychological perspectives. Gender and psychology: Feminist and critical perspectives. USA: Sage Publications
  • Wilkinson, S. & Kitzinger, C. (1995). Feminism and Discourse Psychological Perspectives. Monograph Collection (Matt - Pseudo)
  • Wodak, R. (ed). (1997). Gender and Discourse. London: Sage Publications.
  • Young, S. (1997) Changing the Wor(L)D: Discourse, Politics, and the Feminist Movement. New York: Routledge
15. GS-618: Advance Topics in Sociology of Gender

Course Objectives:

  • To understand gender as a sociological construct.
  • To critically examine the intersections of gender with diverse social locations.

 Course Description:

This course will explore the social construction of sex and gender.  Special attention will be paid to how gender is constructed at the level of society as well as how we engage in the re-creation and construction of gender in our everyday lives. It will also focus on feminist theories and the empirical applications of these theories to show how gender arises out of our everyday interactions and is shaped by larger institutions such as education, work, and the family. Gender will be explored as an institution and a system as well as how it influences individuals. Intersections of gender other social locations such as race, class, sexuality, age and ethnicity will also be discussed.  Thus, key concepts explored in this course include the determining  factors behind gender identities, expectations and assumptions that go along with these identities and the effects of an individual’s “failure” to fulfill the expectations associated with a particular gender.

Recommended Readings:

  • Beutel, A. ,Kramer, L. (2011). The Sociology of Gender: A Brief Introduction. London: Oxford University press
  • Caroline B. Brettell, C. F. (2012). Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Routledge.
  • Chafetz,S,J.( 2006). Handbook of sociology of Gender. London: Springer.
  • Delamont, S. (2003). Feminist sociology. London: Sage.
  • Healey, J. F. (2011). Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class: The Sociology of Group Conflict and Change. Sage Publications.
  • Holmes, M. (2007). What is Gender? Sociological Approaches. London: Sage Publications.
  • Laura Kramer, A. B. (2014). The Sociology of Gender: A Brief Introduction. Oxford University Press.
  • Lisa Wade, M. M. (2014). Gender: Ideas, Interactions, Institutions. W. W. Norton & Company.
  • Mellisa Tyler, W. C. (Ed.). (2005). An introduction to Sociology: Feminist perspective. Routledge.
  • Rege,S.(Ed.). (2004). The Challenge of  Feminist Sociological Thought. London: Sage Publications  
  • Thompson, E. M. (2012). Investigating Gender: A feminist sociological imagination. Polity Press.
  • Wharton, S. A. (2012). The Sociology of Gender: An Introduction to theory and research. Wisely-Blackwell.
16. GS-619: Gender, Religion and Morality

Course Objectives:

  • To explore the interconnections between gender and religion
  • To cover the comparative discourse on religion and its interplay with gender.

Course Description:

This course examine how religion informs gender and how gender informs religious discourse. It will give an overview of the different sociological construction about gender on the basis of religion and how these constructions play an important role in formation of the cultural normative and gender orientation of the masses in the larger context. This course will give a comparative overview of religious discourse with critical lens on women’s issues.

In addition, this course will look at the intersections between identity and issues of morality. It will examine how membership in and belonging to different groups marginalizes people. In this context, it will historically locate how gender ideals and gender expectations were produced, re-invented or endured from the pre-modern to the modern era. Particular emphasis will be placed on analyzing the manner in which ideas about gender and identity converge with the notions of morality.

Recommended Readings:

  • Ahmad, Sadaf. (2009). Transforming Faith: The Story of Al-Huda and Islamic Revivalism among Urban Pakistani Women. Syracuse, N.Y: Syracuse University Press.
  • Aslam, M. (2012). Gender Based Explosions : The Nexus between Muslim Masculinities, Jihadist Islamism and Terrorism. Tokyo: United Nations University Press.
  • Bloch, Ruth H. (2003).Gender and Morality in Anglo-American Culture, 1650-1800.  Berkeley, University of California Press
  • E. Castelli, R. R. (Ed.). (2001). Women, Gender, Religion: A Reader. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Gilligan, Carol (1982). In a Different Voice. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
  • Gray, D. H. (2013). Beyond Feminism and Islamism:Gender and Equality in North Africa. I.B Tauris
  • Jamal, Amina. 2013. Jamaat-E-Islami Women in Pakistan: Vanguard of a New Modernity? First edition. Gender and Globalization. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press.
  • Jeffery, Di Leo. (2001). Morality Matters, Race, Class and Gender in Applied Ethics. McGraw Hill.
  • Kathleen McIntosh, K. B. (2006). Women's Studies in Religion. New York: Routledge.
  • Lovat, T. (Ed.). (2012). Women in Islam: Reflections on Historical and Contemporary Research. Dordrecht: Springer.
  • Madawai, A. R. (2013). Gender,Politics and Religion in South Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Mansoor, S. (2010). Gender Dynamics in Islam: The Muslim Woman's Perception. VDM Verlag Dr. Müller.
  • Melanie Killen, Judith Smetana (eds.). Handbook of Moral Development (2013). Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group.
  • Nietzche, Friedrich. (1887) On the Genealogy of Morals, translated by Michael A. Scarpitti and edited by Robert C. Holub (Penguin Classics) 2013.
  • Shaikh, S. (2012). Sufi narratives of initimacy: Ibn Arabi, Gender and Sexuality. Chapel hill: University of North Carolina Press.
  • Thatcher, A. (Ed.). (2014). The Oxford Handbook of Theology, Sexuality, and Gender (Oxford Handbooks in Religion and Theology). London: Oxford University Press.
  • Wadud, A. (2006). Inside the Gender Jihad:Women, Reform in Islam. London: Oxford University Press.
  • Zang, X. (2014). Islam, Family Life, and Gender Inequality in Urban China. New York: Routledge.
17. GS-620: Women, Work and Economy

 Course Objectives:

  • To develop knowledge and understanding of work and the ways in which the practices of work, both paid and unpaid, are gendered.
  • To examine links between broad societal changes and women's and men's changing economic roles.

Course Description:

The course will map the sites and forms of women’s work throughout history till contemporary times. Theories and conceptualization of ‘work’ and ‘economy’ will be critically reviewed, with a focus on familiarizing students with neoliberal, marxist and feminist perspectives on the subject. The course will also deepen students’ knowledge of capitalist-patriarchy as a system intricately tied to and dependent on particular forms of division of labour and social, political and economic relations which constitute the meaning of ‘work’ and ‘economy’ respectively.

The course will also encourage students to explore the dynamism of capitalist-patriarchy by performing situation analyses of women in the work force (both in the formal and informal economy) to create a better understanding of the segmented labor market as well as changes occurring in the gender composition of the work force in each of these ‘spheres’. Paid and unpaid work and its relation to women’s work (both in private and public spheres) will be explored. Students will also be introduced to recent developments in international and national labor laws reflecting the changing nature of work and economy.

 Recommended Readings:

  • Budlender, D. (2010). Time Use Studies and Unpaid Care work. New York: Routledge.
  • Delaat, J. (2007). Gender in the workplace: a case study approach. New Delhi: Sage.
  • Dickson, A. (2000). Women at Work: Strategies for Survival and Success. Kogan Page Business Books.
  • Gatrell, C. J. (2008). Embodying Women's work. United Kingdom: Open University Press.
  • Gottfried, H. (2013). Gender, work and economy: Unpacking the global economy. Cambridge: Polity Press
  • Harley, S. (Ed.). (2007). Women's Labor in the Global Economy: Speaking in Multiple Voices. New Brunswick, N.J., Rutgers University Press.
  • Kunin, M. (2012). The New Feminist Agenda: Defining the Next Revolution for Women, Work, and Family. Chelsea Green Publishing.
  • Mies, Maria. (1986). Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale: Women in the International Division of Labour. London: Zed Books.
  • Rutherford, S. (2013). Women’s Work, Men’s Cultures: Overcoming Resistance and Changing Organizational Cultures. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Saul D Hoffman, S. L. (2015). Women and the Economy: Family, Work and Pay. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Weeks, Kathy. (2011). The Problem With Work. Durhan: Duke University Press.
18. GS-621: Gender and Environment

Course Objectives:

  • To provide a brief overview of the relationship between society, gender and environment.
  • To examine the environmental conflicts and environmental movements.

Course Description:

The course will discuss the role and relation of women with the environment and eco-systems. The theory of eco-feminism and its impact on the socio-cultural environment will be a key area of focus of the course. Key environment issues: renewable and non-renewable energy resources, water, forestry, global warming etc. will be discussed. Students will be enabled to understand the impact of the broader political economy on the local level realities affecting the environment. Environmental conflicts and environment movements such as the Chipko, Narmada Bachao Andolan, local women’s fight against deforestation in Kaghan and other such cases will be used to aid the understanding of the relationship between development, gender and the environment. The course will cover questions such as sustainability, eco-consciousness, the relationship between women and nature, livelihood versus environment conflicts, environment and women’s agency, knowledge of traditional healing systems, gender and water, women’s role as farmers, environmental stewards and activists.

Recommended Readings:

  • Alison, G. (2009). The Well connected Community: A network approach to community development. Cambridge: Policy Press.
  • Gracy, C. (2011). Community Development. Policy Press.
  • Jim, L. (2010). Human Rights from below: Achieving Rights through Community Development. Berkeley: Cambridge University press.
  • Mann, B. (2006). Women liberation and the sublime: Feminism, postmodernism and Environment. London: Oxford University Press.
  • Margaret, L. (2005). Community Development: A critical Approach. Policy Press.
  • Morese, S. (2003). People and Environment. ULC press.
  • Rhomda, R. (2009). An Introduction to Community Development. New York: Routledge.
  • Rodda, A. (1996). Women and Environment. London: Zed books.
  • Sumi, K. (2004). Livelihood and Gender Equity in Community Resource Management. Sage.
  • Vandna, S. (1990). Staying Alive. London: Zed books.
  • Weil, M. (2013). The Handbook of Community Practices. New York: Sage Publications.
19. GS-622: Debates in Queer Studies

Course Objective:

  • To provide an overview of the history of Queer Theory from a cross-cultural perspective
  • To cover major debates in Queer Theory

Course Description:

This course imparts a comprehensive introduction to the post-modernist, critical thought that constitutes themes and methods of Queer Theory. In this context, it aims to historical supposedly binary categories and to uncover the filters that lead to these categories being perceived as airtight and natural. It particularly focuses on the post-structuralist figuring of identity as a constellation of multiple and unstable positions.  Critical artistic, biological, cultural, economic, geographic, historical, legal, literary, political and psychological approaches to gendered identity are explored. Thus, this course aims to explore the fluidity of assumed gendered identities from a historical and cultural perspective look at the treatment of alternative identities from a deviant/heteronormative/ medicalized angle. At a different level, it purports to evaluate recent scholarship covering Affect Theory to examine the ways in which both realities and their perceptions are socio cultural constructs that are subject to constant change and, therefore, need historical contextualization.

Recommended Readings:

  • Ahmad, Sara (2014) Willful Subjects. Durham:  Duke University Press.
  • Biss, Eula. (2009). Notes from No Man’s Land. Original edition. Saint Paul, Minnesota: Graywolf Press.
  • Bordo, S. (2003). Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Boyland, Jennifer, F. (2013). She is not there: A life in Two Genders. New York: Broadway Paper back..
  • Butler, J. (2011). Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex. New York: Routledge.
  • Doty, Mark. (2010).  The Art of Description: World into Word. Minneapolis, MN: Graywolf Press.
  • Djebar, Assia, and Dorothy S Blair. (1993). Fantasia, an Algerian Cavalcade. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann.
  • Gopinath, Gayatri. (2005). Impossible Desires: Queer diasporas and South Asian Public Cultures. Durham: Duke University Press.
  • Grosz, Elizabeth. (1994). Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism. First edition. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
  • Jacob, Wilson Chacko. (2011). Working out Egypt: Effendi Masculinity and Subject Formation in Colonial Modernity, 1870-1940. Durham: Duke University Press.
  • Jagose, Annamarie. (1996). Queer Theory: An Introduction. New York: New York University Press.
  • Halberstam, Judith. (2011). The Queer Art of Failure. Durham: Duke University Press.
  • Kaur, Raminder and Mazzarella, William. (2009). “Between Sedition and Seduction: Thinking Censorship in South Asia” In Censorship in South Asia: Cultural Regulation from Sedition to Seduction. Indiana: Indiana University Press
  • Mitchell, Gregory (2015), Tourist Attractions . Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
  • Said, Edward W. (2003). Freud and the Non-European. Second edition. London ; New York: Verso.
  • Puar, Jasbir K. (2007). Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times. Durham:  Duke University Press.
  • Reddy, Gayatri. (2005). With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Rougharden J. (2013).  Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People. University of California Press.
  • Stewart, Kathleen. (2007). Ordinary Affects. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
  • Steven Seidman, N. F. (Ed.). (2011).  Introducing the New Sexuality Studies. New York: Routledge.
  • Warner, Michael. (2000). The Trouble  with Normal.  New Ed edition. New York: Harvard University Press.
  • ———. (2002). Publics and Counterpublics. New York : Cambridge, Mass.: Zone Books ; Distributed by MIT Press.
  • Valentine, David. (2007).  Imagining Transgender: An Ethnography of a Category. Durham: Duke University Press
20. GS-623: Women and Working Class Movements

Course Objectives:

  • To familiarize students with the major trends and debates in the theorization of class and gender.
  • To develop an understanding of the gendered nature of working-class movements, gender roles within these movements, and the extent to which feminization of the labor force has led to a feminization of working-class politics.
  • To explore the connections between changes in global capitalism and the political character of working-class movements.

 Course Description:

This course will engage with the major debates within Marxism and Feminism regarding the theorization of class and gender and the nature of their linkages. In doing so, there will be a revisiting of the concept of the ‘working-class’ in the context of late capitalism to see how class formation and relations of production have changed since their earlier forms under industrial capitalism. In particular, the linkages between capitalist expansion and the feminization of the working class will be explored in some detail.

After grounding students in the required theoretical base, the course will move on to an exploration of working-class movements and their world-historical character while also attempting to identify and explain the changes that have occurred in the demographics and political character of working-class movements in different parts of the world particularly over the last century. The course will explore the gendered dimensions of working class movements, the role of men and women in trade unions and how the social construction of gender and class structure impact such movements. This course will critically examine the difference in patterns and dynamics of other social movements and their relationship with working class movements.

 Recommended Readings:

  • Poulantzas, N. (1975). Classes in Contemporary Capitalism. London: Verso Books.
  • Struna, J. ed., (2014). Global Capitalism and Transnational Class Formation (Rethinking Globalizations. New York: Routledge
  • Mojab, S. (2015). Marxism and Feminism. London: Zed Books.
  • Biyanwila, S. (2010). Labor movement in the Global South: Trade unions in Sri Lanka. New York: Routledge.
  • Brooks, A. (2011). Gender, Emotions and Labor Markets: Asian and Western Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Costa, M. D. (1999). Women, Development, and Labor of Reproduction: Struggles and Movements. Africa World Press.
  • Davies, M. L. (2012). Life As We Have Known It: The Voices of Working-Class Women. London: Virago.
  • Sen, Sunil K. (1994). Working Class Movements in India, 1885-1975. New Delhi: Oxford University.  Press.
  • Dorothy Sue Cobble, L. G. (2015). Feminism Unfinished: A Short, Surprising History of American Women's Movements. Liveright.
  • Fernandez, Leela. (1997). Producing Workers: The Politics of Gender, Class, and Culture in the Calcutta Jute Mills. Pennslyvania: University of Pennslyvania Press.
  • Gonzales, Gilbert G. (2004). Labor Versus Empire: Race, Gender, and Migration. New York: Routledge: Psychology Press.
  • Panitch, Leo and Albo, Greg. (2014). Transforming Classes. USA: Monthly Review Press.
  • Valentine M. Moghadam, S. F. (2011). Making Globalization Work for Women: The Role of Social Rights and Trade Union Leadership. Suny Press.
  • Yeandle, S. (2009). Policy for change: Local labor market analysis and gender equality. Policy press.
  • Deslippe, Dennis A. (2000). Rights, Not Roses: Unions And The Rise Of Working-Class Feminism,1945-80. Urbana : University of Illinois Press.
21. GS-624: Gender, Conflict and Disasters

Course Objectives:

  • To help students understand the gender dynamics of disasters.
  • To examine the gendered nature of conflicts and analyze women’s role in conflict resolution.

Course Description:

This course examines the complex relationships between gender, race, ethnicity, nationalism in the public spheres. The entire focus of the course is in assessing the possibilities of engendering notions of peace, conflict, justice, reconstruction, reparations and pre-post conflict and peace gender arrangements and in challenging discourses and practices which erase the role of women in peace and conflict resolution worldwide. It intends to give students a theoretical lens from which to examine gender dynamics and roles in disasters as well as conflict zones. This course will be exploring gender issues in conflict and humanitarian actions such as the gendered impact of crisis and how disaster impacts shifts in gender relations. Additionally, it will explore whether the gender integration perspective serves to further weaken women’s access to control over resources or does it support women’s capacity to cope with crises situations in emergencies.

Recommended Readings:

  • Angela Raven-Roberts, J. P. (Ed.). (2005). Gender, Conflict, and Peacekeeping. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
  • Anna, C. (2003). Setting the Agenda for Global Peace: Conflict and Consensus Building. England, Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing.
  • Behera, N. C. (2006). Gender, Conflict and Migration. New Delhi: Sage Publishers.
  • Bradshaw, S. (2015). Gender, Development and Disasters. Edward Elgar Pub.
  • Caroline O.N. Moser, F. C. (2001). Victims, Perpetrators or Actors: Gender, Armed Conflict and Political Violence. London: Zed Books.
  • Cockburn, C. (1999). The Space Between Us: Negotiating Gender and National Identities in Conflict. London: Zed books.
  • Elaine Enarson, P. G. (Ed.). (2009). Women, Gender and Disaster: Global Issues and Initiatives. SAGE Publications.
  • Enarson, E. P. (2012). Women Confronting Natural Disaster: From Vulnerability to Resilience. Lynne Rienner publications.
  • Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, D. F. (2011). On the Frontlines: Gender, War, and the Post-Conflict Process. Oxford University Press.
  • Havrilesky, H. (2010). Disaster Preparedness: A Memoir. Riverhead Books.
  • Healey, J. F. (2011). Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class: The Sociology of Group Conflict and Change. SAGE Publications.
  • Heinemann, E. D. (2011). Sexual violence in conflict zones: from the ancient world to the era of human rights. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
  • Ian Bannon, T. B. (2004). Gender, Conflict, and Development. World Bank Publications.
  • Momsen, J. (2013). Gender and Development. Routledge.
  • Moser, C. O. (Ed.). (2001). Victims, Perpetrators or Actors? Gender, Armed Conflict and Political Violence. London and New York: Zed Books.
  • Pacholok, S. (2013). Into the Fire: Disaster and the Remaking of Gender. University of Toronto Press.
  • Sjoberg, L. (2014). Gender, War, and Conflict. Cambridge: Polity press.
  • Susie Jacobs, R. J. (2000). States of Conflict: Gender, Violence and Resistance. Zed Books.
  • Swain, M. (2006). Gender Perspective in Disaster Management. Serials Publications.
  • Wenona Giles, J. H. (Ed.). (2004). Sites of Violence: Gender and Conflict Zones. University of California Press.
  • Zarkov, D. (2008). Gender, Violent Conflict, and Development. India:Zubaan Books.
22. GS-625: Global Politics of Human Rights

Course Objectives:

  • To critically review the international discourse on human rights.
  • To familiarize students with international conventions and global, regional, and national systems of human rights.
  • To introduce feminist and multicultural approaches challenging the universality of human rights.
  • To create an understanding of the politics of human rights in the global context.

 Course Description:

The course will develop from the idea of justice. It will critically review the concepts of the universality of human rights in the context of vulnerabilities. The course will familiarize students with key international human rights conventions, covenants and global, regional and national systems. The course will highlight the problems in human rights theory and practice within the neo-liberal economics and political economy of the conflicts and how they impact human rights. The evolution of women’s rights as human rights in the international discourse of human rights and the issues in the enforcement of existing international approaches to advancing women’s rights will be discussed.

Recommended Readings:

  • Agosín, M. (Ed.). (2001). Women, Gender, and Human Rights: A Global Perspective. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
  • Anne Hellum, H. S. (Ed.). (2015). Women's Human Rights: CEDAW in International, Regional and National Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Brysk, A. (2004). Human Rights and Private Wrongs: Constructing Global Civil Society. New York: Routledge.
  • Cook, R. J. (1994). Human Rights of Women: National and International Perspectives. University of Pennsylvania Press.
  • DeLaet, D. L. (2005). The Global Struggle for Human Rights: Universal Principles in World Politics . Wadsworth Publishing.
  • DeLaet, D. L. (2014). The Global Struggle for Human Rights: Universal Principles in World Politics. United States: Wadsworth Publishing.
  • Goodhart, M. (2013). Human Rights: Politics and Practice. Oxford University Press.
  • J. S. Peters, A. W. (Ed.). (1994). Women's Rights, Human Rights: International Feminist Perspectives. New York: Routledge.
  • Merry, S. E. (2006). Human Rights and Gender Violence: Translating International Law into Local Justice. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press.
  • Padmini Murthy, C. L. (2009). Women's Global Health And Human Rights. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
  • Sen, Amartya (2011) The Idea of Justice: Massachusetts:  Harvard University Press
  • Tim Dunne, N. J. (Ed.). (1999). Human Rights in Global Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
23. GS-626:  Gender, Militarization and Terrorism. 

 Course Objectives:

  • To highlight the impact of militarization, securitization and terrorism/counter-terrorism on societies.
  • To identify the gender nexus in war, militarization and terrorism.
  • To impart a critical understanding of women’s participation in conflicts, war zones and military operations.

Course Description: 

Security and its related concepts have been evolved throughout the ages, yet the security of the state and the nation have commonly been understood in the narrow sense excluding (at times bypassing) the security of individuals. More recently the debate of human security has surfaced at the global level to ensure the comprehensive concept of security. This course will aim to provide a critical understanding of the militarization process, the issue of terrorism and the gendered nature of security. It will also enable students to look beyond the superficial level, and engage more critically with the concepts of militarization, securitization and terrorism through the application of a gendered lens.

The course will also focus specifically on how women are used or involved to support military operations and sustain the military's political legitimacy and militarized masculinity in various manners and forms. Additionally, it will also look into the embedded nature of these concepts within the society and how issues like terrorism often propagate structural oppression, dominance, violence, often directed at women. Exploring the intrinsic relationship between masculinity and violence, it will look at the question of how violence at home can be separated from violence at the war front. Discourses about women’s agency and women as victims will be also critically analyzed. Drawing and focusing on the instances of terrorism globally, regionally and more specifically at the state level of analysis (Pakistan), it will enable students to explore the intersection of gender, militarization and terrorism and how terrorism had impacted the societies over the period of time.

Recommended Readings:

  • Detraz, N. (2012). International Security and Gender. Cambridge: Polity.
  • Enloe, C. (2000). Manoeuvres: The International Politics of Militarizing Women's lives. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Enloe, C. (2007). Globalization and Militarism: Feminists Make the Link. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
  • Graham, S. (2004). Cities, War, and Terrorism: Towards an Urban Geopolitics. Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Karen Alexander, M. H. (Ed.). (2008). War & Terror: Feminist Perspectives. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Laura Sjoberg, C. E. (Ed.). (2011). Women, Gender, and Terrorism. Athens, Gorgia: University of Georgia Press.
  • Laura Sjoberg, S. E. (Ed.). (2010). Gender, War, and Militarism: Feminist Perspectives. California: Praeger.
  • Lori Poloni-Staudinger, C. D. (2013). Terrorism and Violent Conflict: Women's Agency, Leadership, and Responses . Montgomery: Springer.
  • Mann, B. (2014). Sovereign Masculinity: Gender Lessons from the War on Terror. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Margaret L. Satterthwaite, J. H. (Ed.). (2014). Gender, National Security, and Counter-Terrorism: Human rights perspectives.New York: Routledge.
  • R. Chandler, L. F. (Ed.). (2010). Women, War, and Violence: Personal Perspectives and Global Activism. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Reardon, B. A. (1993). Women and Peace. New York: State University of New York Press.
  • Richard Jackson, M. B. (2011). Terrorism: A Critical Introduction. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Rygiel, K. (2007). (En)Gendering the War on Terror: War Stories and Camouflaged Politics. (K. Hunt, Ed.) New York: Routledge.
  • S. Rai, G. W. (Ed.). (2008). Global Governance: Feminist Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Sjoberg, L. (2009). Gender and International Security: Feminist Perspectives. London and New York: Routledge.
  • Sjoberg, L. (2013). Gendering Global Conflict: Toward a Feminist Theory of War. New York: Columbia University Press.
24. GS-627: Gender and Health Rights

Course Objectives:

  • To introduce gender as a theoretical concept and as a category of analysis in public health
  • To get a better understanding of the politics of gender and health of women as well as the politics of healthcare
  • To discuss and debate contemporary issues in women’s health

Course Description:

This course will critically analyze the ways in which gender has contributed to differentially structuring the health issues and concerns of various social groups. It will look at how gender influences the construction of public health in diverse societies and how the construction of gender affects people’s experiences and expectations of health. The course will also provide an overview of health rights of women and other marginalized genders. In this context critical focus will be on understanding the rights over the bodies of various gendered groups.  The course will enable conceptualization of gender and health using case examples pertaining to issues of disease, violence, sexual health, reproductive health, access to health services and population planning policy. Moreover, the cases under discussion will be linked to other social locations such as class, caste, race, ethnicity and region. Gender review of reproductive health policies and the role of national and international agencies in the field of reproductive health will also be examined. Additionally, the course will also look into issues such as the potential for women’s agency and autonomy with respect to improving their health and environments.

Recommended Readings:

  • Annandale, E., & Kuhlmann, E. (2012). Palgrave Handbook of Gender and Health. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Backes, G. M., Lasch, V. & Backes, G. (eds.) (2006). Gender, Health and Ageing: European Perspectives on Life Course, Health Issues and Social Challenges. New York:  Springer VS.
  • Bird, C. E., & Rieker, P. P. (2008). Gender and Health: The Effects of Constrained Choices and Social Policies. Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press.
  • Curtis, S. (2004). Health and inequality: Geographical Perspectives. New York: Sage Publication.
  • Gideon, J. (ed) (2016). Handbook on Gender and Health. Publisher: United Kingdom: Edward Elgar
  • Kempner, J. (2014). Not tonight: Migraine and the Politics of Gender and Health. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
  • Kirkham, M. (2006). Social Pollution and Women's Health. New York: Routledge.
  • Loue, S. (2010). Assessing race, ethnicity and Gender health. New York: Springer.
  • Michael Grodin, D. T. (ed.) (2013). Health and Human Rights in a Changing World. New York:  Routledge.
  • Padmini Murthy, C. L. (2009). Women's Global Health And Human Rights. London: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
  • Rao, M. & Sexton, S. (2010). Markets and Malthus: Population, Gender, and Health in Neo-Liberal Times. India: Sage Publication
  • Reed, L. (2010). Governing the Female body: Gender Health and Networks of Power. New York: State University Press.
  • Taket, A. (2012). Health Equality, Social Justice and Human Rights. London: Routledge.
  • Weng, Z. G. (2010). Reproductive Health and Gender equality. England: Ashgate Publishing.
  • William, C. C., (2007). Social Causes of Health and Diseases. London: Polity Press.
  • Yamin, E. A. & Gloppen, S. (ed.) (2011). Litigating Health Rights: Can Courts Bring More Justice to Health.?  Cambridge, MA: Harvard Law School Human Right Program Series, Harvard University Press 
25. GS-628: Seminar on Special Issues in Gender Studies

Course Objectives: Course Objectives:

  • To allow for flexibility in addressing emerging issues in gender studies
  • To allow for instructors to focus on areas of expertise that might be underrepresented in the program.

 Course Description:

This seminar is designed to allow for the teaching of advanced material in the course instructor’s area of expertise and to allow for flexibility in terms of deeper student engagement with emerging issues in gender studies. Seminar course structure allows for greater student initiative and enhanced collective student involvement through allowing for student initiative in steering the seminar. In other words, the students will have the opportunity to identify and collectively engage with specific issues in gender studies that they find particularly intriguing, unaddressed or problematic. These will be taken into account and addressed by the instructor by delineating advanced readings on issues identified by students and including them in the seminar, along with a focus on their own area of expertise and interest.   Thus, while the thesis will be an opportunity for individual focus, this seminar will enable students to collectively engage with issues of particular interest and to draw on the specific expertise of the instructor.