Syllabus:
Women's Studies 350

Elizabeth Birmingham (Betsy)
Office: 320 J Minard Hall
Phone: Office—231-6587 Home—293-1065
e•mail: Elizabeth.Birmingham@ndsu.nodak.edu
web site: http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/ndsu/birmingh
Office hours: M,T,W,H,F 9-10; for other times call or e-mail

Course Description:
Women's Studies 350—Perspectives in Women's Studies will provide an introduction to the issues, theories and methods of women's studies scholarship, focusing on women's studies scholarship as a "doing" scholarship about not just examining the world, but being in the world, actively. This course changes somewhat from semester to semester, but this semester we will examine issues of gender in contemporary culture. The course foregrounds visual and narrative culture and ends with their intersection in writing an electronic manifesto. This course offers introductory practice in the politics, theories, and methods of women's studies. The course is organized into four units that offer students the opportunity to undertake a variety of kinds of research and action that constitute scholarly work in women's studies while analyzing the effects and artifacts of visual and narrative culture. In addition, students will be responsible for weekly reading choices, discussion questions, and reading journals. This is a reading and discussion course—be prepared to do both of those things.

• provide opportunities to evaluate and critique the way the stories and images of women in our culture both shape and reflect who we are as women (and men).
• to introduce scholarship and issues that preoccupy researchers in women's studies.
• to introduce interdisciplinary research and methods.
• to explore how gender as a category is always already (de)formed and (mis)shaped by its intersections with other categories such as race, class, sexuality, ability, etc., creating a web of simultaneously enabling and constraining factors.
• to respond creatively and critically to ideas, issues, and attitudes the course introduces.

Texts, Materials, and Expenses:
Required Texts (To order on-line, click here):

Assignments and Grading:
All assignment sheets include explicit criteria for individual projects. Your grade in this course is based on your work in the units you will complete:

Unit 1— Manifesta—Your definition of feminism—20%

Unit 2— Writing Families—Oral History/Family Photo Project—20%

Unit 3— My Barbie, My Body—Electronic Group Project—20%

Unit 4—Rereading Histories— Outrageous Act Group Project—20%

Responsibility for reading activities (with partner)—10%

Daily reading responses—10%

Format for written assignments:
Projects must be professionally presented, with great care taken for both writing and document design. I require that you always print a copy of your paper for your records.

Attendance:
So much of what we do in this class is collaborative that you must be here. Discussion, serious response, revelation and learning cannot occur in situations where uninvolved strangers are dropping in and out of class needing to be updated. People are counting on you to be here, prepared during class, and also to meet regularly with your group for your projects. If you can't be here, drop this class. If you miss more than a week of class unexcused, I will ask you to drop the class. If there are serious illnesses or family emergencies, contact your advisor or the Dean of Students, who will help you by providing excused absences for all your courses.

Due Dates:
The due dates on your assignment sheets are for your protection, to help you balance your major work across the semester and receive feedback from me quickly (within a week) so that you can revise your work. Although you will not be penalized for late work, if you turn in work after the date it is due, I do not guarantee timely feedback; therefore, you may forfeit the opportunity to revise. As with all writing, I hope you will revise your work after input from peers and me. Please turn in projects in class and not into my mailbox, or under my door, or anyplace else where they might be misplaced.

Plagiarism:
The work you turn in must be yours/your group’s, must respect the intellectual property rights of others, and must cite secondary sources. For more details see: http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/policy/335.htm.

Special Needs:
If you have any disabilities or special needs, or need special accommodations in this course, please share your concerns or requests with me as soon as possible.

Unit Calendar: (For a more detailed calendar, follow this link.)