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Feminist
Philosophy Phil 338 |
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|
Dr.
Carla Fehr 431
Catt Hall Office
Hours: MWF 2-3 |
This class we will
investigate various answers to the following questions: Why are women, in the past
and/or present, oppressed? What are the most effective ways to fight this
oppression? What is it that makes a woman a woman? How do factors such as race, class and sexual
orientation affect a woman’s experiences and the kind of oppression that she
faces? The answers to these questions
can help us to understand our own experiences of our gender and the forces that
have acted in the formation of our culture.
Considering these questions and the different ways that they can be
answered can help us to develop political strategies or can simply provide us
with an intriguing intellectual challenge. We will discuss a variety of topics
ranging from parenting to prostitution, from women’s work to women’s writing.
In this class you will:
Ø
Become familiar with the variety of critical
perspectives found within feminist theory.
Ø
Learn to theorize personal experience.
Ø
Think deeply about what it means to have a particular sex or gender.
Ø Think deeply about the role that social,
political and economic power play in the way that we come to know and organize
our worldviews.
Ø
Develop critical discussion skills.
Ø
Learn to read academic texts critically.
Texts:
Feminist Thought: A More
Comprehensive Introduction, Rosmarie
Tong
Handouts (online reserve or
web CT)
Course requirements (use this table to keep track of your grade in this
class):
|
Assignment |
Percent of final grade |
The grade that your
received |
|
Points towards your final
grade |
|
Midterm 1 |
20 |
|
x 0. 20 = |
|
|
Midterm
2 |
20 |
|
x 0. 20 = |
|
|
Midterm
3 |
20 |
|
x 0. 20 = |
|
|
Comment
Papers |
20 |
|
x 0. 20 = |
|
|
Class Participation |
20 |
|
x 0. 20 = |
|
|
Total |
100 |
|
|
|
Midterms:
There
will be three midterm exams in this class.
They will not be cumulative.
These exams will take place during class time. We will talk about the
structure of these exams during the first week of classes.
Comment Papers:
Once a week you will turn in a maximum 1 page paper. This paper will either be a question or
comment on the readings for that meeting or will be an essay on a topic
assigned in class.
You
will bring two hard copies of your paper to class. One of them will be passed in to the
professor at the BEGINNING of class. The other you will keep for your own
reference and to refer to during class discussion. Late comments will NOT be accepted.
I will grade the comments on a pass/fail basis. You will be allowed to miss 2 comments over
the entire semester to account for such things as computer glitches and family
emergencies. If you hand in and pass all
of the remaining comments you will get 20/20 or 100% of this portion of your
grade. If you do not hand in all of the
remaining comments you will get 0/20 or 0% on this portion of your grade. The
comments that you turn in will not be passed back. Make sure that your name and the DATE OF THE
CLASS in which you handed it in appears on the top of every comment that you
hand in.
This
will be the easiest 20% that you have ever got in a class.
Turn
in your comment papers and turn them in on time.
Class Participation:
This portion of your grade is determined by what you say
and what you write in class.
Participating in philosophical discussions is something
that we all have to learn how to do. I
will help you figure this out. If you
are one of those people with lots of good ideas but who would rather eat glass
than say them out loud in class, come and talk to me and we will figure
something out. This portion of your
grade is not just determined by the sheer volume of what you have to say. You will gain points for quality comments
that may entail real questions that you are struggling with or comments that
deepen our consideration of the topics at hand or thoughtful responses to what
other students have to say. Improvements
in your contributions to class discussion over the semester will also be
reflected in a good class participation grade.
You will lose points for continually dominating conversation or
derailing discussions that are pursuing a particular topic. You will get ample warning from me before
these sorts of things have a negative impact on your grade.
There will occasionally be in class writing assignments
or in class group work projects. You can
only hand these assignments in if you are present in class that day. Completing these assignments will contribute
to your class participation grade.
Contacting the
Professor:
Contact me by EMAIL at cfehr@iastate.edu.
The subject line of your message must be exactly “Phil338”. If the subject line does not contain the phrase in the quotation marks in the previous sentence, I will NOT read your message. I will answer your message within one business day.
Attendance:
This class will be better if
you attend regularly. I will not take
attendance. I am not your mother or a
high school teacher. Missing class will have an impact on your participation
grade, but so will napping or reading the paper. If you miss class you are responsible for
getting notes from other students. I
will not teach the class to you during my office hours. You are also responsible for finding out
about any announcements about things like reading assignments or exams. “I didn’t know that the reading assignment
changed” is never an acceptable excuse.
Students with
disabilities
Please address any special needs or special accommodations
with me at the beginning of the semester. Those seeking accommodations based on
disabilities should obtain a Student Academic Accommodation Request (SAAR) form from the Disability Resources (DR) office
(515-294-6624). DR is located on the main floor of the