Feminist Philosophy      Phil 338

 

 

Dr. Carla Fehr

cfehr@iastate.edu

431 Catt Hall

Office Hours: Wednesdays 1-4 

 

This class will focus on coming to know and understand the oppression of women.  We will look at this topic from different kinds of feminist theories.  We will pay particular attention to issues related to race and sexuality.

 

In this class you will:

Ø  Become familiar with a 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 gender, race and sexuality.

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.

Ø  Learn to write concise, critical responses to written and verbal arguments.

 

Texts:

Ø  Feminist Thought: A More Comprehensive Introduction, Rosmarie Tong

Ø  The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory, Marilyn Frye

Ø  Handouts (course webpage 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 take home midterms exams in this class.  They will not be cumulative. 

 

Comment Papers:

Every week you will write a one page response to the reading.  This response will be due on WebCT by noon on the Wednesday before class.  You will also bring a hard copy of your paper to class.  Your comment paper is preparation for class discussion.  I expect you to critically comment on the readings.  Your paper should not be a summary of the reading.  It should be a response to the reading.  You could answer questions such as: Was there anything in the reading that you particularly liked or that resonated with your experience? Was there anything in the reading that you found difficult to understand?  Was there anything in the reading that you found problematic?  Was there anything in the reading that related in interesting ways to previous readings or class discussions?  Were there any facts in the reading that you checked up on and what did you find?

I will grade comment papers on pass/fail basis and will not return them to you.  If you fail a comment paper I will tell you and you will have an opportunity to rewrite the paper. 

You need to turn in a hard copy of your comment paper in class in order to get credit for your paper.

You will not turn in a comment paper on days when midterms are due.  You are also allowed to miss two comment papers over the semester.   If you turn in a minimum of 10 comment papers, and pass them after a rewrite opportunity, you will receive 20/ 20 points.  If you do not, you will receive 0/20 points.

Come to class and turn them in!

 

Class Participation:

This class will run using principles of feminist pedagogy.  This means that you will be treated and treat each other as members of a respectful and curious intellectual community.  The class will be a mixture of lecture and discussion.  I expect you to come to every class session with goals that you would like to accomplish during that class.  What is it that you want to find out and how do you want to find it out?  How can your classmates and the professor be resources for your own intellectual development?

I expect you to come to class prepared by having thought about and being able and willing to discuss the reading for that day.  I know that some people are more comfortable speaking out than others.  And I know that some people tend to dominate class discussions in ways that are not profitable for the group.  I am good at helping people find their voice and find ways to respect the contributions of their classmates.  I used to be a painfully shy person, so I have empathy for those of you who are quiet.  But, you must bite the bullet and participate if you want to earn a strong grade in this class.

This class is not an opportunity for therapy.  I can help you find resources that you might need.   Your personal experiences can help us to gain a richer understanding of the course material.  But, it is important that over the semester we all learn to think about our experiences in terms of the theories and arguments that we are discussing that day.  It is also important to recognize that there are many valid perspectives and that smart people can see things differently and can often disagree.

 

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 only meet 15 times over the semester.  If you miss a class, you miss a lot.  Plan on attending regularly.  If you don’t show up it will have a negative impact on your comment paper grade (see above) and on your class participation grade.