Women's Studies For The Future

by Kennedy, Elizabeth Lapovsky; BEINS, AGATHA

• ISBN13: 9780813536194
• ISBN10: 0813536197
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-09-25
• Publisher: Rutgers Univ Pr

Summary

Established as an academic field in the 1970s, women's studies is a relatively young but rapidly growing area of study. Not only has the number of scholars working in this subject expanded exponentially, but women's studies has become institutionalized, offering graduate degrees and taking on departmental status in many colleges and universities. At the same time, this field-formed in the wake of the feminist movement-is finding itself in a precarious position in what is now often called a "post-feminist" society. This raises challenging issues for faculty, students, and administrators. How must the field adjust its goals and methods to continue to affect change in the future? Bringing together essays by newcomers as well as veterans to the field, this essential volume addresses timely questions including: Without a unitary understanding of the subject, woman, what is the focus of women's studies? How can women's studies fulfill the promise of interdisciplinarity? · What is the continuing place of activism in women's studies? What are the best ways to think about, teach, and act upon the intersections of race, class, gender, disability, nation, and sexuality? Offering innovative models for research and teaching and compelling new directions for action, Women's Studies for the Futureensures the continued relevance and influence of this developing field.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Acknowledgments	xiii
Introduction	1	(30)
Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy
Agatha Beins
Part I What Is the Subject of Women's Studies?
Beyond Dualisms: Some Thoughts about the Future of Women's Studies	31	(9)
Bonnie Zimmerman
The Possibility of Women's Studies	40	(21)
Robyn Wiegman
Whither Black Women's Studies: An Interview, 1997 and 2004	61	(11)
Beverly Guy-Sheftall
Evelynn M. Hammonds
``Under Western Eyes'' Revisited: Feminist Solidarity through Anticapitalist Struggles	72	(25)
Chandra Talpade Mohanty
What Does Queer Studies Offer Women's Studies? The Problem and Promise of Instability	97	(14)
Nan Alamilla Boyd
Part II How Does Women's Studies Negotiate the Politics of Alliance and the Politics of Difference?
Where in the Transnational World Are U.S. Women of Color?	111	(14)
Sandra K. Soto
Different Differences: Theory and the Practice of Women's Studies	125	(18)
Janet R. Jakobsen
Women's Studies and Chicana Studies: Learning from the Past, Looking to the Future	143	(13)
Monica Brown
Miroslava Chavez-Garcia
Feminism, Anti-Semitism, Politics: Does Jewish Women's Studies Have a Future?	156	(14)
Esther Fuchs
Beyond Pocahontas, Princess, and Squaw: Investigating Traditional Feminism	170	(15)
Mary Jo Tippeconnic Fox
Sheilah E. Nicholas
Part III How Can Women's Studies Fulfill the Promise of Interdisciplinarity?
Disciplining Feminist Futures?: ``Undisciplined'' Reflections about the Women's Studies PhD	185	(22)
Vivian M. May
Toward a New Feminist Internationalism	207	(22)
Miranda Joseph
Priti Ramamurthy
Alys Eve Weinbaum
Laboratories of Our Own: New Productions of Gender and Science	229	(16)
Banu Subramaniam
Part IV What Is the Continuing Place of Activism in Women's Studies?
Women's Studies, Neoliberalism, and the Paradox of the ``Political''	245	(17)
David Rubin
The Institutionalization of Women's and Gender Studies in Mexico: Achievements and Challenges	262	(10)
Lorenia Parada-Ampudia
Practicing What We Teach	272	(15)
Julia Balen
Part V How Has Feminist Pedagogy Responded to Changing Social Conditions?
Antifeminism and the Classroom	287	(17)
Lise Gotell
Barbara Crow
Imagining Our Way Together	304	(10)
Inez Martinez
Distance Education: A Manifesto for Women's Studies	314	(13)
Laura Briggs
Kari Boyd McBride
List of Contributors	327
Index