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Instructor: Jacqueline Davies

Feminism is a political movement (or many movements) organized in resistance to women’s oppression. It is theorized out of shared experiences of those in these movements, especially those who voices have been privileged. Historically and politically specific conditions shape how the category “woman” is constructed in theory and practice. They also affect how diverse modes of women’s oppression are conceived, for example, in relation to such forces as “classical” patriarchy, bourgeois capitalism, white supremacy and colonialism, as well as cis- and hetero-normativity. Feminist thought has also been developed with and against the work of non-feminist philosophers, liberation theorists and movement leaders. Our study of feminist theory will attend to some of these diverse influences. Looking backwards in the history of European philosophy we’ll consider the erasure of early modern women from the “canon” as well as feminist philosophical engagement with ancient Greek classics. We’ll consider key figures in 20th century feminist thought who imagined women’s experience relatively uninflected by race, class, and colonialism (e.g., Simone de Beauvoir, Mary Daly, Carol Gilligan, and Carole Pateman) and read analyses of oppression, resistance and resurgence shaped by attention to experiences at the intersections of gender, Indigeneity, colonialism, transphobia, and white supremacism (e.g., Patricia Monture-Angus, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, the Combahee River Collective, Sandy Stone, and Jasbir Puar). Philosophical reading skills are emphasized, as is the capacity to think critically about our assumptions and their political and philosophical implications. Students are supported in further developing their capacity for clear oral and written analysis, exposition, and argument.