Latin American Studies (LAST) 401.03 S01

INTEGRATIVE SEMINAR IN LATIN AMERICAN STUIDES

WOMEN AND WOMEN'S MOVEMENTS IN LATIN AMERICA

Fall 2008

WEDNESDAYS 6:30 - 9:30 p.m.

Instructor: Marleny Munoz, Ph.D. Candidate

Office/Phone number: SS 209, 220-4841

E-Mail: mmunoz@ucalgary.ca

Office Hours By appointment

Course Description

This seminar takes an interdisciplinary approach to the understanding of women and women's movements in Latin America. It includes the analysis of women and gender politics of state power, language, culture, history, social movements, human rights, and knowledge. The course includes the history and current women's movements in different Latin American countries. The course will explore some questions to reflect on women in Latin America such as: To what extent and under what conditions are women's issues and women's injustice rooted in the institutionalized practices or structures of the prevailing economic and social system? How have women's movements and their social action been agents and strategies for generating the structural changes on gender equity and social justice?

The course is designed as a seminar and it is expected that everyone will actively participate in the teaching-learning process. Classes will comprise a combination of lectures and discussions led by the instructor or guest speakers, and seminars led by the students. Students are expected to lead seminar discussions based on assigned readings, and contribute to discussions during seminars.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, learners will have the necessary knowledge and skills to be able to:

1. Review historical, cultural, social, political and economic conditions of women in Latin American countries.
2. Discuss gender roles and differences in different countries and contexts
3. Research, study and analyze feminist and women's movements around diverse economic, social and political issues in Latin America.
4. Increase knowledge and critical thinking on Latin American women's movements.
5. Refine students' research, analytical, writing and oral presentation skills.

Course Evaluation

Student feedback will be sought through the standard university and Faculty of Communication and Culture course work evaluation forms.

Textbooks and Readings

Dore, E. (Ed.). (1997). Gender politics in Latin America. New York: Monthly Review Press.

Assignments and Evaluation

1. Learning Journal 30%
2. Class participation 10%
3. Seminar presentations & 1000-word critique 20%
4. Group Symposium* 40%

* Each student will be assigned to a group

Learning Journal (30%)

The purpose of the learning journal is to stimulate critical thinking. It is an intellectual exercise in reflectively describing and explaining, in a form that can be shared with the class, your experiences and observations in terms of your overall perspective and feelings about the concepts and issues addressed in the course. Reflecting about learning helps you make meaning from your learning experience.

At the end of each class, students will have five minutes to write a one page journal entry that discuss your key learning for the day, how you will apply the ideas, and a reflection of your learning process. You must include both your reflections on:

1. seminar and topic
2. class discussion and
3. your more personal encounter with readings, discussions, and with various field experiences associated with this course.

You may continue working in your journal during the week if you want to include more reflections on your learning experiences in this course.

4. The journal should conclude with a reflective essay (typed and no more than 700 words) on the learning journal itself.

Due dates:

• October 1, 2008 (10%) (journal only)
• December 3, 2008 (20%) (journal and essay)

 

Format: single spaced, standard type, including your ID.

Seminar 20%

At the beginning of the course students will be assigned to lead each seminar. Students who lead the seminar will have read the relevant materials and complement with other readings in order to present the topic and generate discussions during the seminar. In addition students leading seminar will submit a critique paper of no more than 1000 words. Critiques are to be presented during seminar discussions

Due date: Date of seminar

Format: Standard type, double space and a consistent reference format, title and ID

Group symposium 40%

Students will organize and develop a symposium that will be open to university and Latin American communities. For the purpose of this assignment, students will be organized in groups to research and prepare a group presentation on Latin American women's movements around different areas/fields/issues such as:

• Socio-economic development
• Social justice and human rights
• Poverty
• Trade
• Feminism movements
• Economic globalization
• Peace and war
• Transnational solidarity and local movements
• Arts
• Sciences and technology
• Literature
• Environment
• Human rights groups
• Media
• Ethnicity, race and religion
• Sexual diversity

 

Students will use inquiry-based learning; this is a process through which students are involved in their own learning, formulate questions and research and understanding the meaning of their inquiries to generate new knowledge.

Each group will be responsible to:

1. contribute to the organization of the symposium 10%
2. prepare a presentation and its documentation for the symposium 30%

Due date: November 26, 2008 (Date of the symposium)

Format: A group presentation and a group paper of no more than 10 pages will be submitted.

Note: It is the student's responsibility to keep a copy of each submitted assignment.
Note: Please hand in your essays directly to your tutor or instructor if possible. If it is not possible to do so, a daytime drop box is available in SS110; a date stamp is provided for your use. A night drop box is also available for after-hours submission. Assignments will be removed the following morning, stamped with the previous day's date, and placed in the instructor's mailbox.

Grading System

The following grading system is used in the Faculty of Communication and Culture:

(Revised, effective September 2008)

	Grading Scale
A+	96-100
A	90-95.99
A -	85-89.99
B+	80-84.99
B	75-79.99
B-	70-74.99
C+	65-69.99
C	60-64.99
C-	55-59.99
D+	53-54.99
D	50-52.99
F	0-49

 

Where a grade on a particular assignment is expressed as a letter grade, it will normally be converted to a number using the midpoint of the scale.  That is, A- would be converted to 87.5 for calculation purposes.  F will be converted to zero.

Course Schedule (Tentative and subject to change)

September 10:

§ Introduction & Overview of the course

§ Controversies in gender politics

September 17- Seminar 1: The historical construction of gender in Latin America: History of family and family patterns

Readings:

§ The Holy Family: Imagined household in Latin American History; pp. 101-117

§ The charm family patterns: Historical and contemporary change in Latin America; pp. 118- 133.

September 24 - Seminar 2: The historical construction of gender in Latin America: Reproduction of socio-economic class

Readings:

• Sex/gender arrangements and the reproduction of class in the Latin American past; pp. 134-148
• Reading gender in history; pp. 149-160.

 

October 1 - Seminar 3: Women's Empowerment

Readings:

• Women, work, and empowerment: Legal, political, and social spaces

 

October 8 - Seminar 4: Gendered nature of formal politics - Public and private spheres

Readings:

• Nicaraguan women: Legal, political, and social spaces; pp. 36-51.
• Public and private spheres: The end of dichotomy; pp. 52-64.

October 15 - Seminar 5: Women and human rights

Readings:

§ Engendering human rights; pp. 65-83.

October 22 - Seminar 6: Women's Movements

Readings:

§ "Desde la protesta a la propuesta": the institutionalization of the women's movement in Chile; pp. 84-100.

October 29 - Seminar 7: The politics of culture

Readings:

§ Problems of definition in theorizing Latin American women's writing; pp.161-174.

§ The subversive languages of Carmen Ollé: Irony and imagination; pp. 175-195.

November 5

Seminar 8 - Feminist theory

Readings:

• From the margins to the center: Recent trends in feminist theory in the United States and Latin America; pp. 196-208

Seminar 9 - Gender politics

Readings:

• Gender politics: Luisa Valenzuela's Cola de Lagartija; pp. 209-221.

 

November 12 - Workshop: Popular education and popular theatre

November 19 - Pre-Symposium Group Activities

November 26 - Symposium

December 3 - Workshop 2: Gender Analysis and Closing

Plagiarism

Using any source whatsoever without clearly documenting it is a serious academic offense. Consequences include failure on the assignment, failure in the course and possibly suspension or expulsion from the university.

You must document not only direct quotations but also paraphrases and ideas where they appear in your text. A reference list at the end is insufficient by itself. Readers must be able to tell exactly where your words and ideas end and other people's words and ideas begin. This includes assignments submitted in non-traditional formats such as Web pages or visual media, and material taken from such sources.

Please consult your instructor or the Writing Centre (SS 106, efwr.ucalgary.ca) if you have any questions regarding how to document sources.

Students with Disabilities

If you are a student with a disability who may require academic accommodation, it is your responsibility to register with the Disability Resource Centre (220-8237) and discuss your needs with your instructor no later than fourteen (14) days after the start of the course.

Students' Union

For details about the current Students' Union contacts for the Faculty of Communication and Culture see www.comcul.ucalgary.ca/su

"SAFEWALK" Program -- 220-5333

Campus Security will escort individuals day or night -- call 220-5333 for assistance. Use any campus phone, emergency phone or the yellow phone located at most parking lot booths.

Ethics
Whenever you perform research with human participants (i.e. surveys, interviews, observation) as part of your university studies, you are responsible for following university research ethics guidelines. Your instructor must review and approve of your research plans and supervise your research. For more information about your research ethics responsibilities, see the U of C Research Ethics "Information for Applicants," sections 3.0 to 9.0, inclusive: http://www.ucalgary.ca/UofC/research/html/ethics/info_undergrad.html

Initial Bibliography

Arizpe, L. (1990). Foreword: Democracy for a small two-gender planet. In E. Jelin (Ed.), Women and social change in Latin America. New Jersey: Zed Books Ltd.

Arizpe, L. (1997). Women in the informal-labour sector: The case of Mexico city. In N. Visvanathan, L. GDuggan, L. Nisonoff & N. Wiegersma (Eds.), The women, gender & development reader (pp. 230-238). New Jersey: Zed Books Ltd.

Barroso, C., & Bruschini, C. (1991). Building politics from personal lives: Discussions on sexuality among poor women in brazil. In C. T. Mohanty, A. Russo & L. Torres (Eds.), Third world women and the politics of feminism. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

Caldeira, T. P. d. R. (1990). Women, daily life and politics. In E. Jelin (Ed.), Women and social change in Latin America. New Jersey: Zed Books Ltd.

Chovanec, D. M. (2000). Latin American feminism. In L. Code (Ed.), Encyclopedia of feminist theories (pp. 289-291). New York: Routledge.

Eber, C. E. (1998). Seeking justice valuing community: Two women's paths in the wake of the Zapatista rebellion. Women and International Development, June, 2006, from http://www.isp.msu.edu/wid

Elson, D., & Pearson, R. (1997). The subordination of women and the internationalization of factory production. In N. Visvanathan, L. GDuggan, L. Nisonoff & N. Wiegersma (Eds.), The women gender and development reader (pp. 191-229). New Jersey: Zed Books Ltd.

Feijoo, M. d. C., & Gogna, M. (1990). Women in the transition to democracy. In E. Jelin (Ed.), Women and social change in Latin America. New Jersey: Zed Books Ltd.

Franceschet, S. (2005). Women's movements: Confronting new challenges. In Women and politics in Chile. London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc.

Gutman, M. (1997). The meaning of macho: Changing Mexican male identities. In L. Lamphere, H. Ragone & P. Zavella (Eds.), Situated lives: Gender and culture in everyday life. New York: Routledge.

Harrison, F. V. (1991). Women in Jamaica's urban informal economy. In C. T. Mohanty, A. Russo & L. Torres (Eds.), Third world women and the politics of feminism. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

Kane, L. (2001). Popular education and the politics of identity: Women's and indigenous people's movements. In Popular education and social change in Latin America (pp. 111-142). London: Latin America Bureau.

Miller, F. (1991). Women, history, and creating a new historical record. In F. Miller (Ed.), Latin American women and the search for social justice (pp. 1-34). London: University Press of New England.

Navarro-Aranguren, M. (1992). The construction of a Latin American feminist identity. In A. Stepan (Ed.), Americas: New interpretative essays (pp. 137-151). Toronto: Oxford university Press.

Safa, H. I. (1990). Women's social movements in Latin America. Gender & Society, 4(3), 354-369.

Safa, H. I., & Flora, C. B. (1992). Production, reproduction, and the polity: Women's strategies and practical gender issues. In A. Stepan (Ed.), Americas: New interpretive essays. New York: Oxford University Press.

Stephen, L. (1995). Women's rights are human rights: The merging of feminine and feminist interests among el Salvador's mothers of the disappeared (co-madres). American Ethnologist, 22(4), 807-827.

Stephen, L. (1997). Conclusions: Women in action. In Women and social movements in Latin America: Power from below. Austing: University Texas Press.

Susser, I. (1997). Women as political actors in rural Puerto rice. In N. Visvanathan, L. Duggan, L. Nisonoff & N. Wiegersma (Eds.), The women, gender & development reader (pp. 374-378). New Jersey: Zed Book Ltd.

Weber, C. (2002). Women to women: Dissident citizen diplomacy in Nicaragua. In N. A. Naples & M. Desai (Eds.), Women's actvism and globalization. New York: Routledge.

Wiegersma, N. (1997). Introduction to part 5. In N. Visvanathan, L. Duggan, L. Nisonoff & N. Wiegersma (Eds.), The women, gender and development reader (pp. 361-365). New Jersey: Zed Books Ltd.

Young, K. (1997). Planning from a gender perspective: Making a world of difference. In N. Visvanathan, L. GDuggan, L. Nisonoff & N. Wiegersma (Eds.), The women, gender and development reader (pp. 366-374). New Jersey: Zed Books Ltd.

 

Web pages:

• MADRE - Demanding human rights for women and families around the world

http://www.madre.org/articles/int/b10/violence.html