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HIST 460/560
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Brief DescriptionThis course explores significant themes in twentieth-century intellectual history and cultural life by considering the creative work and life experiences of women who made significant intellectual contributions to American society. We will consider a wide range of work, from politics and culture to science and gender studies. Some of the women we will study were academic intellectuals with careers in higher education, but many were not. Women thinkers have been social activists, cultural critics, journalists, and creative artists as well as academicians. Many have been more than one of these things. The course will also explore some basic questions about women thinking. Have women thought differently than men? Have they thought about different things? Was their intellectual labor organized separately or differently or otherwise marked by their identity as women, and if so, why and how? What historical conditions enabled women to join intellectual communities of various kinds? What conditions made it difficult or impossible? How did patterns of women’s thought change over the course of the twentieth century? The course assumes a basic working knowledge of twentieth-century U.S. history. This course will include a few lectures—mostly to provide basic background and context. The emphasis in the course, however, will be on close reading and discussion of texts. There may be occasional films. Students are expected to come to class prepared to talk. Active participation is the most important part of the course. Graduate students may meet separately with the instructor, at a time to be arranged. Additional reading and writing will be required. |
Writing RequirementsThere are two writing assignments: an 8-10 page essay (double-spaced, 12-point font) and a take-home final exam. The 8-10 page essay will be an intellectual biography of a twentieth-century thinker whose ideas are relevant to the subject areas covered in this course. The choice of who to write about is yours, but if you are uncertain about a subject, you must consult with the instructor immediately after the term starts for help in selecting an appropriate figure and identifying source material by and/or about her. Begin by consulting the Supplementary Resources and List of Women Thinkers for ideas. Please also read the Intellectual Biography Guidelines. You must turn in a brief statement about the subject of your intellectual biography on Tuesday, January 13. The final two weeks of the course will be devoted to group presentations of these intellectual biographies and we will devote some class time, in advance, to preparing for this. The essay itself is due on Thursday, February 26, 2009 by noon in 321 McKenzie Hall. The final exam will consist of essay questions that integrate major themes from the course as a whole. It will be handed out during the final class and will be due on Monday, March 16 by noon in 321 McKenzie Hall. Please note that most of the written work required in this course is due at the end of the term. Please plan your time accordingly. |
Reading RequirementsThe following books are required and have been ordered through the university bookstore. They can also be found on library reserve. Jane Addams, Democracy and Social Ethics (University of Illinois
Press, 2002). Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (Houghton Mifflin, 1999). Zora Neale Hurston, I Love Myself When I Am Laughing...And Then Again When I Am Looking Mean and Impressive (Feminist Press, 1979). Nancy MacLean, ed., The American Women's Movement, 1945-2000: A Brief History With Documents (Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009). |
thinking Requirements |
RulesAcademic Honesty Lateness Policy Accommodations |
Gradesattendance and participation: 10% |
CALENDAR
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Week 1 |
JANUARY 6, 2009: COURSE INTRODUCTIONMarcella Bombardieri, "Summers' Remarks on Women Draw Fire," Boston Globe, January 17, 2005 Louann Brizendine, excerpt from The Female Brain (New York: Morgan Road Books, 2006) [click here for PDF] Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own, chapter 1 (first published in 1929) Lorraine Daston, "The Naturalized Female Intellect," Science in Context 5 (Autumn 1992):209-235. |
Week 2 |
JANUARY 13, 2009: WOMEN THINKING ABOUT POLITICS: JANE ADDAMSRead: Democracy and Social Ethics, Introduction - Chapter 3 Reminder: The brief statement about the subject of your intellectual biography is due today. Recommended additional resources on Addams Check out the material on Addams’ life and ideas at the Dead Sociologists' Society website and also at Pluralism and Unity. Jane Addams, “Why Women Should Vote” Jean Bethke Elshtain, Jane Addams and the Dream of American Democracy: A Life (Basic Books, 2002). Louise W. Knight, Jane Addams and the Struggle for Democracy (University of Chicago Press, 2005). Christopher Lasch, ed., The Social Thought of Jane Addams (Bobbs-Merrill, 1965). Dorothy Ross, “Gendered Social Knowledge: Domestic Discourse, Jane Addams, and the Possibilities of Social Science” and Kathryn Kish Sklar, “Hull-House Maps and Papers: Social Science as Women's Work in the 1890s” in Gender and American Social Science: The Formative Years, ed. Helene Silverberg (Princeton University Press, 1998). |
Week 3 |
JANUARY 20, 2009: WOMEN THINKING ABOUT POLITICS: JANE ADDAMSRead: Democracy and Social Ethics, Chapter 4 - Chapter 6 |
Week 4 |
JANUARY 27, 2009: WOMEN THINKING ABOUT CULTURE: ZORA NEALE HURSTONRead: I Love Myself When I Am Laughing..., pp. 1-149. Recommended additional resources on Hurston Check out this website on Harlem, 1900-1940 Valerie Boyd, Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston (Scribner, 2003). Hazel V. Carby, Reconstructing Womanhood: The Emergence of the Afro-American Woman Novelist (Oxford University Press, 1987).
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Week 5 |
FEBRUARY 3, 2009: WOMEN THINKING ABOUT CULTURE: ZORA NEALE HURSTONRead: I Love Myself When I Am Laughing..., pp. 151-313 |
Week 6 |
FEBRUARY 10, 2009: WOMEN THINKING ABOUT NATURE: RACHEL CARSONRead: Silent Spring, Chapter 1 - Chapter 9 Recommended additional resources on Carson Check out RachelCarson.org Philip Cafaro, "Rachel Carson's Environmental Ethics" Rachel Carson, The Sea Around Us (Oxford University Press, 1961). Martha Freeman, ed., Always Rachel: The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman, 1952-1964 (Beacon Press, 1995). Linda Lear, ed., Lost Woods: The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson (Beacon Press, 1998). Linda Lear, Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature (Holt, 1997) |
Week 7 |
FEBRUARY 17, 2009: WOMEN THINKING ABOUT NATURE: RACHEL CARSONRead: Silent Spring, Chapter 10 - Chapter 17 |
Week 8 |
FEBRUARY 24, 2009: WOMEN THINKING ABOUT GENDER: THE HISTORY AND IDEAS OF SECOND WAVE FEMINISMRead: The American Women's Movement Reminder: Your intellectual biography is due this week, on Thursday, February 26 by noon in 321 McKenzie Hall. Recommended additional resources on feminism and feminist theory Voice of the Shuttle: Women's Studies and Feminist Theory "Topics in Feminism," Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |
Week 9 |
MARCH 3, 2009: STUDENT GROUP PRESENTATIONSThe following groups will present their work: Literature: 5:00 - 5:35 (discussion 5:35 - 5:50) Progressive Politics: 6:00 - 6:40 (discussion 6:40 - 6:55) Sex and Radicalism: 7:00 - 7:25 (discussion 7:25 - 7:40) |
Week 10 |
MARCH 10, 2009: STUDENT GROUP PRESENTATIONSThe following groups will present their work: Recent Figures: 5:00 - 5:35 (discussion 5:35 - 5:50) Science: 5:55 - 6:15 (discussion 6:15 - 6:25) Popular Culture: 6:30 - 6:50 (discussion 6:50 - 7:00) graduate students: 7:05 - 7:25 (discussion 7:25 - 7:40) |