GWS 495-01 & 02 - Senior Seminar: The Feminist Subjunctive

4 credits (Spring)

The Feminist Subjunctive: Feminists have developed a rich vocabulary for centering possibility in their work. While they have provided powerful critiques of what has been and is, they have also cultivated concepts and methods that enable the reaching for what could have been and what can be. In this course, we will examine this feminist subjunctive as a way of knowing and its connections to taking feminist action. Students will explore concepts such as “diagonal reading,” the writing of “speculative history,” “re-memory,” reading “blood documents,” and prefiguration and put associated techniques to use in their own projects. As students develop their feminist imaginations, they will bring together three learning outcomes of the GWSS program - analyzing lived experience, undertaking projects driven by feminist ethics, and working toward meaningful social transformation.

Prerequisite: GWS 111 and GWS 249 with grades, S, C, or better; and Senior Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies major.
Instructor: Beauboeuf