Virtual syllabus  website: http://www.gwu.edu/~wstu/125/f05-221.html  Underlined text indicates live links.   The syllabus will be updated online throughout the semester.  Minor changes may be made in readings and schedule in response to student interests as well as world and University events..

REQUIRED BOOKS & Other Readings

• Hesse-Biber, Sharlene Nagy and Michelle L. Yaiser (eds), Feminist Perspectives on Social Research, Oxford University Press.
• Special issue of Signs: New Feminist Approaches to Social Science Methodologies  vol. 30 no. 4, Summer 2005.  Online at  www.journals.uchicago.edu/Signs/journal/contents/v30n4.html
• Reinharz, Shulamit, Feminist Methods in Social Research,  Oxford University Press
• Kaplan, Elaine Bell, Not Our Kind of Girl: Unraveling the Myths of Black Teenage Motherhood, University of California Press
• Edin, Kathryn, Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood Before Marriage, University of California Press
• On-line:  Additional recquired and recommended readings will be available electronically via Blackboard  and links on the class web site.
• NOTE: Only Hess-Biber and Reinharz were ordered through University bookstore.

  OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE

• To acquaint students with current discussions of feminist epistemology, including feminist critiques of science and the development of feminist empiricist, standpoint and postmodernist epistemologies.
• To familiarize students with a variety of qualitative and quantitative research methods for giving voice to women's experience and making visible the frequently invisible and undercounted aspects of women's lives.
• To provide students with hands-on experience with some of the joys and dilemmas of doing research, including: designing and conducting a interview, using the internet and electronic databases in research, critically interpreting numerical data from secondary sources, giving an oral presentation of research results, working in a collaborative research team, and writing a research proposal.
• Other themes include critical questioning of: How and by whom is knowledge produced and validated? Do distinctively feminist methods exist? What is the relationship of the researcher to the researched? How does the social location (race, class, sexual identity, etc.) of the researcher impact on research? What are the issues (ethical, political, epistemological, methodological) that arise in studying "others"? How is feminist theory related to research? How can research relate to efforts for social change?

• 15% Class participation
•  5 % Oral presentation (sign up for a date and topic)
• 25% Interview assignment (6-7 pages plus questions and transcript), due Oct. 31
• 15% Group Quantitative assignment  (presentation and handout), due Nov. 28
• 40% Research Proposal (12-15 pages, due at end of semester)

COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND ASSIGNMENTS -- details

 
 
 


Expectatations/requirements for ALL written work: Students are strongly encouraged to consult with the professor about assignments. Please do NOT fax or email any assignment papers. All written assignments must be typed, double spaced, proofread, with appropriate citation of references.  Proper citation of sources must follow one of the academic writing style manuals such as APA, Chicago, or Turabian.  All  images and text from the Internet, journals, or books must have full citation to be used in your work. George Washington University Academic Integrity Guidelines apply to all work in this course. CAUTION:  Failure to meet the above requirements will be hazardous to your grade!

I. Class Participation: (15%)

Everyone is expected to attend class and participate in discussion every week. Come prepared, and demonstrate that you have done and thought about the reading. As with other course requirements, the class participation grade must be earned through demonstrated effort and contributions to the seminar.   Students may be asked to volunteer to lead discussion.  If class participation lags, there may be some short writing assignments added.


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II. Individual Oral Presentation (5%)

Each student is expected to prepare a brief 10-12 minute (maximum time) oral presentation on either A or B below.  Guidelines for each option will be distributed in class and posted on Blackboard.

A. How has feminist scholarship transformed, or how is it attempting to transform, research in 'your' academic discipline? (Your discipline is your field of concentration for WSTU Liberal Arts students with a disciplinary concentration, your home department for non-WSTU students. Public policy students may choose economics, political science; others consult with me on other possibilities.)  Cover key developments, debates, readings, authors, journals, etc. Handouts are appreciated. Additional guidelines will be provided.  The review essays in Signs (Summer, 2005) by Trickner on International Relations and by Barker on Ecoomics are good models. Note: If you are not concentrating in a specific, traditional discipline in which you have had 3-4 graduate courses, this assignment usually does not work very well.  Students who do have a disciplinary focus often find this an excellent preparation for comps.

B. Read and report on one additional book listed below. A number of readings on the syllabus are selections from or discussions of a larger book. Choices may include: Feeding the Family by Marjorie DeVault, Factory Daughters by Diane Wolf; Daughters of the Dreaming (2001 ed.)  by Diane Bell; Understanding Sexual Violence by Diana Scully; Woman Translated by Ruth Behar; Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold by Elizabeth Kennedy and Madeline Davis; Unbound feet : a social history of Chinese women in San Francisco by Judy Yung; Drag Queens at the 801 Cabaret by Leila Rupp and Verta Taylor; Violent Betrayal by Claire Renzetti; Making Ends Meet by Kathryn Edin and Laura Lein; Imagining Japanese America by Elena Tafima Creef; Rockin' Out of the Box by Mimi Schippers;  Black Feminist Thought (2nd ed.) by Patricia Hill Collins.  Is Science Multicultural by Sandra Harding, and possibly others.


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III. Interview Assignment* (25%):   Due Oct. 31

Purpose:  Gain hands-on experience using the interview as a feminist research method.
Option A:  Interview someone you consider a young feminist activist.  Interview questions and definitions of appropriate interviewees will be discussed and developed in class. Additional information on this project will be provided.   Suzanne Beechey's paper (on Blackboard) is recommended.
Option B:  If your research proposal (the major, end-end-of-semester assignment) proposes interviews, and if it is feasible for you to conduct a trial interview for this assignment, you may interview someone who could be included in your proposed study, treating the interview as if it were part of that study.
Option C: If your MA thesis, independent research, or case study involves multiple interviews and you complete at least one interview in time for the Oct. 31 due date, you may use that interview for the interview assignment.

Write-up: The paper should in some way explicitly relate to readings for this course on epistemology, interviewing methods, etc.  It should cover all of the following, but you do not necessarily have to follow this outline in exact order:

• (a) Imagine that the interview is part of a larger research project for which you would do a number of interviews. Clearly state the research question (purpose) guiding this hypothetical research in a few sentences. Very briefly describe your hypothetical sample.
• (b)What did you learn about interviewing as a research method? Reflect critically on your own experience doing the interview, relating your experience to assigned readings.
• (c) What did you learn about your interviewee's experiences relevant to the substantive purpose of your research? What theme(s) emerged in the interview? Selectively incorporate and discuss direct quotes from the interview to illustrate your answer.
• (d) As an appendix to the paper, attach a signed human subjects consent form (discussed in class), the interview schedule or questions that you asked (or planned to ask), and at least a partial transcription of  the interview.
• (e) As part of this assignment, you are required to hand in the tape of the interview, an electronic and a hard copy of the full transcript by the end of the semester.
• Suggested length:  6-7 pages plus appendix. Due: Oct.  31.
• No re-write option. Late papers risk a minor grade penalty unless you receive permission for an extension due to unusual and extenuating circumstances.

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IV. Group Project Using Quantitative Data (15%)

Links to quantitative data sources for the assignment will be updated..

Purpose: (i) To gain first-hand familiarity with the problems typically confronted in using government and other published statistics -- especially using on-line sources -- and with what lies behind the statistics. (ii) To become more critical consumers of published statistics. (iii) To reflect critically upon the process of collaborative research.  (iv) To gain some familiarity with data sources on the internet.

Assignment: For this project you are required to work as a research team of at 4-5 students. Each group will have 20-30 minutes for an oral report and presentation of tables and charts in class (using transparencies and an overhead projector, or Power Point).  Each group will prepare ONE typed hand-out for the class (suggested length: 3 pages).  Presentation and handout are due Nov. 28.  There will be a handout with more detailed instructions.

Try to answer questions such as those raised by Waring and other readings about who gets counted, who remains invisible, and what are the implications for knowledge abut women's lives.  Use published and electronic sources such as the U.S. Census to present and critically evaluate some quantitative indicators of women's status or situation. Find out how the data were collected and defined. Include data on (a) two (or more) different points in time; (b) two (or more) different racial, ethnic or national groups; and (c) a third dimension such as two different geographic units, age groups, genders, marital statuses. An example might be to compare data on the poverty rates for Black, White, and Hispanic women in the U.S., in female-headed compared to married couple households, for 1980 and 2000 with discussion of how race, ethnicity, poverty, and female-headed categories were constructed.


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V. Research Proposal (40%)

Write a research proposal of 12-15 pages for a feminist research project. The proposal and the proposed project should reflect sensitivity to material covered in this course. Like any research proposal, it should include:
• a clear and concise statement of the research problem;
• a review of the relevant literature;
• a description of the methodology and research design;
• statements explaining the expected significance of the research (to whom will the findings be important and why), and the expected products (e.g., thesis, published articles, book, conference presentations, video, articles for non-academic audiences, etc.).


Research proposal process and due dates:

• Additional guidelines in the form of a "call for proposals" will be distributed in class; be sure to get them!
• A brief one-page abstract must be posted on Blackboard before 11/7 meeting at the latest.  If you are still deciding between 2 or more topics, submit an abstract for each topic.  You are strongly encouraged to decide on your topic and submit your abstract earlier in the semester.
• By 8pm Sunday,  Dec. 4,  post on Blackboard at least 4 pages summarizing and/or outlining your proposal in-progress.  The Dec. 5 class session will involve small group presentations and feedback on each other's proposals.
• A. Due dates with option to revise: Hand in a completed research proposal by 5pm Friday, Dec. 9 . This should be a complete paper, not a rough draft. Grade, comments and suggestions for revision will be available for pick-up and consultation after 4 pm Wed. Dec. 14.  If you choose to revise, hand in revised version, along with original and my comments, clearly indicating what changes you made and where, by 5pm Wed. Dec. 21.  If you receive lower than a C for the initial grade, the most you may raise the grade is to a B.  It is very rare, though not impossible, to get an A for the course without doing the option to revise.
• B. Due date with no option to revise: Hand in by 5 pm Fri., Dec. 19.
• Late papers: For option A, if you don't turn in a paper on Dec. 9, then you default to option B.  If you submit a paper on Dec. 9  but don't finish your revisions by Dec. 21, then your initial grade stands. For option B, late papers will not be accepted except by special permission for extraordinary circumstances.

Resources for proposal writing:
• I will have a couple examples in my office of successful "real" research proposals (not student papers) for you to look at in the WSTU office (but you may not borrow them or copy them).
• There will be links to guides to research proposal writing, literature review writing, and a general writing style manual on the Links page for this class when it is updated..

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SCHEDULE OF CLASS SESSIONS, TOPICS & READINGS

Subject to minor changes during the semester



 




HB = chapter in Hess-Biber, Feminist Perspectives on Social Research;  Bb=Blackboard; SIGNS=Summer, 2005 issue available online.  * = especially imporant; #subject to change between required and supplemental # = Might be shifted to supplemental instead of required

Sept 12 - Introduction and Overview

Sept. 19 - Toward a Feminist Epistemology

• Sandra Harding,  "Rethinking Standpoint Epistemology: What is 'Strong Objectivity'?" (ch. 3 in HB).
• Sandra Harding, "Can Men Be Subjects in Feminist Thought?" (ch. 10 in HB).
• Joey Sprague and Diane Kobrynowicz, "A Feminist Epistemology" (ch. 5 in HB).
• Kum-Kum Bhavani, "Tracing the Contours: feminist Research and Feminist Objectivity" (ch. 4 in HB).
• Sandra Harding, "Challenges" pp. 9-16 and "Feminist Empiricism" pp. 111-118 of Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? (Bb).
• Supplemental/recommended:
• Supplemental: Sandra Harding & Kathryn Norberg, "New Feminist Approaches to Social Science Methodologies: An Introduction" (SIGNS)
• Supplemental:  Emily Martin, "The Egg and the Sperm" (Bb)
• Supplemental:  Joan Scott, The Evidence of Experience" (Bb to be posted)
• Presentation:  Maureen on Harding's Is Science Multicultural?

 
Sept. 26 - Further Exploration/Application of Standpoint Epistemologies
                    with attention to the intersections of race, class, gender and sexualities
• Patricia Hill Collins, excerpts from Chapters 1, 2, and 11 of Black Feminist Thought; & from intro. to Fighting Words, (Bb)
• Linda Carty, "Seeing through the Eye of Difference: Reflection on Three Research Journeys." (Bb )
• Dolores Delgado Bernal, "Using a Chicana Feminist Epistemology in Educational Research, " Harvard Educational Review, Vol. 68 # 4 Winter 1998 (online or Blackboard)
• Elizabeth McDermott, "Telling lesbian stories: Interviewing and the class dynamics of 'Talk.' " (Bb)
• Presentation:  Carey on Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collins

• Supplemental/recommended:
• Supplemental: Ann duCille, "The Occult of True Black Womanhood: Critical Demeanor and Black Feminist Studies," (Signs, Spring 1994).  Blackboard..  Especially for those interested in literary studies.
• Supplemental: Dorothy Smith, "Women's Perspective as a Radical Critique of Sociology"  (ch. 2 of HB)
• Supplemental: Patricia Williams, "On Being the Object of Property"  Signs Vol. 14 #1, Autumn 1988 (Bb)
• Supplemental:  Introduction and chapters in Part II of Hess-Biber


Oct. 3 - Giving Voice to Women's Experience:
                 Interviewing Women; Political and Ethical Issues in the Research Relationship

• *Marjorie DeVault, "Talking and Listening from Women's Standpoint: Feminist Strategies for Listening and Analysis" (ch. 13 in HB)
• *Kathleen Blee and Verta Taylor, "Semi-Structured Interviewing in Social Movement Research" (Bb to be posted)
• Reinharz, ch. 2
• #Diana Scully, Understanding Sexual Violence ch. 1 (Blackboard).
• Kristin Anderson and Debra Umberson, "Gendering Violence..."  ch. 14 in HB
• Lois Presser, "Negotiating Power and Narrative in Research"  SIGNS
• Sabine Gans, "Interections of Sex and Power in Research on Prositution..."  SIGNS
• Read GWU guidelines for human subjects research and required informed consent forms.
• Presentations: Heather on Understanding Sexual Violence by Diana Scully and Adjua on Inside Organized Racism by Kathleen Blee
• Supplemental:  Suzanne Beechey,, "When Feminism Is Your Job" (Bb)
• Supplemental:  Kate Weston, "Fieldwork in Lesbian and Gay Communities" ch. 11 in HB

• Diane Bell,  "Yes Virginia, there is a feminist ethnography" in Gendered Fields (Diane Bell, Pat Caplan, & Wazir Jahan Karim, eds., Routledge, 1993). ( Blackboard)
• Jayati Lai, "Situating Locations:  The Politics of Self, Identity, and 'Other' in Living and Writing the Text"  (Bb)
• Michelle Fine & Lois Weis, "Writing the 'wrongs' of fieldwork: Confronting our own research/writing dilemmas in urban ethnographies," Qualitative Inquiry, Sept. 1996 (Blackboard)
• Reinharz, ch. 3 and 6.
• *Diane Wolf, "Situating Feminist Dilemmas in Fieldwork" (and the Preface to Feminist Dilemmas in Fieldwork, ed. by Wolf) Blackboard
• *Ruth Behar, Woman Translated, Intro. & ch. 12 (Blackboard)
• Chandra Mohanty, " ‘Under Western Eyes’ Revisited: Feminist Solidarity through Anticapitalist Struggles” Signs, 2002, vol. 28, no. 2 [Blackboard]
• Shamaz Khan, "Reconfiguring the Native Informant..." SIGNS
• Video "Afghanistan Unveiled" might be show in class
• Supplemental: Gayatri Spivak's classic essay, "Can the Subaltern Speak?"
• Presentations: Caroline (Daughters of the Dreaming by Diane Bell), Natlia (Factory Daughters by Diane Wolf), Annie (Woman Translated by Ruth Behar)


Oct. 31 - Writing Women into the Historical Record:  Oral History Methods

• Elena Tajima Creef, "Discovering My Mother as Other in the Saturday Evening Post" (BB/P)
• #Elizabeth Kennedy & Madeline Davis, Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold,  (Blackboard)
• #Yung, Judy, "Giving voice to Chinese American women," Frontiers, 1998 (Blackboard)
• #Margaret Strobel, "Getting to the source: Becoming a historian, being an activist, and thinking archivally:  Documents and memory as sources," Journal of Women's History, Spring 1999 (Blackboard).
• Reinharz, ch. 7
• Susan Geiger, "What's So Feminist about Women's Oral History?" (ch. 22 in HB)
• Antoinette Errante, "But Sometimes You're Not Part of the Story..." (ch. 23 in HB)
• Explore some links to women's history archives.
• Presentations: Kelly (Imaginig Japanese America by Elena Tajima Creef)



Nov. 7   -   Other Methods:  Focus Groups, Participant Observation, Experimental Design

• Verta Taylor and Leila Rupp, "When the Girls Are Men: Negotiating Gender and Sexual Dynamics in a Study of Drag Queens" (SIGNS)
• Mimi Schippers, "The Social Organization of Sexuality and Gender in Alternative Hard Rock.." (ch. 21 in HB)
• Sue Wilkinson, "Focus Groups: A Femini;st Method:"  (ch. 15 in HB)
• Jocelyn Hollander, "Vulnerability and Dangerousness..."  (focus groups) ch 16 in HB
• Supplemental: Reinharz,  ch. 3, 5, 10-12
• Supplemental:  Laura Madson, "Inferences Regarding the Personality Traits and Sexual Orientation of Physically Androgynous People" (ch. 19 in HB).
• Presentations: Brittney (Schippers, Rockin' Out of the Box), Alayna (Rupp & Taylor, Drag Queens...)

Nov. 14 -  What Makes Research "Feminist"?  Beyond Qualitative vs. Quantitative

• L. Cannon, E. Higginbotham, and M. Leung, "Race and Class Bias in Qualitative Research on Women" (in Cook & Fonow, Beyond Methodology)  [Bb]
• Toby Jayartne & Abigail Stewart, "Quantitative and Qualitative Methods in the Social Sciences: Current Feminist Issues and Practical Strategies" (in Cook & Fonow, Beyond Methodology) [Bb]
• Claire Renzetti, "Confessions of a Reformed Positivist: Feminist participatory Research as Good Social Science" in Martin Schwartz, ed., Researching Sexual Violence Against Women, (plus Renzetti's interview schedule and questionnaire) [ Bb ]
• Mary Margaret Fonow and Judith Cook, "Feminist Methodology: New Applications in the Academy and Public Policy" in SIGNS
• Sharlene Nagy Hess-Biber and Denise Eckenby, "How Feminists Practice Social Research" (ch. 12 in HB)
• Reinharz, ch. 1, 10, 13.
• Presentations: Allison (Renzetti, Violent Betrayal), Kate (political science discipline)


Nov. 21  - Who Counts?  Using Numbers, Quantitative Data, to Make Women's Experience Visible

• *Deborah Stone, "Numbers" (ch. 7 of Policy Paradox and Political Reason)  Blackboard
• Marilyn Waring, If Women Counted, selected sections (Blackboard)
• Reinharz, ch. 4
•  Cindy Patton, "From Nation to Family: Containing African Aids"  (Blackboard).
• "Missing: Information on Women's Lives" a report by the National Council for Research on Women (online and on Blackboard)
• *Roberta Spalter-Roth and Heidi Hartmann, "Small Happinesses: The Feminist Struggle to Integrate Social Research with Social Activism" [Blackboard]
• Supplemental:  Mona Danner, Lucia Fort, Gay Young, "International data on women and gender: Resources, issues, critical use," Women's Studies International Forum, Mar 1999 (Blackboard)
 
Nov. 28 - Who Counts, continued
• Group presentations based on the quantitative data assignment.
• Links to quantitative data sources for the assignment (to be updated)


Dec. 5 - Presentation and Discussion of Students' Research Proposals in Small Groups

• Students will divide into several groups to make presentations and get feedback.  Prepare an outline or  synopsis of at least 4 pages and poste in advance on Blackboard.


Dec. 7 -  Feminist Research and Social Change: Participatory, Collaborative and Community Action Research
             Wrap-up & Evaluation

• Selected papers from "Bridging the Gap: Feminisms and Participatory Action Research " conference (2001) http://www.wnmu.org/gap/papers.html
• Possible other readings TBA