WST 4931 & WST 5934
Global Perspectives on Contemporary Women’s Issues “Global Women’s Issues”
Instructor: Rachel Sutz Pienta, PhD
Classroom Location: PDB A0102
Time: Wednesday
Instructor Contact Information:
Office Hours will be conducted before class, in the classroom, and by appointment in the Women’s Studies office.
Women's Studies - Psychology Bldg.
2nd Floor - Room A208.
Phone: (850) 644-9514
Instructor email: rsutz@fsu.edu or dr.sutzpienta@yahoo.com
Course Blackboard Site: https://campus.fsu.edu, www.fsu.edu
Instructor Phone: (850) 321-3582 Note: Email is the best way to contact me. I check email multiple times each day. I have text messaging on my phone—I check text messages more frequently than voice mail.
Syllabus
Welcome to Global Perspectives on Contemporary Women’s Issues. I look forward to embarking on an intellectual journey with you over the course of the term. We will examine a global array of women’s issues through the lens of gender. While the course will focus on studying issues particularly relative to women, men will not be ignored.
For Undergraduate and Graduate Students:
Ensler, Eve. (2010). I am an emotional creature: the secret life of girls around the world. Random House:
Kristoff, N. and WuDunn, S. (2009). Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into
McCann, C. and Kim, S. (2009). Feminist Theory Reader. 2nd edition. Routledge.
ISBN: 978-0-415-99477-4.
Additional
Required for Graduate Students, Recommended for Undergraduates:
Bose, C. and Kim, M. (2009). Global Gender Research. Routledge.
ISBN: 978-0-415-95270-5
Hesse-Biber, S. and Leavy. P. (2007). Feminist Research Practice. Sage:
ISBN-13: 9780761928928
Course Description
This course is intended to give you the tools to become knowledgeable about the tremendous range of women's and feminist issues on a global level. We will analyze those cultural, economic and political conditions that impact women's rights. Three general questions will guide our path of inquiry: (1) What do you need to know to understand gender condition in a specific place? (2) What factors contribute to gender-related ability to alter conditions? (3) How, when and why do women's movements emerge?
The purpose of this course is to develop an interdisciplinary conceptual framework within which a discussion and gender related global issues could occur. We will examine the links between poverty and women’s lives, including health & well being, economic development and social change, and will investigate the role of women in societal development to determine how they share, if they do, in the rewards of the development/ social change process. We will explore the reasons why these problems exist (economics, culture, religion, social values, etc.), and will try to determine personal, organizational and community actions that lead can lead to some resolution.
Certain gender relations and sexual practices provoke controversy and debate, which in turn lead to social movements and state policies, both globally and locally. Among these practices are: prostitution/sex work; interracial and/or international dating and marriage; international migration; the family; abortion, infanticide, family planning and other reproductive practices and interventions; homosexuality; and gendered bodily aesthetic practices. In this course we will draw upon historical, anthropological, sociological and cultural studies on these issues.
Course Outcomes and Goals
- Identify global issues that impact the status of women
- Compare and contract various international approaches to gender issues
- Critically examine social conditions which alternately oppress or empower women
- Acquire an increased awareness of (in)equalities from a comparative and relativistic perspective
- Write and think critically via discussions, assignments, and assessments about about concepts, theories, and research related to global gender issues.
How does gender relate to peace, violence, development or international relations? Does gender really matter? This class will focus on the violence of conflict as well as that of poverty, using gender as a lens.
In particular, we will consider questions pertaining to gender and armed conflict, and then move on to some of the related issues such as trafficking, sex work and HIV/AIDS and the global women's movement.
Course Requirements: Students are required to read all assigned materials prior to coming to class. Required readings are listed on the syllabus. Additional readings may be assigned by the instructor with due notice to the student.
Attendance is mandatory. Roll will be taken and reported to the university as required.
Students are required to activate an email account for this course. An FSU email account is required. You may set up mail forwarding to your off-campus account, see the ACNS web page for details. Blackboard will be used extensively.
Academic Honesty:
The Florida State University Academic Honor Policy outlines the
University’s expectations for the integrity of students’ academic work, the
procedures for resolving alleged violations of those expectations, and the
rights and responsibilities of students and faculty members throughout the
process. Students are responsible for reading the Academic Honor Policy
and for living up to their pledge to “be honest and truthful and…[to] strive for
personal and institutional integrity at
Honor Policy)
Students with Disabilities: Students requiring reasonable accommodations should notify the professor during the first two weeks of class.
Students with disabilities needing academic accommodation should:
(1) Register with and provide documentation to the Student Disability Resource
Center; and (2) bring a letter to the instructor indicating the need for
accommodation and what type. This should be done during the first week of
class. This syllabus and other class materials are available in alternative format
upon request.
For more information about services available to FSU students with disabilities,
contact:
108 Student Services Building
(850) 644-9566 (voice)
(850) 644-8504 (TDD)
sdrc@admin.fsu.edu
Class Format: This course relies strongly on student participation. Students will be asked to analyze and discuss various scholarly concepts and issues throughout the term. Attendance is required. Students who think a class absence may happen due to prior plans should discuss the schedule with the professor prior to missing class. The class format combines a mix of collaborative learning, lecture, and Socratic method in order to accommodate a multiplicity of learning styles. Additionally, both verbal and written skills are important in this course. Students will be held to a high standard in both verbal and written communication.
Students who do not follow basic rules of courtesy may be asked to leave the classroom. A meeting with the instructor may be required to return to class. Disrespect to the instructor or other students will not be tolerated.
Cell phone policy: phones should be out of sight during class. Avoid sending or receiving text messages during class.
Laptop policy: Please take notes by hand and leave laptops and other computers closed/turned off unless their use is specifically authorized by the instructor. Please notify the instructor if an
Missed Quizzes/Tests and/ or Late Work: I discourage missing quizzes or tests and I do not accept late work. If you miss a quiz, you will be able to add in “bonus” quiz points or utilize opportunities for enrichment “bonus” points. See Blackboard and your instructor for details.
Quizzes may not be made up for any reason—no excuses are accepted. Remember, attendance is mandatory. Students experiencing emergencies as defined by university policy should contact the instructor individually as soon as possible. Otherwise, excused and unexcused absences are the same in terms of missing quizzes. Please do not ask when a quiz will be scheduled—assume a quiz is ALWAYS scheduled.
Missed a quiz or an assignment (NOT the poster or final paper)? Read Stones into Schools and then see your professor for your assignment. http://www.stonesintoschools.com/
All out of class assignments will be given with sufficient notice to allow timely completion—so such work should never be late (if for some reason you are incapacitated, it is likely that you have friends that can be paid to drop off your work to class, right?).
All written assignments must be turned in as a hard copy form to the instructor at the designated time and location. Papers should be typed, double-spaced, and include a cover sheet and a works cited page. Pages should be numbered. Papers will be graded according to quality of writing, number of proofreading-related errors, substantive content, use of research, and adherence to APA or MLA format (depending on your discipline—identify citation format on cover page).
All papers should be submitted to the course Blackboard electronic drop box and saved to the student’s personal disk or hard drive. While the instructor will only grade hard copies, having electronic back up will help everyone. The instructor reserves the right to utilize TurnItIn.com to proof papers for plagiarism.
Instructor’s Note: Except for changes that substantially affect implementation of the evaluation (grading) statement, this syllabus is a guide for the course and is subject to change with advance notice.
Grading
Plus and minus grades are assigned, according to the FSU grading scale. Grades on Blackboard may be assigned in numerical or letter format.
Quizzes 100
Blackboard assignments 100
Other class assignments 100
Book Discussion & Essays 100
Conference style poster presentation 100
Final term paper 100
Total course points 600
545-600 = A
550 –544 = A-
525-549 = B+
500 – 524 = B
475- 499 = B-
450 – 474 = C+
425 – 449 = C
400 – 424 = C-
375 – 399 = D+
350 – 374 = D
325 – 349 = D-
324 ↓ = F
Assignments/Course Components Overview
Detailed instructions will be posted on Blackboard and course requirements will be discussed during class meetings. However, the Blackboard site is not a substitute for class attendance.
Quizzes
I will give 6-10 quizzes. Each quiz will be worth 10-20 points. I do not allow quiz make-ups for any reason. If you miss one quiz, your grade is minimally impacted. If you take all the quizzes given, you can earn up to 120 points. Quizzes will be based on readings and class lectures. Quiz format will be short-answer/essay. Quizzes are always given on the readings covered in the previous class session. Remember, class attendance is required. If you miss a quiz, see the instructor for whole class “bonus” opportunities as available. One possible “bonus” assignment: read Stones into Schools (the entire book!) and see the professor for the corresponding written assignment. http://www.stonesintoschools.com/
Blackboard Participation Assignments
Blackboard assignments will require students to post written work related to the class research project in the course discussion board. Students will have a posting deadline. The instructor will not look at assignments posted after the deadline. No late assignments will be graded. Detailed instructions for assignments will be posted on Blackboard and discussed during class meetings.
Book Discussions and Papers
Students will read assigned texts, prepare discussion questions, and write analytical response essays that incorporate support from scholarly journal articles in contrast or juxtaposition with the class readings.
Other Class Work
Other class work may include creative responses or brief written responses that best fit the topic of discussion. Ample notice of such assignments will be provided.
Poster
You will create a scholarly poster to illustrate your final term paper. A poster itself is a visual presentation comprising whatever the contributor wishes to display on the poster board. The purpose of a poster is to outline a piece of work in a form that is easily assimilated and stimulates interest and discussion. The ultimate aim is a fruitful exchange of ideas between the presenter and the people reading the poster.
In preparing a poster, simplicity is the key. A typical reader may spend only a few minutes looking at the poster, so there should be a minimum of clutter and a maximum of pithy, informative statements and attractive, enlightening graphics. A poster should tell a story. As always in a scientific presentation, the broad outline includes a statement of the problem, a description of the method of attack, a presentation of results, and then a summary of the work. But within that format, there is much scope for ingenuity. A question-and-answer format, for example, may be appropriate for part of the poster.
A poster should not contain a lot of details—the presenter can always communicate the fine points to interested participants.
The poster should begin with a definition of the problem, together with a concise statement of the motivation for the work. It is not necessary to write in complete sentences; sentence fragments may be easier to comprehend. Bulleted lists are effective. An alternative is to break the text into chunks—small units that are not necessarily paragraphs in the usual sense. For presenting results, graphs and figures—easier to scan than the columns of figures in a table—are even more appropriate than in a paper.
Poster Guidelines from the National Women’s Studies Association
http://www.nwsaconference.org/2008/posters.php
Additional poster resources will be posted on Blackboard.
Final Term Paper
You will be asked to identify a topic relevant to the scope of the course for individual study. You will have my guidance as well as the assistance of library reference staff. Ample opportunity for peer interaction and feedback will also be provided.
There is no final exam. The poster and the paper count as final assessments for the course. Undergraduate papers should be 8 to 10 pages long. Graduate papers should be a minimum of 12 pages long. Graduate students will discuss paper proposals with the instructor for individual approval.
One paper page should be approximately 250 words. Double space, use a 12 point Times font, and one inch margins. Papers should include a cover sheet and a works cited page.
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