240527 SE MM3 Cultural Plurality in Feminist Theory (2026S)

Cultural plurality and feminisms are crucial to social and cultural anthropology, especially as this course engages with different cultural approaches to feminism and the theorization of culture in feminist theory. Following Shohat’s suggestion of a “feminist reimagining of communality affiliations and cultural practices, articulated not in isolation but rather in relations”, that “does not exalt one political concern (feminism) over another (multiculturalism)” (Shohat, Elisa, 2001: 1), the course aims at highlighting and reinforcing the mutual embeddedness between cultural plurality and feminism. We will explore the presence of feminisms in gender studies in Africa and some non-European countries and the dynamics of transnational mobility and movements. As Shohat asserts, “multicultural feminism takes as its starting point the cultural consequences of worldwide movements and dislocations of people associated with the development of ‘global’ or ‘transnational’ capitalism.” (Shohat 2001:1). In fact, these movements also create a new dynamic in the development of feminisms in those parts of the world that are based on the people’s cultural traditions. Furthermore, we will look at how these transnational movements do not only challenge national, but also disciplinary borders and how feminist theorizing today demands what Shohat terms a “relational feminist approach” that moves beyond “nation-bond and discipline-bond teaching, curation and organizing.” (Shohat 2001:1) Particularly, we will address the pluralization of feminism through the critique of ‘Western’ feminism by non-Western feminist theorists, through the intersection of race, class, sexuality, geopolitical location and gender and through the question of the universalizability of the concept of gender. Reference will also be made to the historical, political, and social foundations of the theoretical works under discussion.