Universität Wien

420011 SE ’Messy Projects’: Intersectionality in the Humanities (2018S)

8.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 42 - Philologisch-Kulturwissenschaftliches Doktoratsstudium
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 15 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Thursday 08.03. 10:00 - 12:00 Besprechungsraum Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O2-07
  • Thursday 15.03. 10:00 - 12:00 Besprechungsraum Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O2-07
  • Thursday 22.03. 10:00 - 12:00 Besprechungsraum Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O2-07
  • Thursday 12.04. 10:00 - 12:00 Besprechungsraum Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O2-07
  • Thursday 19.04. 10:00 - 12:00 Besprechungsraum Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O2-07
  • Thursday 26.04. 10:00 - 12:00 Besprechungsraum Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O2-07
  • Thursday 03.05. 10:00 - 12:00 Besprechungsraum Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O2-07
  • Thursday 17.05. 10:00 - 12:00 Besprechungsraum Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O2-07
  • Thursday 24.05. 10:00 - 12:00 Besprechungsraum Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O2-07
  • Thursday 07.06. 10:00 - 12:00 Besprechungsraum Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O2-07
  • Thursday 14.06. 10:00 - 12:00 Besprechungsraum Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O2-07
  • Thursday 21.06. 10:00 - 12:00 Besprechungsraum Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O2-07
  • Thursday 28.06. 10:00 - 12:00 Besprechungsraum Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O2-07

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Many, if not most research projects in the Humanities and the Social Sciences work with a multidimensional framework when analysing social processes and identity formation. Race, class, gender and sexuality are just the four best-known categories in such an analysis but in recent years, many more categories have emerged as important fields of study, e.g. disability, age or religion.

A term that has been coined for such multidimensional discussions is intersectionality, a conceptualization of identity that captures the ways in which race, gender, sexuality, and class, among other categories, are produced through each other, securing both privilege and oppression simultaneously (cf. Nash 2008, 10).

The seminar addresses the added value as well as the pitfalls and issues of such intersectional analyses. We will look at texts about the concept of intersectionality and its history as well as the debate surrounding the emergence of the term in the 1990s.

Among others, we will focus on the following questions:
1. Is intersectionality a theory, a method, a framework or a heuristics?
2. What does the metaphor of the intersection imply and how useful is it?
3. How has the issue of categories (and their number) been addressed in intersectionality?
4. When does an intersectional analysis become too messy, but what is also interesting about the messiness of such a project?
5. How can intersectionality be applied to different types of research material, e.g. literary texts, audio-visual material, historical data or interviews and quantitative data?

Participants will have the opportunity to discuss how they work with categories (and which ones) in their own projects, how many categories they included and why, and present results gleaned from their own intersectional analyses. Therefore, the seminar is open to early-stage PhD candidates who are still working out their analytic framework and methodology as well as to PhD candidates who are nearing the end of their projects and are interested in presenting concrete results.

Assessment and permitted materials

• Regular attendance and preparation of session material
• General participation in class, including individual contributions, work with a partner as well as work in groups
• Presentation of your PhD project, and peer-to-peer feedback to other participants’ projects
• Portfolio of two writing tasks (one about your own project, one as a response paper)

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

• Active participation and contributions in class: 20%
• Project Presentation and responses to other’s presentations: 40%
• Portfolio Tasks: 40%

Examination topics

• Input phases combined with group work and classroom discussion
• Student input from your project presentations session
• Students' written research projects in the portfolio

Reading list

Theoretical Readings:

Brah, Avtar, and Ann Phoenix. “Ain’t I A Woman? Revisiting Intersectionality.” Journal of International Women’s Studies 5.3 (May 2004): 75-86.
Davis, Kathy. “Intersectionality as Buzzword: A Sociology of Science Perspective on what makes a Feminist Theory successful.” Feminist Theory 9 (2008): 67-86.
Crenshaw, Kimberlé. “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine.” The University of Chicago Legal Forum 139 (1989): 139-167.
Garner, Steve. Racisms: An Introduction. Los Angeles et al.: Sage, 2010.
Hancock, Ange-Marie. Intersectionality: An Intellectual History. Oxford: UP, 2016.
Hill Collins, Patricia, and Sirma Bilge. Intersectionality. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2016.
Lorde, Audre. “The Master’s Tool Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House.” This Bridge Called my Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. Eds. Gloria Anzaldúa and Cherríe Moraga. New York: Kitchen Table, Women of Color Press, 1981. 98-101.
Mc Call, Leslie. “The Complexity of Intersectionality.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 3 (2005): 1771-1800.
Nash, Jennifer C. “Re-thinking Intersectionality.” feminist review 89 (2008): 1-15.
Smith, Barbara “Racism and Women’s Studies.” All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave. Eds. Gloria T. Hull, Patricia Bell Scott, and Barbara Smith. New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 1982.
West, Candace, and Sarah Fenstermaker. “Doing difference.” Gender & Society 9.1 (1995): 8-37.

The articles or excerpts from the respective books will be made available on moodle.
The seminar corpus is not fixed but very much open to suggestions by participants and material that is relevant in the context of individual projects.

Association in the course directory

Last modified: Th 09.01.2025 00:25