Introduction to Gender

Course Type	Course Code	No. Of Credits
Discipline Core	NSGA1AEO102	4

Course coordinator and team: Lovitoli Jimo (Shubhra Nagalia; Dhruv Pande)

Summary: The course attempts to introduce undergraduate students to gender – as an analytical category, as a social identity and as an investment to our gendered selves. As an analytical category, the course would seek to ask as to while men and women seem to be everywhere, gender requires unveiling? Similarly, why are societies, power, ideas and everyday life organised around the gender a person is assigned? And, finally, why even as we may recognise societal norms to be oppressive, are we so occupied in the production and execution of our own selves as gendered? Taking off from the last module, we would now ask as to while race and caste seem social and thus fixed, desire and sexuality seem transgressive, as concepts & in relation to each other. We are also going to interrogate how sexualities come about to be personal, and what are the different claims to recognition that such desires involve.

Objectives:

Identify key concepts and terms of Gender.
Demonstrate knowledge of key texts and topics related to Gender.
Use written and oral skills to apply to an academic argument.
Demonstrate an awareness of critical skills required to read a range of texts.
Apply research skills to source materials for class presentations and assessment tasks.
Ability to acquire knowledge and skills, including “learning how to learn” for life-long learning.

Expected learning outcomes:

Students should be Capable of demonstrating comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the key concepts of the course.
Students should be capable to apply analytic thought to a body of knowledge, and analyse as well as evaluate arguments.
Students should be able to work effectively and respectfully with diverse teams and present their collective work.
Students should acquire critical sensibility to lived experiences, with self awareness and reflexivity of both self and society..

Overall structure (course organisation, rationale of organisation; outline of each module):

Module 1 - : Sex, Gender & Sexuality

The course begins with the idea of gender and what it means. The attempt of the module is to open up gender to its entanglements with sexuality and why a study of their relationship enriches our understanding of sex/gender/sexuality.

Module 2: Gender and Violence

In this module the course looks into: What is the relationship between violence and gender? Is violence something that acts upon women, like power? Or is it constitutive of the very texture of gender? If it is, then are we condemned to live with violence or is it something that we can actively negotiate and mobilise around?

Module 3: Gender and Identity

This module seeks to open up not only the operations and circulation of gender as an identity but also the risky business of identification. We not only look at how some continue to be excluded out of identities but also the difficult negotiations many do to enter these identities.

If we recognize gender to be both social and personal identity then how do we negotiate desires within the constraints of identity?

Module 4: Questions from the Women’s Movement: Family & Property

Women’s Movement recognizes family as a site of violence and as a site of reproduction for gender ideology. Property has also been an important issue for the Movement. While all these Movements are based upon women, there have been fault lines assuming Women as a homogenous unified category. The course would also look at these issues.

Contents (week wise plan with readings):

Week	Plan/ Theme/ Topic	Objectives	Core Reading (with no. of pages)	Additional Suggested Readings	Assessment (weights, modes, scheduling)
1	Introductory lecture in a discussion mode the concepts of gender, sex and sexuality	Familiarise the students with the course objectives and the key concepts of the course.	Discussion	Wajeda Tabassum, “Utran [Castoffs]”, in Tharu and Lalita, eds. Women Writing in India: Volume II: (New Delhi: OUP, 1993); pages 411- 416.
2	Discussing further key concepts of feminism and a feminist perspective.	Elaborate on the key concepts of previous lecture and adding to them.	Menon, Nivedita. “Introduction’ page vii to xii; Zubaan, N.D. 2012	Film: Chandni Bar
3	Screen sections of a film ‘Dhobi Ghat.’	To elaborate and deepen the introduced concepts in a	Film selections	Agha Shahid Ali, selections of poems from “The
	followed by a discussion.	format that is engaging.		Veiled Suite”, 2009
4	Discuss a reading to clarify the relationship between sex-gender and sexuality.	To train students to engage with texts and relate discussed concepts with a text on sex and gender.	Fausto- Sterling, Anne ‘Five Sexes. Why Male and Female are not Enough’ in The Sciences, March/April 1993, page 20- 25		First Assessment, 20% based on a written essay on the film ‘The Danish Girl’ or ‘Dance Like a Man’ Hindi Film-
5	Discuss the concept of violence and its relationship with gender through an experiential reading.	Familiarise students with experiential readings and relating them with theoretical concepts.	Sohaila Abdulali, “I fought for my life… and won”, Manushi, No. 16 (June–July), 1983. * link given below	Urmila Pawar—The Weave of my Life, Stree, 2008; pages 41-46
6	Screen a short film and discuss intersectionality theory in the context of gender and violence.	Equip students to engage with versatile texts	Bawandar	Anzaldua and Moraga; ‘La Guera’ in This Bridge called My Back, Kitchen Table-Women of Colour Press, 1981, pages 27-34
7	Consolidate the concepts with a reading that is a conceptual piece that uses life narratives.	Tran students to learn complex concepts though a variety of texts.	Urvashi Butalia,. 1998. The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India, New Delhi: Penguin	Flavia [Agnes] and Women’s Centre, Bombay, My Story, Our Story: Of Rebuilding Broken Lives (Bombay:	Assessment two of 30% weightage. Presentations of each team (5-6 students) on any chosen contemporary event of violence and gender.
			Books, 1998. pages 125-143.	Women’s Centre, 1984).
8	Introduce and discuss the concept of identity and its relation with gender	The use of yet another kind of text trains students to engage with different registers and build their arguments using a variety of sources.	S. Joseph, “Identity Card” [poem/trans.], in K. Satyanarayana and Susie Tharu, eds. The Exercise of Freedom: An Introduction to Dalit Writing (New Delhi: Navayana, 2013).	Film: Darmiyaan or Khamosh Pani
9	Discuss the concept of gender and identity to consolidate previous discussions through a reading.	Diversity of contexts and characters will enable students to be trained in an intersectional approach.	Kunzang Choden, “My Name, My Identity”, in Tales in Colour and Other Stories, (New Delhi: Zubaan Books, 2009). pp. 1-5.		Assessment 3 of 20% weightage. A collage of cuttings or photographs with a theme of gender and identity in its intersection with class, caste etc. The collage wll be submitted with a paragraph describing its key points.
10	Discuss ‘family’, a prominent issues of concern to the Indian women’s movements	Train the students to use concepts and relate them with concepts raised by the movement.	Chaudhary, Prem; ‘Customs in a Peasant Economy’ in ‘Recasting Women, Kali for Women, New Delhi, 1989 pages 408-413	Film : Daman or Matrubhoomi
11	‘Sati’ also has been crucial to women’s movements.	Continue the training to understand movements also as sites of producing theory and knowledge.	Mani, Lata; ‘Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial India’ in ‘Recasting Women, Kali for Women, New Delhi, 1989 pages 115-120	Film: Water
12	Wrap up using a text that explains the concept of ‘multiple patriarchies.’	Learn how to wrap up an argument and thereby acquire the skill to build up and wrap an argument.	Sangari, KumKum and Vaid, Sudesh; ‘Introduction’ in ‘Recasting Women,’ Kali for Women, New Delhi, 1989,’pages 18-34		Assessment four of 30% weightage. A written essay on a preset question based on the last unit.