Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2010:

For the purposes of considering requests for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements of this entry.

The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website : http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

This subject surveys recent developments in feminist theory and feminist methodology within a cross-cultural context. It explores issues involved in present-day debates about feminist epistemology and knowledge, including debates surrounding the relationship between western and other feminisms, the contributions of postcolonial feminists and queer theorists.

In 2010 the subject will consider the backlash against multiculturalism, framed largely in terms of the toleration of cultural beliefs and practices that contravene and impinge on the sovereign rights of individual members of particular groups, particularly women, sexual minorities and children.

The issues highlighted in these contests include religious fundamentalism, the veil, honour killings, and arranged marriage to name a few. Importantly, what do those who are situated at the centre of these controversies, the women and men themselves have to say, both to members of their own groups and to the those who consider them victims or perpetrators of unacceptable cultural practices.

These controversies are considered in the context of tensions around secularism, religion, sexuality, the law, the individual and the group. individual freedom and cultural constraint. feminist critics of multiculturalism and multicultural critics of feminism.

Students who successfully complete this subject will:

• show an advanced understanding of the changing knowledge base in the specialist area.
• be able to evaluate and synthesise the research and professional literature in the discipline.
• have an appreciation of the design, conduct and reporting of original research.

These texts will all be available at the bookshop

• Amara, Fadela (2006) Breaking the Silence: French Women's Voices from the Ghetto , Berkely, University of California Press
  
  
• Scott, Joan (2007) Politics of the Veil . Princeton, Princeton University Press
  
  
• Wikan, Unni (2008) In Honour of Fadime: Murder and Shame, Chicago, University of Chicago Press

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

Students who successfully complete this subject will:

• demonstrate research skills through competent use of the library and other information sources.
• demonstrate critical thinking and analysis through class presentation, participation, and completion of a research essay.
• show understanding of social, ethical and cultural context through the contextualisation of judgements, developing a critical self-awareness, being open to new ideas and possibilities and by constructing an argument.