Taught By:
Hollis France
Associate Professor
Political Science Department
College of Charleston
Motivation to Teach Social Action:
I want to explore strategies and approaches that effectively bridge theory and practice in my classes. My goal is for students to not only understand the theories underlying structural inequalities but also to develop the skill sets necessary to actively engage in change and remedy these inequalities. This program offers an opportunity to enhance my teaching methods and empower students to become catalysts for real-world impact.Additionally, I'm interested in moving beyond the traditional end-of-semester paper. I'd like to have students develop a social action plan around an issue they are passionate about, providing a more dynamic and impactful learning experience.
Course Description:
Global Gender Politics addresses the ways in which gender is socially constructed historically and situated in a global context. The course explores how gender intersects with multiple forms of oppression such as colonialism and capitalism, and how it is constituted by multiple social identities such as race & class & nationality to produce and reproduce power hierarchies and inequalities. In other words, gender is always raced, classed, nationalized etc. An intersectional lens is employed to enable making connections between and thinking about differences across the experiences of women and minoritized groups in diverse countries and locations, and to allow us to explore how society works, in order to think about, and evaluate strategies for making social change. We will situate this discussion against the backdrop of some key issues facing us in the world today: the caring economy; women’s political participation, militarization and gender as a decoy; neoliberal governmentality; tourism and the sex trade; reproductive and gender justice; popular/beauty culture; agency and resistance; migration and refugee issues.
