Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Spring 2017 - HIST 890 G100

Gender and History (5)

Class Number: 7619

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Jan 4 – Apr 7, 2017: Fri, 9:30 a.m.–2:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

Description

COURSE DETAILS:

This course will be an interdisciplinary exploration of gender in historical perspective, with a particular focus on Canadian and U.S. histories of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Through extensive reading of theoretical works and empirical historical studies, we will examine the meanings attributed to gender difference across time and place, and how gender intersects with other systems of meaning (e.g., race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, ability) in organizing power relations within particular historical contexts.  Films and guest speakers will enhance our understandings.  We will discuss gender as an ongoing and dynamic process, in which knowledge about sexual difference is frequently contested, and either legitimized or redefined.  We will also examine how the discipline of history plays a part in this process:  how, by the way it records and analyzes understandings of sexual difference, history becomes part of the power struggle by which gender is produced, reproduced, and transformed.

This course is designed for graduate students of History and of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies.  However, graduate students from other disciplines will be very welcome if space is available (consult with the Instructor).  A key objective of the course is to create an interdisciplinary forum in which we can engage rigorously with the issues and debates introduced by each week’s course materials.

Grading

  • Seminar participation 15%
  • Seminar leadership 20%
  • Historical op-ed 20%
  • Historiographical paper – presentation of draft 15%
  • Historiographical paper – final 30%

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

(Note that these texts will be shelved in the SFU Bookstore under GSWS 820.  Most are also available for purchase on the Internet.)

Sarah Carter, Capturing Women: The Manipulation of Cultural Imagery in Canada’s Prairie West.  McGill-Queens, 1997; 2004

Adele Perry, On the Edge of Empire: Gender, Race, and the Making of British Columbia. University of Toronto Press, 2001.

George Chauncey, Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940.  Basic Books, 1995.

Lara Campbell, Respectable Citizens: Gender, Family, and Unemployment in Ontario’s Great Depression.  University of Toronto Press, 2009.

Judith/Jack Halbertstam, Female Masculinity.  Duke University, 1998.

Varda Burstyn. The Rites of Men: Manhood, Politics, and the Culture of Sport. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999.

Miles White, From Jim Crow to Jay-Z: Race, Rap, and the Performance of Masculinity.  University of Illinois, 2011.

Additional articles and chapters posted on Canvas.

Graduate Studies Notes:

Important dates and deadlines for graduate students are found here: http://www.sfu.ca/dean-gradstudies/current/important_dates/guidelines.html. The deadline to drop a course with a 100% refund is the end of week 2. The deadline to drop with no notation on your transcript is the end of week 3.

Registrar Notes:

SFU’s Academic Integrity web site http://students.sfu.ca/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating.  Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the University community.  Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the University. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the University. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS