CP0363: Gender, Space and Place

School Cardiff School of Geography and Planning
Department Code GEOPL
Module Code CP0363
External Subject Code 100671
Number of Credits 20
Level L6
Language of Delivery English
Module Leader Dr Laura Boyer
Semester Spring Semester
Academic Year 2015/6

Outline Description of Module

This module will introduce students to the dynamic field of Feminist Geography.  Students will gain an understanding of what have been the key issues in this field over time as well as engaging with cutting-edge contemporary research.  Students will work with concepts such as power, care, identity, the sexual division of labour, embodiment and materiality.  As such this module dovetails nicely with other modules in CPLAN, offering students the opportunity to expand on concepts to which they have been introduced elsewhere and synthesise their learning in new ways. We will work with theory through grounded, real-world cases, such as for example issues relating to body-politics and rights to public space in the case of sexual harassment; and the social, moral and geo-political implications of international surrogacy.

On completion of the module a student should be able to

  1. Gain a deeper understanding of the relations between Gender, Space and Place;
  2. Understand and work with key concepts in Feminist Geography;
  3. Critically reflect on how of gender, embodiment and identity have shaped their own life and understanding of self;
  4. Think critically about issues of ‘everyday sexism’.

How the module will be delivered

This module will be delivered through three mechanisms:

 

  1. Lectures. These will be used to introduce students to key issues, theories and concepts. Attendance at lectures is essential to develop an understanding of the key conceptual issues with which they are expected to work in their assessment.
  2. Small group reading seminars. Prior to seminars, students will be required to identify and read material on a pre-determined issue relating to feminist geography. These will be student-led and will provide an opportunity to discuss issues and ideas in depth. Seminars provide essential preparation for the assessment of this module in terms of coming grips with the key concepts.  Students will read works from both within and outside the discipline of Geography, including from fields of women’s studies, feminist theory, and anthropology.
  3. Student presentations Students will deliver presentations on a set list of topics. This will form part of the assessment also provides an opportunity for students to learn from their peers.   

Skills that will be practised and developed

Whilst studying this module, students will practise and develop a number of skills. These include:

 

  1. The ability to identify and research literature on a topic;
  2. The ability to reflect on what they are learning and connect what they are learning in class to their own life;
  3. Discussing ideas critically in a group;
  4. Oral and written communication skills

How the module will be assessed

Students will be assessed through three summative mechanisms.

 

The first form of assessment is a cultural life history of gender journal (individual).  For this assessment students will reflect on past and on-going experiences through which they have become an engendered subject, drawing on concepts discussed in class (such as embodiment, rights to space, and the gender division of labour).  This is an innovative form of assessment which asks students to engage in reflexive auto-ethnography.  Students will be asked to review their own memories and analyse particular events as engendering, reviewing also the kinds of messages they have received over time (from family, peers, school, etc) about what it is to be a (good) boy/girl/man/woman.  Student will then be asked to reflect on these messages and consider the extent to which they agree or disagree with the normative gender scripts they have received, and the choices they might make as (older) adults about ‘how to be men and women’ based on this.

 

The second form of assessment is a paper from a set list. Indicative topics include sexual assault on college campuses and efforts to combat it, fertility tourism, international egg sale, make primary caring, contemporary feminist activism, or a topic of the student’s choosing.  This project can be either individual or done in groups (with group grades) as students prefer.  Group working is offered as an option for the second assignment because it is a tenet of feminist pedagogy that collective learning has the potential to deliver dividends beyond individual learning.  Word length for this assignment corresponds to whether the projects are individual or group with loading following the pattern below.  Group projects will be marked collectively.  Each member of group projects will assess the contribution of the other members of their group member to ensure everyone does their fair share.

 

Individual: 2,000 words;  Group of two: 4,000 words;  Group of three: 6,000 words; Group of four: 8,000 words.

 

The third form of assessment is a 10 minute oral presentation of no more than 4 ppt slides based on paper topic.  There are no hand-in materials for the presentation. These will take place at the end of term.

 

Type of assessment

 

%

Contribution

Title

Duration
(if applicable)

Approx. date of Assessment

Journal

35

Cultural life history project

1,500 words

Spring

 Term paper

50

essay

2,000-8,000 words (depending on whether  individual or group: see notation about this above)

Spring

Presentation

15

 

 

Spring

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Assessment Breakdown

Type % Title Duration(hrs)
Written Assessment 35 Journal N/A
Written Assessment 15 Presentation N/A
Written Assessment 50 Term Paper N/A

Syllabus content

The module will begin by providing a background to Feminist Geography taking students from the inception of this sub-discipline to the present.

 

We will then address the gender division of labour, including the Fordist gender contract, carework, emotional labour and global care chains.

 

We will then proceed on to a section on geographies of birth and parenthood. This section may include examinations of international egg sale, home-births, and the spatial politics of breastfeeding.  This section will include a viewing of film ‘the business of being born’ about the ‘birth industrial complex’ in the US.

Essential Reading and Resource List

Butler, R. (1999) The body, in Introducing human geographies  Ed. Paul Cloke, Philip Crang and Mark Goodwin  London, Arnold, pp. 238-245.

 

Colls, R. (2006) Outsize/Outside: Bodily bignesses and the emotional experiences of British women shopping for clothes. Gender Place and Culture. 13:529-545.

 

Fannin, M. (2003) Domesticating Birth in the Hospital: "Family-Centered" Birth and the Emergence of "Homelike" Birthing Rooms

 Antipode. 35 (3) p. 513 – 535.

 

Gender, Place and Culture, (Journal) Published by Taylor and Francis,   available on-line at: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t713423101 (note: if you have problems opening a file directly, try downloading it first).  Just have a look around to get a feel for trends and current themes in Feminist Geography.

 

Longhurst, R. (1997) (Dis)embodied geographies,  Progress in Human Geography 21  486-501.

 

Mansfield B. (2008) The social nature of natural childbirth. Social Science and Medicine 66: 1084-1094.

 

Massey, D. (1994) Space, place, and gender. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

 

McDowell, L. (1999) Gender, identity and place:  understanding feminist geographies Cambridge, Polity.  See especially Chapters 2, 4 and 8

 

Nelson, L. and J.  Seager (Eds) (2005) A companion to Feminist Geography (Blackwell).

 

Staeheli, L. and R. Nagar (2002). Feminists talk across worlds. Gender, Place and Culture 9 167–72.

 

Valentine, G. (2001) The body,  Chapter 2 in Social geographies:  space and society  Harlow, Prentice Hall, pp. 15-62.

 

Young, I. M., (1990) Throwing like a girl:  a phenomenology of feminine body            comportment, motility and spatiality, in Throwing like a girl and other essays in feminist philosophy and social theory  Bloomington:  University of Indiana Press.


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