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Social Intersections: Gender, Race and Class

  • Module code: SO6014
  • Year: 2018/9
  • Level: 6
  • Credits: 30
  • Pre-requisites: Successful completion of Level 5 Sociology or equivalent Sociology, Criminology or equivalent
  • Co-requisites: None

Summary

This module explores the social intersections between gender, race and class. It begins by examining the feminist concept of intersectionality which will be used as an analytical tool to provide a more complex account of our lived experience. From the beginning, the module will introduce you to a wide range of feminist approaches in order to make sense of various intersections of gender, race and class. In this module you will consider how such categories and intersections contribute to identity constructions and contestations. You will reflect on these elements within contemporary examples of everyday life – for example, the arts, employment, environment, families and intimacies, health and ageing, education and religion. Upon completion of this module you will have expanded your skills in critical reflection and analysis of social intersections and inequalities. 

Aims

  • To examine concepts of gender, race and class.
  • To analyse and critique theoretical arguments around the intersections of gender, race and class raised by contemporary authors and social theorists.
  • To examine social transformations to categories of gender, race and class.
  • To analyse and critique identities and inequalities existing in today's social world; and the ways in which these are mobilised and reinforced.

Learning outcomes

  • Critically evaluate the intersecting concepts of gender, race and class using academic theories.
  • Identify and analyse gender, race and class distinctions and inequalities that exist in today's social world.
  • Understand and critique the different ways in which gender, race and class are mobilised and reinforced.
  • Gain skills in critical reflection and analysis of social intersections and inequalities.

Curriculum content

  • Feminist challenges and epistemologies
  • Work and the division of labour
  • Social movements and mobilisations
  • Power, resistance and agency
  • Representations and the 'gaze'
  • Families and intimacies
  • Reproductive rights
  • Transnational and postcolonial feminisms
  • Heteronormativity, performativity and the sexual self
  • Place, space and power
  • Masculinities, femininities and sexualities
  • Popular culture

Teaching and learning strategy

This module is organized around a weekly three-hour workshop. Workshops will provide you with a combination of contextualization and explanation of theoretical concepts and approaches to intersections of gender, race and class. Workshops will consist of lectures, discussions, small-group activities, reading groups, visual materials, and other activities that will allow you to individually and collectively engage with and work through the course material in order to achieve the aims and outcomes of the module.

Breakdown of Teaching and Learning Hours

Definitive UNISTATS Category Indicative Description Hours
Scheduled learning and teaching Workshops (3hrs) 66
Guided independent study Workshops (3hrs) 234
Total (number of credits x 10) 300

Assessment strategy

The module will be assessed using a combination of formative and summative assessment. Students will receive feedback on formative exercises so that they are able to use this constructively in the summative assessment on the module. 

The summative assessment will consist of two essays: firstly, a critical reflection (1,000 words) on the term ‘intersectionality' which will include an analysis of a personal experience  (40%). This will enable students to demonstrate the second learning outcome which is to identify and analyse gender, race and class distinctions and inequalities that exist in their social world. It will also offer an opportunity to meet the first learning outcome by furnishing students with the opportunity to relate their own personal experiences of gender, race and class to theorisations of intersectionality.

The second piece of summative assessment is an extended essay of 2,000 words worth 60% of the final grade for the module. This will facilitate the opportunity for students to demonstrate all four of the learning outcomes, not only by making critical and analytic connections between theorists, but also by providing a critical account of ‘real' world gendered, race and classed experiences. The essay will also offer students the opportunity to demonstrate that they understand the importance within feminist research of the intersections between gender, race and class and other identity categories such as age, sexuality and faith.

The formative assessment will consist of a peer reviewed essay plan. This will provide students with the opportunity to discuss their essay plans with seminar tutors and fellow students. It will enable students to consider how their work will meet the Learning Outcomes set out above.

Mapping of Learning Outcomes to Assessment Strategy (Indicative)

Learning Outcome Assessment Strategy
Critically evaluate the intersecting concepts of gender, race and class using academic theories. Summative: Critical Reflection Extended Essay Formative: Peer reviewed essay plan
Identify and analyse gender, race and class distinctions and inequalities that exist in today's social world. Summative: Critical Reflection Extended Essay Formative: Peer reviewed essay plan
Understand and critique the different ways in which gender, race and class are mobilised and reinforced. Summative: Critical Reflection Extended Essay Formative: Peer reviewed essay plan
Gain skills in critical reflection and analysis of social intersections and inequalities. Summative: Critical Reflection Extended Essay Formative: Peer reviewed essay plan

Elements of Assessment

Description of Assessment Definitive UNISTATS Categories Percentage
CWK Critical Reflection 1000 words 40
CWK Extended 2000 word essay 60
Total (to equal 100%) 100%

Achieving a pass

It IS NOT a requirement that any major assessment category is passed separately in order to achieve an overall pass for the module

Bibliography core texts

De Beauvoir, S. (1997) The Second Sex. London: Vintage Classics.

Butler, J. (1999) Gender Trouble. New York: Routledge.

Collins, P. Hill (2000) Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (2nd Edn).New York: Routledge.

Connell, R. (1987) Gender and Power: Society, The Person and Sexual Politics. Stanford: University of California Press.

Friedan, B. (1964) The Feminine Mystique. London: Penguin.

hooks, b. (2000) Where We Stand: Class Matters. New York: Routledge.

Lorde, A. (1984) Sister/Outsider: Essays and Speeches. New York: Crossing Press.

Lutz, H., Vivar Harrison, M. T., and Supik, L. (eds.) (2011) Framing Intersectionality:Debates on a Multi-Faceted Concept in Gender Studies. Farnham: Ashgate.

Savage, M. (2015) Social Class in the 21st Century. London: Pelican.

Skeggs, B. (1997) Formations of Class and Gender. London: Sage.

Yuval-Davis, N. (2012) The Politics of Belonging: Intersectional Contestations. London: Sage.

Bibliography recommended reading

Alexander, C. E. (2000) The Asian Gang: Ethnicity, Identity, Masculinity. Oxford: Berg.

Bell, D. and Valentine, G. (1997) Consuming Geographies: We Are Where We Eat. London: Routledge.

Berger, J. (1973) Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting.

Bordo, S. (2003) Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body. London: University of California Press.

Brah, A. & Pheonix, A. (2004) Ain't I a woman? Revisiting intersectionality.  Journal of International Women's Studies 5(3): 75-86.

Carrington, B. (2010) Race, Sport and Politics: The Sporting Black Diaspora. London: Sage.

Collins, P. Hill (2006) From Black Power to Hip Hop: Racism, Nationalism, and Feminism. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Connell, R. (2005) Masculinities (2nd Edn.). Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Crenshaw, K. (1991) Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women. Stanford Law Review 43(6): 1241-1299.

Crenshaw, K. (1989) Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum 138-167.

Davis, A. Y. (1981) Women, Race and Class. New York: Random House.

Frankenberg, R. (1993a) White Women, Race Matters: The Social Construction of Whiteness. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

hooks, b. (1990) Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics. Boston, MA: South End Press.

hooks, b. (1984) Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. Boston, MA: South End Press.

Jackson, S. and Scott, S. (2010) Theorizing Sexuality. Maidenhead: McGraw Hill Open University Press.

Kemp, S. and Squires, J. (2002) Feminisms. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Lorde, A. (1982) Zami – A New Spelling of My Name. New York: Crossing Press.

Mirza, H. S. (ed) (1997) Black British Feminism. London: Routledge.

Mohanty, C. Talpade (2003) ‘Under Western Eyes: feminist Scholarship' in Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity. Duke: Duke University Press.

Puwar, N. and Raghuram, P. (eds.) (2003) South Asian Women in the Diaspora. London: Bloomsbury.

Raj, D. (2003) Where are you from? Middle-class Migrants in the Modern World. Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Said, E. (1978) Orientalism. New York: Penguin.

Tyler, K. (2012) Whiteness, Class and the Legacies of Empire: On Home Ground. London: Palgrave.

Walker, R. (1995) To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism. New York: Anchor Books.

Ware, V. (1992) Beyond the Pale: White Women, Racism and History. London: Verso.

Yuval-Davis, N. (2006) Intersectionality and feminist politics. European Journal of Women's Studies 13(3): 193–209.

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