Lahore University of Management Sciences

ANTH 250 Gender and Power

Fall 2014-15
Instructor
Room No.
Office Hours
Email
Telephone
Secretary/TA
TA Office
Hours
Course URL (if
any)

COURSE BASICS
Credit Hours
Lecture(s)

Sadaf Ahmad
sadafah@lums.edu.pk

Recitation/Lab (per
week)
Tutorial (per week)

4
Nbr of Lec(s) Per
Week
Nbr of Lec(s) Per
Week
Nbr of Lec(s) Per
Week

COURSE DISTRIBUTION
Core
Elective
Yes
Open for Student
All. Priority to ANTH-SOC Majors
Category
Close for Student
Category

Duration 110 mins

Duration
Duration

COURSE DESCRIPTION
Gender and power intersect in innumerable ways. This course will explore these intersections by first gaining a
more complex understanding of these concepts. Hence, the course will begin by tracing the development of the
concept of genderits meaning, construction and reproduction in society, along with an overview of the many
faces it can take and the multiple ways it can combine with people upholding different sexualities. The course will
then explore the nature of power from various theoretical perspectives in order to recognize the different ways in
which it has been conceptualized. A more complex understanding of gender and power and the manner in
which they intersectillustrated through case studies from different parts of the worldwill allow students the
opportunity to, a) gain an in depth understanding of how power operates in society, and b) question the extent to
which the binary category of men/women, liberation/oppression empowered/disempowered or
powerful/powerless are useful as analytical tools.
COURSE PREREQUISITE(S)

Lahore University of Management Sciences

None

COURSE OBJECTIVES
To move beyond a simplistic understanding of the terms gender and power
To develop a nuanced understanding of gender issues that can only be gained through a recognition of
multiple genders and sexualities, and a nuanced look at how power (and its multiple nodes) operates in
society. This means:
o Moving beyond a simplistic, one dimensional view of men and womens lives and the culture they live
in, and paying attention to the complex interplay of factors and frameworks that shape their lives and
within which they function.
Enabling students to look at the systemic nature of their own social issues from an analytical perspective
Developing skills for effective communication: listening, reading, writing, and speaking.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
From the
Goal # 3: Train students to use social scientific theoretical concepts and research methodologies
ANTH SOC
with an emphasis on selective sub-fields of specialization. These sub-fields include both academic
Learning
Outcomes
and applied sub-disciplines.
Document
Objective # 1: Students will demonstrate their knowledge of the use of social scientific theoretical
and methodological principles to specific aspects of social life
GRADING BREAKUP AND POLICY
Assignment(s): 22%
Home Work:
Quiz(s):
Class Participation: 6%
Attendance: 5%
Midterm Examination: 27%
Project: 20%
Research + Group Presentation: 20%
Final Examination:
EXAMINATION DETAIL

Midterm
Exam

Yes/No: Yes
Combine Separate:
Duration: 110 mins (during class time)
Preferred Date:
Exam Specifications:

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Final Exam

Yes/No:
Combine Separate:
Duration:
Exam Specifications:

COURSE OVERVIEW
Session

Topics

What is Gender?

Why do Gender Roles and

Inequalities Exist?

The Rise of Feminism and

Masculinity Studies

The Rise of Feminism and

Masculinity Studies

Required
Readings
* Frances Mascia-Lees and
Nancy Blacks The History
of the Study of
Gender in Anthropology,
Gender and Anthropology.
Long Grove: Waveland Press.
2000. Pgs. 1-12

* R. W. Connells The
History of Masculinity, in
Masculinities. Berkeley:
University of California
Press. 1995. Pgs. 185-203
* Frances Mascia-Lees and
Nancy Blacks The
Materialist Orientation, in
Gender and Anthropology.
Long Grove: Waveland Press.
2000. Pgs. 47-67
* bell hooks Black Women:
Shaping
ry, i Feminist Theory: From
Margin to Center. London:
Pluto Press. 2000. Pgs. 1-17

*Angela Davis Racism, Birth

Control and Reproductive
Rights, in Feminist
Postcolonial Theory, Reina
Lewis & Sara Mills (Eds).
New York: Routledge. 2003.
Pgs. 353-365
* Tom Digbys Introduction
and Michael Kimmels
Whos Afraid of Men Doing
Feminism? in Men Doing

Objectives/
Application

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Feminism, Tom Digby (Ed.).
New York: Routledge. 1998.
Pgs. 1-5, 57-68.

Intersecting Inequalities

* Chandra Mohantys Under

Western Eyes, in Third
World Women and the
Politics of Feminism, Chandra
Mohanty, Ann Russo and
Lourdes Torres (Eds.).
Bloomington: Indiana
University Press. 1991. Pgs.
51-74

- Khalida Saeds On the Edge

of Belonging, in Living Islam
out Loud.
Saleemah Abdul-Ghafur (Ed).
Boston: Beacon Press. 2005.
Pgs. 86-94
Intersecting Inequalities
8

The Reproduction of Power

Dynamics

* Richard Delgado and Jean

Stefancics Minority Men,
Misery, and the Marketplace
of ideas, in Constructing
Masculinity, Maurice Berger,
Brian Wallis, and Simon
Watson (Eds.). New York:
Routledge. 1995. Pgs. 211220

* Fouzia Saeeds Searching

for Clues and The Real
Reasons, in Taboo! Karachi:
Oxford University Press.
2001. Pgs. 284-313
*Thomas Michael Walles
Virginity vs decency:
continuity and change in
Pakistani mens perception
of sexuality and women, in
south asian masculinities:
context of change, sites of
continuity, Radhika Chopra,
Caroline Osella and Filippo

Lahore University of Management Sciences

Osella (Eds.). New Delhi:
Women Unlimited (Kali),
2004. Pgs. 96-130
The Reproduction of Power
Dynamics
10

Body Politics
11

12

Body Politics

Body Politics

* Naomi Wolfs The Beauty

Myth, in Women in Culture:
A Womens Studies Anthology.
Lucinda Peach (ed.). Oxford
Blackwell Publishers. 1998.
Pgs. 179-187
* Susan Bordos The Body
and the Reproduction of
Femininity in
Gender/Body/Knowledge,
Alison Jaggar and Susan
Bordo (Eds). New
Brunswick: Rutgers
University Press. 1989. Pgs.
13-28

* Kathryn Morgans Women

and the Knife, in the Politics
of Womens Bodies. Rose
Weitz (ed). NY: OUP. 2003.
Pgs. 164-180

* Lucinda Peachs Women &

Popular Culture. Pgs. 119127
* Jean Kilbournes Beauty &
the Beast of Advertising.
Pgs. 127-131

13

14

* Michel Foucaults
Panopticism, in Discipline
and Punishment. New York:
Vintage Books. 1977. Pgs.
200-203

Body Politics

* Linda Scotts Fresh

Lipstick: Rethinking Images
of Women in Advertising.
Pgs. 131-141
* Judith Lorbers Believing

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15
16

Mid-Term
The Politics of Gender in a Historical
Moment
Body Politics II

No readings
No readings

* Chrys Ingrahams Thinking

Straight, Acting Bent, in
Handbook of Gender and
Womens Studies. Kathy
Davis, Mary Evans and Judith
Lorber (eds). Londong: Sage.
2006. Pgs. 307-319
* Wendy McKenna and
Suzanne Kesslers
Transgendering: Blurring
the Boundaries of Gender,
in Handbook of Gender and
Womens Studies. Kathy
Davis, Mary Evans and Judith
Lorber (eds). Londong: Sage.
2006. Pgs. 342-352

17

Body Politics II
18

Body Politics II

19

is Seeing, in the Politics of

Womens Bodies. Rose Weitz
(ed). NY: OUP. 2003. Pgs. 1221

* Jason Cromwells Queering

the Boundaries, in The
Transgender Studies Reader.
Susan Stryker and Steven
Whittle (eds). NY: Routledge.
Pgs. 509-519
*Riki Wilchins What Does it
Cost to Tell the Truth? in
The Transgender Studies
Reader. Susan Stryker and
Steven Whittle (eds). NY:
Routledge. Pgs. 547-551

* Jacob Hales Are Lesbians

Women? in The Transgender
Studies Reader. Susan
Stryker and Steven Whittle
(eds). NY: Routledge. Pgs.
281-297

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The Different Faces of Power

20

21

The Different Faces of Power

The Different Faces of Power

22

23
24

25

The Different Faces of Power

The Different Faces of Power
Models of Gender Justice

* Rose Weitzs Women &

Their Hair: Seeking Power
through Resistance &
Accomodation, in Gender
and Society, 15(5):667-684

* Katherine Pinchs Of
course you have power
Batwoman....but dont forget
your purse! in Journal of
Experiential Education,
29(3): 418-423.

* Gloria Rahejas & Ann Golds

On the Uses of Subversion in
Listen to the Herons Words.
Berkeley: University of
California Press. Pgs. 121-136

*Kaveri Harriss Gender and

Poetics of Chronic Ill Health,
in Pakistani Women: Multiple
Locations and Competing
Narratives, Sadaf Ahmad
(Ed.). Karachi: OUP. Pgs. 163193
No readings
No readings
* Valentine Moghadams
Islamic Feminism & its
Discontents. In Gender,
Politics, and Islam, Therese
Saliba, Carolyn Allen, and
Judith Howard (Eds.).
Chicago: University of
Chicago Press. 2002.15-46

* Nighat Khan and Rubina

Saigols Womens Action
Forum: Debates and
Contradictions. in Up
Against the State, Nighat
Khan (Ed.). Lahore: ASR
Publications. 2004. Pgs. 146191

Lahore University of Management Sciences

Models of Gender Justice
26

27
28

Models of Gender Justice

Models of Gender Justice

Textbook(s)/Supplementary Readings

* George Yudices Whats a

Straight White Man to do?
in Constructing Masculinity,
Maurice Berger, Brian Wallis,
and Simon Watson (Eds.).
New York: Routledge. 1995.
Pgs. 267-283
TBA
TBA