The Violence Against Women Syllabus
Dr. Tanya Rawal-Jindia — University of California, Riverside |Winter Quarter — 2018|
Course Decription: The more you get involved in this course, the more you will get out of it — and the better your grade will be! Come prepared to each class by having read or reviewed the material listed for that day. Participate in class activities, ask questions, and take notes. In this course you will learn about the broader debates regarding gender-based violence (GBV) and the legislative framework of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). You will also learn how to examine the ways culture can reinforce either violence or empathy, kindness, and peace. We will use various texts, including social and political theory, literary theory, legal documents, films, literature, digital art, as well as pamphlets and statements issued by international organizations. With the intention of dismantling violent systems, we will have thoughtful conversations that will likely include topics on domestic violence, rape, sexual harassment and assault, and other sensitive topics.
Course Readings are all available on Blackboard (and in this link).
Course assignments include weekly quizzes, 3 articles (800–1200-words), 1 group-produced podcast, and the final exam.
20% — Quizzes (10)
20% — Podcast:
15% — Article 1
15% — Article 2
15% — Article 3
15% — Final Exam
If you have any grading-related questions on quizzes or the final exam, please contact your TA first. Article and podcast questions should be directed to me, Dr. Rawal. Articles should be a cross between journalistic and academic work — meaning each article should be well researched and written in a way that is clear, comprehensible, and informative to your reader. Each of your articles will be shared in course’s digital journal, which is also on Medium. You will have the opportunity to workshop your articles with your TAs in section. It is suggested that you boost your reading of news outlets (i.e. Common Dreams, openDemocracy, Salon, etc.). Please see blackboard for my podcast directions and I have also included suggestions and helpful tips from previous students.
Classroom etiquette: You may use cell phones (please keep on silent) and laptops (with the volume off) in class if you are researching things relating to our current discussion. You and your peers will benefit from this type of device-usage in class. However, if you think you will feel tempted to check social media for non-class purposes or send texts to friends/family, then you should not use your devices in class. TAs have the permission to ask you to close/put down devices if you are disturbing your colleagues. That said, it is recommended that you learn to incorporate your devices into your work and learning habits, but this takes time and discipline!
Office hours: I am available to meet with you for the 30 minutes prior to class and the hour following each of our meetings. Or by appointment. Feel free to come by as needed.
Week 1
January 11, 2018: Introduction to Violence Against Women and Gender-Based Violence
Objective: Understand course requirements, review policies shaping the broader discussions on GBV in the United States as well as internationally, and organize podcast groups.
- Read: Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (UN General Assembly, 20 December 1993)
- Read: “Definitions and Grant Provisions” of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA)
- Review: The Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA)
- Discuss ongoing reauthorization battles of VAWA from 1994 to present.
Week 2
January 16, 2018 : Intersectionality
Objective: Understand three forms of intersectionality (structural, political, and representational)
- Read: Kimberlé W. Crenshaw’s “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity, and Violence Against Women of Color” (1993)
- Review and Analyze: DeGraffenreid vs. General Motors
January 18, 2018: Representational Intersectionality & the Matrix of Domination
Objective: Understand the matrix of domination as well as the various modes of representation that contribute to the discrimination of black women in the United States.
- Read: selections from Patricia Hill Collins’ Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (2000)
- Read: selections from bell hooks’ Black Looks: Race and Representation (1992)
- Screen: Richard Fleischer’s Mandingo (1975)
- Examine the work of Nona Faustine
- Listen to bell hooks in discussion, “Are you still a slave: liberating the black female body” (The New School)
- Discuss the ‘Say Her Name’ campaign
Week 3
January 23, 2018: Structural Intersectionality
Objective: Understand correlation between structural intersectionality and domestic violence and imprisonment; meaning of Ruth Gilmore’s description of the prison system as ‘anti-infrastructure’
- Finish discussion on Crenshaw’s “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity, and Violence Against Women of Color” (1993)
- Read: Angela Y. Davis’ “Public Imprisonment and Private Violence: Reflections on the Hidden Punishment of Women” (1998)
January 25, 2018: The Intersection of Structural and Political Intersectionality
Objective: Understand the relationship between structural and political intersectionality design of punishment and care institutions as they relate to private and domestic violence
- “Finish discussion on Angela Y. Davis’ “Public Imprisonment and Private Violence: Reflections on the Hidden Punishment of Women” (1998)
- Review and Analyze ‘Care Models’ for health systems to respond to violence against women as outlined by the World Health Organization
- Read Beth Richie’s “Trapped by Violence” from Compelled to Crime: The Gender Entrapment of Battered Black Women (1996)
Week 4
January 30, 2018: Gendering Violence
Objective: Understand the ‘maleness’ of law as described by Peach and how this disproportionately impacts women in marginalized communities.
- Read Beth Richie’s “The Problem with Male Violence Against Black Women” from Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America’s Prison Nation (2012)
- Read: Lucinda Joy Peach’s “Is Violence Male? The Law, Gender, and Violence” from Frontline Feminisms (pgs 58–72)
February 1, 2018: Nation, NAFTA, and Gender-Based Violence
Understand how NAFTA increased violence against the Latinx communities.
- Screen Bordertown (2006)
- Femicides at Juárez
- Read: Sylvanna Falcón’s “National Security and the Violation of Women: Militarized Border Rape at the US-Mexico Border”
Week 5
February 6, 2018: Affecting Policy via Film
Objective: Engage with popular scholars who are translating gender-based violence for broader audiences in an easily digestable and comprehensible format.
- Screen Amy Ziering’s The Invisible War (2012)
- Q&A (Skype) with Amy Ziering
February 8, 2018: The New Mestiza
Objective: Understand how bilingual and multilingual platforms can challenge binary thinking and reduce gender-based violence
- Read Gloria Anzaldua’s Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987)
Week 6
February 13, 2017: Women are not inherently victims
Objective: Understand how the violence that women experience is not essential to the biology of women’s bodies or the cultural meanings of femininity.
- Read: Sharon Marcus’ “Fighting Bodies, Fighting Words: A Theory and Politics of Rape Prevention” (2013)
- Screen: The Bandit Queen (1994)
Review, Analyze, and Discuss:
- the ‘Save our Goddesses’ campaign out of India (Save Our Sisters)
- the campaign against domestic violence in Saudia Arabia (King Khalid Foundation).
February 15, 2018: Engendering Docile Bodies
Objective: Understand how the violence that women experience is an effect of disciplining bodies in the various attempts to establish order and power.
- Read: ‘Docile Bodies’ from Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish (pgs. 135–170)
- Read: Dianna Taylor’s “Resisting the Subject: A Feminist-Foucauldian Approach to Countering Sexual Violence”
Week 7
February 20–22, 2018: Anti-colonialism, Violence, and Gender
Objective: Understand how violence is embedded in colonial relations and discuss how violence may or may not be needed to undo these relations.
- Read: Chandra Mohanty’s Under Western Eyes
- Read: ‘On Violence’ from Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth (1961)
Week 8
March 1, 2018: Guest Speaker: Mamta Jain Valderrama — Women & Organ Trafficking in India
March 3, 2018: Guest Speaker: Dr. Vanessa Carlisle — Women, Sex Work, Consent, and Violence
Week 9
March 6, 2018: ‘Violence Against Women’ in Practice
Objective: Understand what is meant by ‘stakeholders’ and determine effectiveness of the United Nations in the fight to end violence against women
- Review: United Nations’ “Training curriculum on effective police responses to violence against women” (Criminal Justice Handbook Series, NY 2010)
March 8, 2018: ‘Violence Against Women’ in Practice
Objective: Determine effectiveness of the United Nations in the fight to end violence against women and consider the distinction between gender-based violence and violence against women — which is more inclusive and why?
- Review: United Nations’ Handbook for Legislation on Violence against Women (UN Women, 2012)
week 10
March 13, 2018: Using Dialogue to End Gender-Based Violence
Objective: Engage with peers and provide thoughtful feedback for peer podcasts.
- Listen to peer podcasts
March 15, 2018: Concluding Remarks and Final Discussion
