DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY TRENT UNIVERSITY GEOGRAPHY-WOMEN’S STUDIES-CANADIAN STUDIES: 3220H FA 2011-12 PETERBOROUGH Instructor:

Email:

Telephone:

Susan Wurtele

[email protected]

705-748-1011, ext. 7454

Campus:

Office Location:

Office Hours:

Peterborough

Environmental Science Building, B306

Tuesdays 11:00 am to 1:00 pm and by appointment

Secretary:

Email:

Marilyn Miller

[email protected]

Office Location:

Telephone:

ESB C204

705-748-1011, ext. 7686

Course Description: Geographers and feminists alike have long been concerned with the spatial politics of cultural difference. The central aim of this course is to demonstrate the ways in which gender relations are both reinforced and reflected in the spatial arrangements of societies. This course samples the range of topics and approaches used by feminist geographers. In so doing, it explores diverse ways in which geographers conceive of, analyze, and redefine gender as a contested spatial practice. Using contemporary geographic texts, we will explore a range of themes including: the gendering of domestic space, gendered use of public, private and urban space, and the intersections between gender, sexuality, racism and cultural difference. The course is particularly focused on understanding the important interdisciplinary possibilities arising from the intersection of feminist and geographical thinking. The course includes some material on masculinity, but places most of the emphasis on women and space.

Course Pre-requisites: GEOG – ERST 2510H (251H) or one upper-level Gender & Women’s Studies course or permission of instructor. Excludes GEOG – WMST – CAST 322H. Course Format: The course is made up of two main components: a weekly lecture/workshop, and weekly seminars. The lecture/workshop time is also used to show films and for local field trips. All elements of the course have been designed as integrated. Your attendance and active participation in all course components is crucial to your success and to the overall success of the course. Type

Day

Time

Location

Lecture

Tuesdays

9:00 – 10:50 am

DNA B104

Seminar

Wednesdays 2:00 – 2:50 pm 3:00 – 3:50 pm

SC W4 SC W4

(students will be assigned to ONE of these time slots and may not switch without the permission of the course instructor)

Teaching Approach: The teaching approach employed in this course is based on the principles of Universal Instructional Design. UID is a set of course design and delivery strategies whose underlying aim is to ensure that all elements of the course are accessible to all students regardless of disability or learning style. The instructional climate in this course is welcoming, inclusive and rigorous. Students should be committed to the learning process and are encouraged to discuss any special learning needs with Prof. Wurtele. Flexibility in course delivery and in student participation and evaluation is fundamental to UID. Course lecture materials will be available on the course MyLearning System site where they can be downloaded and used by students in different ways according to their unique learning styles. Flexibility has been built into course assignments. Students are encouraged to discuss their assignments with Prof. Wurtele to ensure that both the topic and the format conform to course standards.

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Learning objectives for the course: • Become familiar with issues and debates concerning the intersections between feminism and human geography • Understand your own learning style and develop learning strategies that support this style • Develop critical skills in thinking, reading, writing, oral argument and debate

Course Evaluation: . Type of Assignment

Weighting

Due Date

Seminar Participation with Reading Questions & Reading Summaries

30% Weekly, as per attached course schedule

Site Visit and Field Trip Assignment

10% Assignment due on date of student-led field trip (field trip schedule to be determined by Sept. 30).

Major Assignment Work Plan Assignment

5% Oct. 11 30% Nov. 28

Final Examination

25% As scheduled by Registrar

Individual requests to modify this evaluation scheme should be discussed with Prof. Wurtele no later than September 20, 2011. Attempts will be made to ensure that students’ learning styles are accommodated in the course assignments while ensuring that equity is maintained between students. Any individual changes to the evaluation structure will be documented and signed by Professor Wurtele and the student.

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Seminars with Reading Questions and Reading Summaries: Seminars are scheduled weekly throughout the term. They provide an opportunity to explore the major themes of the course through readings and small group discussions. You are expected to read the assigned readings before each seminar. In order to ensure this level of preparedness, you must submit a discussion question on MyLearning System before the seminar AND a summary of the assigned readings at the beginning of each seminar. If you do not submit the question AND summary, you will not receive participation grades for that seminar. For example, if you attend and participate in every seminar but do not submit reading summaries, you will receive zero out of 30 marks for the seminar participation grade. The seminar participation grade assesses both your preparedness and your contribution to the discussion. Failure to attend, participate and submit a reading summary for all seminars will seriously affect your final course grade. Discussion questions must be posted to your seminar discussion group on MyLearning System no later than 9 pm on the night prior to your seminar. You must also bring a copy of your question to the seminar, along with your reading summary. Required Readings: Required readings are listed on the course schedule. Most readings are available electronically through Bata Library. Details regarding access to readings that are not available electronically will be available in the first class. MyLearning: This course uses MyLearning as a form of support for in-class learning. You are expected to check it regularly. The course MyLearning site includes visual material used in lectures, all handouts and assignment information, your grades, and important notices. It also includes links to relevant websites. E-mail contact with the Instructor: I check my e-mail every weekday, and at least once on the weekends. You can expect that I will respond to your e-mails within 48 hours (if I do not, please resend your e-mail). If your question or concern is complicated, I may ask that we meet during office hours or at another scheduled time to address the issue in person. To ensure that your e-mail reaches my inbox, be sure to use a Trent University e-mail address and please include the course code (GPHY 3220h) and the nature of your question/comment in the subject line of the e-mail.

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University Policies Academic Integrity: Academic dishonesty, which includes plagiarism and cheating, is an extremely serious academic offence and carries penalties varying from a 0 grade on an assignment to expulsion from the University. Definitions, penalties, and procedures for dealing with plagiarism and cheating are set out in Trent University’s Academic Integrity Policy. You have a responsibility to educate yourself – unfamiliarity with the policy is not an excuse. You are strongly encouraged to visit Trent’s Academic Integrity website to learn more: www.trentu.ca/academicintegrity. Access to Instruction: It is Trent University's intent to create an inclusive learning environment. If a student has a disability and/or health consideration and feels that he/she may need accommodations to succeed in this course, the student should contact the Disability Services Office (Blackburn Hall, Suite 132, 748-1281, [email protected]) as soon as possible. Complete text can be found under Access to Instruction in the Academic Calendar.

Important Dates and Requirements: Please see the Trent University academic calendar for University Diary dates, Academic Information and Regulations, and University and departmental degree requirements. Last date to withdraw from Fall term half courses without academic penalty in 2011-12 is November 9, 2011.

Department Policies Grammar and Style: It is expected that written submissions in Geography courses will conform to high standards of grammar and style. Although the penalty may vary from course to course, and from one kind of written work to another, bad grammar and style will be penalized in all grading of written work submitted in Geography courses.

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GEOG 3220h: Course Schedule 2011-2012 Lecture Details & Due Dates

Seminar Topics and Assigned Readings

Week 1 – September 13 Course Introduction

No seminars this week

Week 2 – September 20 Gendered Spaces

Doing Feminist Geography Valentine, Gill 2002 “People Like Us: Negotiating Sameness and Difference in the Research Process” in Pamela Moss ed. Feminist Geography in Practice: research and methods, Blackwell, 116-126. Datta, A. 2008 “Spatialising performance: masculinities and femininities in a “fragmented” field” Gender, Place and Culture, vol. 15 (2), 189-204 Kwan, Mei-Po 2002 “Quantitative Methods and Feminist geographic Research” in Pamela Moss, ed. Feminist Geography in Practice: research and methods, Blackwell, 160-172 McLafferty, Sara, L. 2002 “Mapping Women’s Worlds: knowledge, power and the bounds of GIS” Gender, Place and Culture, vol. 9(3), 263-269

Week 3 – September 27 Domestic Spaces

Gendering Youth Dunkley, Cheryl Morse 2004 “Risky Geographies: Teens, gender, and rural landscape in North America, Gender, Place and Culture, vol. 11(4), 559-579 Thomas, Mary 2005 “Girls, consumption space and the contradictions of hanging out in the city” Social and Cultural Geography, vol. 6 (4), 587-605

Week 4 – October 4 Gender and Economics

Work Spaces Leslie, Deborah, 2002 “Gender, Retail Employment and the clothing commodity chain” Gender, Place and Culture, vol. 9(1), 61-76 Sweeney, Brendan 2009 “Producing liminal space: gender, age and class in northern Ontario's tree planting industry, Gender, Place and Culture, vol. 16(5), 569-586 Johnson, Laura C. Jean Andrey & Susan M. Shaw 2007 “Mr. Dithers Comes to Dinner: Telework and the merging of women's work and home domains in Canada, Gender, Place and Culture, vol. 14(2), 141-161

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Lecture Details & Due Dates

Seminar Topics and Assigned Readings

Week 5 – October 11 Sexuality, Space and Community in the City

Sexuality in Space #1 Valentine, Gill 1995 “(Re)negotiating the ‘Heterosexual Street’: lesbian productions of space” in Nancy Duncan, ed. BodySpace: destabilizing geographies of gender and sexuality, Routledge, 146-155. Hubbard, Phil 2008 “Here, There, Everywhere: The Ubiquitous Geographies of Heteronormativity” Geography Compass, vol. 2(3): 640-658 Thomas, Mary 2004 “Pleasure and propriety: teen girls and the practice of straight space” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, vol. 22, 773- 789

** Work Plan Due: October 11, 4 pm

Week 6 – October 18 Lesbian Geographies/Histories

Sexuality in Space #2 Browne, Kath 2004 “Genderism and the Bathroom Problem: (re)materialising sexed sites, (re)creating sexed bodies” Gender, Place and Culture, vol. 11(3): 331-346 Doan, Petra L. 2010 “The tyranny of gendered spaces – reflections from beyond the gender dichotomy” Gender, Place and Culture, vol. 17(5), 635-654

Reading Week Oct. 24 - 28 Week 7 – November 1 Student-led Field Trips (location to be announced)

Gender, Race and Space Audrey Kobayashi and Linda Peake 2000 “Racism Out of Place: Thoughts on Whiteness and an Anti-Racist Geography in the New Millienium” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, vol. 90(2), 392-403 Minelle Mahtani 2002 “Tricking the border guards: performing race” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 20, 425-440

Week 8 – November 8 Student-led Field Trips (location to be announced)

Leisure Frohlick, Susan 2006 “‘Wanting the Children and Wanting K2’: The incommensurability of motherhood and mountaineering in Britain and North America in the late twentieth century” Gender, Place and Culture, vol. 13(5), 477-490 Boyd, Jade 2010 “Producing Vancouver's (hetero)normative nightscape” Gender, Place and Culture, vol. 17(2), 169-189

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Lecture Details & Due Dates

Seminar Topics and Assigned Readings

Week 9 – November 15 Home Spaces in historical perspective

Home Spaces Friedman, Alice T. 1999 “Shifting the Paradigm: houses built for women” in Joan Rothschild, ed. Design and Feminism: re-visioning spaces, places, and everyday things, Rutgers University Press, 85–97 Yantzi, Nicole M. & Mark W. Rosenberg 2008 “The contested meanings of home for women caring for children with long-term care needs in Ontario, Canada” Gender, Place and Culture, vol. 15(3), 301-315

Week 10 – November 22 No lecture this week

No seminars this week (Major assignment due next week, Monday Nov. 28, 4 pm)

Week 11 – November 29 Environmental Justice

Gender and Environmental Justice Lousley, Cheryl 2003 “Toxic Comedy” Alternatives Journal, vol. 29(1): 35-36 Kurtz, Hilda E. 2007 “Gender and Environmental Justice in Louisiana: Blurring the boundaries of public and private spheres” Gender, Place and Culture, vol. 14(4), 409-426 Rahdner, Barbara 2009 “Invisible Sisters: Women and Environmental Justice in Canada” in Julian Agyeman, Peter Cole, Randolph Hauluza-Delay and Pat O’Riley, eds. Speaking for Ourselves: Environmental Justice in Canada UBC Press, 81-96

**Major Assignment Due: Mon. Nov. 28, 4 pm

Week 12 – December 6 Course Reflections and Exam Review

Geography of Fear Valentine, Gill 1989 "The Geography of Women's Fear" Area, vol. 21(4), 385-90 Day, Kristen 2001 “Constructing Masculinity and Women’s Fear in Public Space in Irvine, California” Gender, Place and Culture, vol. 8(2), 109-127 Kern, Leslie 2005 “In Place and at Home in the City: Connecting privilege, safety and belonging for women in Toronto” Gender, Place and Culture, vol. 12(3), 357-377

FINAL EXAMINATION (date: to be announced by Registrar’s Office)

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