Annotation
This course explores the gendered aspects of conflicts, militarism, and peace issues. The first part of the course,
Nationalism as the obstacle for gendered peace, focuses on how nationalism has shaped gendered understandings in the 20th and 21st centuries. The second part, Gender as the category of conflict, explores women’s and queers’ peace activism and challenges in the conflicts in different parts of the world and analyzes feminist theorizing on conflict and peace. As the last part, Gendered perspectives of peacebuilding in the cases of ongoing conflicts, we will visit the ongoing conflicts around the world to understand the gendered perspectives of peacebuilding. To highlight, we will analyze gender from non-binary perspectives by reading the articles about
LGBTQI+/ queer communities.
Feminist politics, starting with the first wave of feminism, has been intricately connected to peace politics, sometimes uneasily. This course aims to highlight and critically analyze those connections or their lack of. These questions will take us to theories of conflict and peace as much as gender and sexuality studies: How have militaries and conflicts shaped our understanding of masculinity and femininity? What are the connections between gender, peace and nationalism? How has the nature of conflict changed? What do women do when men go to war? What do queers/LGBTQI+ do in conflict situations? How has the concept of “motherhood” been problematized and politicized by feminist scholars and peace activists? What visions do feminisms offer for the future of feminist politics and peace politics? These are some of the questions that will inform our discussions in class. The course will proceed through engaging case studies and an exercise of peer education and presentation that will take us out of the formal education to expand our sensorium and train our research skills.