Annotation
This graduate course offers practical and theoretical reflections on what kind of knowledge gender studies scholars seek to produce, and how. How does our own positionality and location shape our research (questions), and how do we account for this? In what ways is knowledge production not merely an action of the mind but a practical intervention that changes what we observe? Is knowledge in the natural sciences more objective, and how have feminist scholars redefined objectivity? What is the role of materiality, emotions and the senses in knowledge production?
The course introduces students to key debates in feminist theories of knowledge (epistemologies) and methodologies over the past four decades, and prompts hands-on work on their current and envisioned research projects. Students are encouraged to contribute with examples from their own research practice, present and past, such as extracts from interviews, novels and other text, imagery and film, statistics and ethnographic field notes, particularly around moments where they feel ‘stuck’ or troubled. The course thereby contributes to sharpening research questions and approaches (the ‘method section’ in diploma works), and to start writing short analyses of select case examples that demonstrate feminist sensibilities of responsible and responsive knowledge practices.