92473 |
LIT 131 Women &
Leadership |
Deirdre
d'Albertis |
F 10:00
am-12:00 pm |
RKC 200 |
|
D+J |
2 credits It is 2016.
Why aren’t there more women in leadership positions? According to a 2014
Pew Research Center report, the majority of American men and women acknowledge
the capacity of women to lead. Yet in certain domains—most notably politics and
business—women continue to be under-represented at the top. This year’s
Presidential race will certainly polarize the electorate around constructions
of gender in particularly dramatic ways. If we are living in a
post-feminist society (as some claim), why do these questions and conflicts
continue to arise? Identity is an urgent conversation in 21st-century politics
and everyday life, and this includes awareness of how intersectionality shapes
gendered experiences. What are the stories that we tell ourselves and each
other about equality, representation, privilege, freedom, authority, and
success? How do these inflect real-world outcomes for individuals and
societies? In this two-credit course we
will explore some of the stories that circulate in our culture around women and
power, both from an academic and from a practical, real-world
perspective. What does it mean to lead? How do we use a
language of empowerment? Why has the United States embraced certain
narratives of gender equity and success as opposed to those being created in
other countries and cultures? We will focus on learning from women who
are committed to making a difference in the world through their personal and
professional choices, hearing their stories, and reading texts that have been
particularly important to them in their lives and work. So too, we will
engage with stories from the past (archival research), from across disciplines
(the military, higher education, STEM, the arts, media) and from a wide range
of perspectives. As an Engaged Liberal Arts and Sciences course, this
seminar will provide students with the unique opportunity to bring theory and
practice together in a very immediate sense: by the end of the term you will
have identified a story only you can tell, whether it is based in political
activism, community engagement, or work experience. Drawing on the rich
resources here in Annandale as well as through Bard’s other campuses,
we will reach out to groups and organizations with a shared focus on
gender. Network building is something we will explicitly address. This
course is open to all first-year students, but enrollment is limited.