Women's Caucus for the Modern Languages/Midwest II: Enacting Our Feminist Pedagogies

Session Coordinator: Linda S. Coleman
English Dept., Eastern Illinois Univesity
600 Lincoln Ave., Charleston, Il. 61920
cflsc@eiu.edu

PedaGrrl: Third Wave Feminist Professors and Their Pedagogy

PedaGrrls – twenty and thirty-something professors who identify as Third Wavers – have more in common with students than with colleagues. Their pedagogy, Third Wave pedagogy, transgresses traditional hurdles of “dealing with difference” that restrain Second Wave feminist theory and feed stereotypes about Women’s Studies. A Third Wave feminist pedagogy occupies an unspecific ally-identified location from which to debate and examine difference across interlocking forms of oppression and privilege, as well as pleasure and liberation. Third Wave educators actively interrogate the borders, differences, and intersectionalities of identity while working to transgress those categories. For example, many of us confront anti-youth bias in academia, are marginalized as adjuncts or part-timers, and may still be graduate students. We rework our own identifications and propose that no feminism is complete without tackling our own complicity in systems that oppress. The presenters’ paper proposes that Third Wave feminists are redefining Women’s and Gender Studies pedagogy. Namely, Third Wave pedagogy is more effective at reaching, welcoming, and including men in the Women’s Studies classroom, addressing anti-feminist stereotypes, and incorporating popular culture as a teaching tool. This paper will also describe specific teaching tools, class activities, and community-service learning projects that Third Wave professors have deemed particularly useful.

Amber R. Clifford and Sarah Rasmusson
Central Missouri State University and College of New Jersey
clifford@cmsu1.cmsu.edu

Feminist Publishing as Feminist Pedagogy

We propose a presentation about our collective editing project, Feminist Teacher magazine, as both a pedagogical and a feminist activity.  Our presentation will include subjects recently covered in the journal, how our way of working enacts feminist pedagogy, using feminist journals in classes, working with student interns, and subjects we would like to see covered in upcoming issues.  Time allowing we may also discuss our recent decision to affiliate ourselves after 20 years of publishing with University of Illinois Press.  Are we going corporate or "smelling the coffee"? 

The Feminist Teacher Editorial Collective:
Monica Barron, Theresa Kemp, and Gail Cohee
Truman State University, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and Brown University

Meeting Resistance with Engagement: Introducing First-Year Students to Gender and Difference in the Composition Classroom

After teaching an introductory women’s studies course last fall, I have been inspired to implement discussions of gender and difference and conceive these areas as the driving force of the composition classroom. (Assigned texts and topics include Deborah Tannen’s discussion of gender in The Argument Culture: Moving from Debate to Dialogue, articles from Ms. Magazine, and a wide range of issues designed to interest both female and male writers, including Title IX and body image.) Although I look forward to the prospect of lively debates and constructive engagement on such topics, I am concerned about the potential resistance that may surface among a conservative and largely rural student population, many of whom will be dealing with gender issues in a writing classroom for the first time. As way of anticipating such resistance, I hope to accommodate what Carol DeRuiter calls the “unique styles and needs of male and female students,” while retaining my unique position as a feminist professor, one who values what Sheila Ruth refers to as “the personal-affective element in learning.” My paper will discuss a variety of challenges that teaching gender issues in a writing context presents, as well as considering pedagogical approaches that address those challenges.

Patricia Gott
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
Pat.Gott@uwsp.edu