PLEASE NOTE: There will be NO FINAL TEST !!!!

Instead, I will count your highest score twice!!!

The TAKE-HOME FINAL is POSTED. CLICK HERE

Spring 2008

Introduction to Trans Feminism:

Transgender Studies meets Feminist Theory

Phil 413: Issues in Feminist Philosophy/

Phil 531: Theorizing Gender and Sexuality

Class Meets	Wed 6:10-10:00 E&T A126
Instructor	Talia Bettcher
Office	A 423 Engineering and Technology
Office Telephone	(323) 343-4179
Philosophy Dept. Office	A 432 Engineering and Technology
Philosophy Dept. Telephone	(323) 343-4180
Email	tbettch@calstatela.edu
Electronic Syllabus	www.calstatela.edu/faculty/tbettch/trans
Office Hours	Mon 1:30-3:30; Wed 2:00-4:00

Course Description

This course is an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of transgender studies from a trans feminist perspective.

Some of the questions we examine include: Who are trans people and what do they want? What are transgender studies and how do they differ from other forms of scholarship?  What is transphobia? How should transphobic violence be theorized? How is trans resistance possible? What is the relationship among trans politics and feminist and anti-racist politics? What are the tensions? What are the points of overlap? How is a distinctively anti-racist trans feminism possible? 

Texts

Stryker, Susan and Whittle, Stephen (eds.) The Transgender Studies Reader, Routlege, 2006 [TSR]

Scott-Dixon, Krista (ed.) Trans/Forming Feminisms: Trans-Feminist Voices Speak Out, Sumach Press, 2006 [TFF]

Additional Readings on library reserves [EReserve]: http://www.calstatela.edu/library/opac/reserves.html

Requirements

Late Policy: Papers not submitted will receive 0 pts. Lateness will be excused ONLY in the case of documented emergency (health, family, etc.).    

Plagiarism and Cheating: “At Cal State L.A., plagiarism is defined as the act of using ideas, words, or work of another person or persons as if they were one’s own, without giving proper credit to the original sources” (CSULA 2007-09 University Catalog, p. 760). In this course, any cheating or plagiarism will be penalized with a failing grade for that assignment. Administrative sanctions may also follow (some sanctions include expulsion, suspension, probation). For further information please see the University Catalog, pp. 760-6.

Basic Requirements

(1) Attendance and Participation

It is essential that you attend class regularly and that you participate actively in class discussion (partners, small groups, etc.) This requirement is ungraded. Instead, I use it in addressing ‘border line cases’. Additionally, excellent completion of this requirement may boost your grade by 1/3 of a grade (a ‘+’) and a serious failure to complete this requirement may result in your grade being decreased by 1/3 of a grade. I may also assign short home work exercises. These will also be factored into this grade. 

(2) Pop Quizzes (2% each, 10% total)

It is essential you come to class prepared to discuss the readings. There will be five (very easy) “pop quizzes” which assess whether you have done the readings. 

(3) Three (out of) Four In-Class Tests (10% each, 30% total).

Tests will be letter graded (e.g. A, A/A-, A-, A-/B+, etc.) using a 12-pt scale. The lowest test score will be dropped. No “make-ups” will be given.

(4) Take-Home Final OR Term Paper (10-15 pages, typed and double spaced) (60%).

Due: 06/06 (11:59pm). Assignments will be letter graded as above.

You have the choice between an essay-style cumulative take-home final and a term paper. I will make the take-home final questions available two weeks prior to the due date.

If you choose to write a term paper, you can write on your own topic or you may request one. In all cases, however, paper topics must be “cleared” by me.

You may submit a draft of your paper prior to the due date and I will return it with comments and a provisional grade.

You can do this as many times as you want until one week prior to the due date (05/30).

All final assignments must be submitted by email as a WORD document. If this is a problem for you, please let me know immediately so that we can work out another process.

Course Plan

Week One (03/26) Topic: Introduction and “TG-101 Trans Terminology

            Guest Speakers: LOTUS Alexis Rivera and Michelle Dennis

Week Two (04/02) Topic: What are Trans Studies? What is Trans Feminism? Trans Studies

Readings: Whittle “Forward” (TSR); Stryker “(De)Subjugated Knowledges”

(TSR);

Hale “Suggested Rules for Non-Transsexuals Writing about Transsexuals, Transsexuality, Transsexualism, or Trans_____” www.sandystone.com/ hale.rules.html

Scott-Dixon “Introduction to Trans/Forming Feminisms” (TFF); Pershai “The Language Puzzle” (TFF); findlay “Acting Queerly” (TFF)

Recommended: Lugones “Playfulness, “World”-Traveling and Loving Perception” (EReserves) [Note: Look in the course Phil 327 – password, Gender]

Week Three (04/09) Topic: The Transgender Paradigm The Transgender Paradigm

Readings: Feinberg “Transgender Liberation” (TSR), Bornstein “Gender Terror,

Gender Rage” (TSR), Hale “Are Lesbians Women?” (TSR), Cromwell “Queering the Binaries” (TSR); Roen “Transgender Theory and Embodiment” (TSR)

Hill “On the Origins of Gender” (TFF); Wyss “Sometimes Boy, Sometimes Girl” (TFF)

Week Four (04/16) Topic: Lesbian Separatism and “The Transsexual Empire” Janice Raymond and the Transsexual Empire

            Test One

Readings: Raymond “Sappho by Surgery” (TSR), Riddell “Divided Sisterhood” (TSR), Whittle “Where Did We Go Wrong?” (TSR), Koyama “Whose Feminism

Is it Anyway?” (TSR)  Salvador “Miss Whitey Says” (TFF)

Recommended: Radicalesbians “The Woman Identified Woman” (EReserve), Combahee River Collective “A Black Feminist Statement” (EReserve)

Week Five (04/23) Topic: The Empire Strikes Back: The Feminist Roots of Trans Studies Sandy Stone and the Empire Strikes Back

Readings:  Haraway “A Cyborg Manifesto” (TSR), Stone “The Empire Strikes Back” (TSR), Hale “Tracing a Ghostly Memory in My Throat” (EReserve)

Recommended: Anzaldúa  “La conciencia de la mestiza” (EReserve)

Week Six (04/30) NO CLASS

Week Seven (05/07) The Coloniality of Power: Critiquing the Transgender Paradigm The Coloniality of Power

            Test Two

Readings: Towle and Morgan “Romancing the Transgender Native” (TSR); Lugones “Heterosexualism and the Colonial/Modern Gender System” (EReserve)

Namaste “”Against Transgender Rights: Understanding the Imperialism of Contemporary Transgender Politics” (EReserve)

            Film: Paris is Burning

Week Eight (05/14) Topic: Queer Performativity and the Real Lives of Trans People Paris is Burning

Readings:  hooks “Is Paris Burning?” (EReserve); Butler “Critically Queer” (EReserve); Namaste “Tragic Misreadings” (EReserve);

simpkins “Feminist Transmasculinities” (TFF); “Where’s the Beef? Masculinity as Performed by Feminists” (TFF)

            Recommended: Newton “Selection from Mother Camp” (TSR)

  Week Nine (05/21) Topic: Some Political Tensions 

Readings: Heyes “Feminist Solidarity After Queer Theory” (EReserves)

            Driver “Queer Femmes Loving FTMs” (TFF)

Week Ten (05/28) Topic: Transphobia  

Test Three   (On Week Seven and Week Eight Readings)  

Readings: Namaste “Genderbashing” (TSR); Juang “Transgendering the Politics of Recognition” (TSR);

Hardie “It’s a Long Way to the Top” (TFF); Bettcher “Understanding Transphobia” (TFF)

Recommended Bettcher “Evil Deceivers and Make-Believers” (www.calstatela.edu/faculty/tbettch/Deceivers)

Week Eleven (06/04) Topic Sexual Violence

Test Four (On Week Nine and Week Ten Readings)

Readings: Collins “The Sexual Politics of Black Womanhood” (EReserves)

Scott-Dixon “Intro to Shelter and Violence” (TFF); Nicki “Women’s Spaces Are Not Trans Spaces” (TFF); Dubois “Safe at Home” (TFF); Golberg and White

“Anti-Violence Work in Transition” (TFF); Vachon “Transforming Values/Engendering Policy (TFF)