Sustainable Development Goals
Abstract/Objectives
Gender issues are everywhere! Whether global or local, gender profoundly structures our social relationships and ways of life. In fact, life itself is a performance of gender, and our life stories are gender stories! How we speak, what we wear, how we eat, what we study, what social media we follow, the work we do, how we date, make friends, enjoy pleasure, interact with our parents, live in communities, engage in public affairs, what diseases we experience, and how we face death—all of these are influenced by the gendered structures in society and individual interactions. Of course, gender structures intersect with other social forces such as class, ethnicity, nationality, urban-rural divides, age, and more, shaping the lives of both groups and individuals. This course will begin with the premise that "gender is everywhere," using feminist discourse and related research as its foundation. Through reading, discussion, research, and practical activities, we will learn to question, clarify, and reflect on how gender functions as a powerful force in shaping both social organizations/institutions and individual daily life experiences. We will also explore how groups and individuals respond to and resist established gender orders, and how the evolving gender order affects broader social structures. The goal of this gender introduction course is for students to systematically learn how gender, interwoven with other social forces, functions as a central concept and structure for explaining social categorization, social inequalities, and possible social equality. In addition to core topics, we will also pay particular attention to emerging gender issues.
Results/Contributions

Throughout the semester, students will freely choose 3 weeks of readings, plus the readings from the third week, to write 4 one-page reading memos. The suggested structure for the memo is as follows:


First paragraph: Summarize the main themes and arguments shared by all the texts for that week.

Second paragraph: Discuss each reading in detail, covering: a. The issue or phenomenon addressed; b. The main theoretical framework; c. The research methods used; d. The research findings or arguments presented.

Final paragraph: Present personal thoughts or reflections based on individual life experiences.

Additionally, students are required to submit 3-4 pages of learning notes. The learning notes should integrate classroom readings and learnings with personal observations and reflections on the chosen topic. Particular attention should be given to connecting individual experiences with structural social systems. The theme for the learning notes is: “I am a girl, I am a boy, I am not a boy, I am not a girl?” The notes should reflect and analyze personal experiences with binary gender classification (including body, behavior, and social relationships) in family, school, and society, while engaging with the course content.


Lastly, students will be divided into groups. Each group will choose a social gender phenomenon (e.g., workplace, campus, politics, intimate relationships, media/culture, law, knowledge production, etc.) and identify gender issues observed through the macro and micro connections they have learned. The group will propose and implement potential action strategies for change. The assignment can take the form of academic writing, literature, performance, collective action appeals, and/or multimedia formats like images, podcasts, and will be presented at the end of the semester in class.

Keywords
gender, sexuality, intimate relations, workplace and gender, politics and gender, cyber violence
Contact Information