25 Jun Teaching Gender in Geography

I only ever took one gender / feminist course at the undergraduate level. I dropped it after three weeks. Guess who’s teaching an undergraduate Gender and Geography course in the Fall?

I’m actually excited. I’ve decided to craft it around revolution, war and terrorism. It recently occurred to me that my students developed into political beings with war always on their minds. They have grown up in a country nearly always at war. They grew up uner the PATRIOT Act, deeper curtailments of their civil liberties, entrenching sensibilities of a memory of nationhood that doesn’t exist (for a fantastic discussion of this, see Katie Oliviera’ piece in Signs 26(3), 2011 – Sensational Nation and the Minutement: Gendered Citizenship and Moral Vulnerabilities), and a gun-toting female vice-presidential candidate who is, frankly, an embarrassment to intelligent women everywhere.

We’re going to start with the Soldaderas. At the height of the oppression of women in Mexico, women went into battle, made political speeches, and wrote poetry in the name of freedom – not just for them, but for all of Mexico.