001

This course examines gender-based violence and the gendered dimensions of violent conflict.
Drawing upon a trans-disciplinary range of social theories and materials from both U.S. and
international contexts, it will investigate themes including the social construction of gender,
intersectionality and feminist politics, gender and post-conflict peace-building, wartime sexual
violence, militarism and gender, and the gendered dynamics of power.

At the heart of this course is a commitment to questioning assumptions about the very nature of
gender and violence. Does “violence” consist only of forcible acts, as defined by legislation and
international interventions meant to address problems such as domestic violence or wartime
rape? What happens if we instead view violence as comprising structures of gendered inequality
and narratives of gendered constraint, phenomenon that may involve no direct physical assault,
but nevertheless have serious material effects on bodies and lives? We likewise will question our
taken-for-granted framings of “gender.” Is gender something socially imposed on individuals or
a script for behavior bestowed at birth by nature? How do individuals’ actions and interactions
reinforce social constructions of gender that manifest in personalities, attitudes, behavior, self-understandings and cultural forms? How do gender and violence intersect to influence the
trajectory of violent conflict and limit the potential for resolution and justice?

This course is not a lecture course. Rather, it is an intensive graduate seminar designed to
promote collaborative, critical dialogue. Participants are expected to participate in discussions
and exercises on a weekly basis, having thoroughly absorbed and reflected on the week’s
readings and media materials.