This book:
● lays out the objectives of WS 166, Gender, Race, and Class, taught in the Women’s a... more This book:
● lays out the objectives of WS 166, Gender, Race, and Class, taught in the Women’s and Gender Studies Department, Pace University, New York City campus;
● provides a structure for any course addressing intersectionality, feminism, and oppression;
● describes the framework of intersectionality, which examines societal issues by analyzing the interlocking systems of oppression that shape people’s lives;
● argues for a transnational application of intersectionality that also centers U.S. Black feminists’ contributions to understanding oppression;
● includes journal articles, TED Talks, and class exercises that are generally accessible for most students or interested readers without previous exposure to these topics.
We designed this book to illustrate that intersectionality is a powerful tool for learning about and addressing injustice and inequity. When we analyze the world using an intersectionality framework, we learn about people’s lives and experiences in ways that we may never have considered, or wanted to consider. And the mere act of examining multiple systems of oppression is not enough, either, as the point of understanding oppression is to end it in all forms. As you read, be thankful for the discomfort, anger, and compassion that may arise; learning about oppression is never easy, but it is a worthwhile and meaningful task.
Recommended Citation Silberstein, Elodie; Tramontano, Marisa; and Nayak, Meghana V., "A Student Primer on Intersectionality: Not Just A Buzzword" (2020). Open Educational Resources. 3. https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/oer/3
A surprisingly understudied topic in international relations is gender-based asylum. Gender-based... more A surprisingly understudied topic in international relations is gender-based asylum. Gender-based asylum offers protection from deportation for migrants who have suffered gender violence and persecution in their home countries. Countries are increasingly acknowledging that even though international refugee law does not include "gender" as a category of persecution, gender violence can threaten people's lives and requires attention. But Meghana Nayak argues that it matters not just that but how we respond to gender violence and persecution.
Asylum advocates and the US government have created "frames," or ideas about how to understand different types of gender violence and who counts as victims. These frames are useful in increasing gender-based asylum grants. But the United States is negotiating the tension between the protection and the restriction of non-citizens, claiming to offer safe haven to persecuted people at the same time that it aims to control borders. Thus, the frames construct which migrants are "worthy" of protection. The effects of the asylum frames are two-fold. First, they leave out or distort the stories and experiences of asylum seekers who do not fit preconceived narratives of "good" victims. Second, the frames reflect but also serve as an entry point to deepen, strengthen, and shape the US position of power relative to other countries, international organizations, and immigrant communities. Who Is Worthy of Protection? explores the politics of gender-based asylum through a comparative examination of US asylum policy and cases regarding domestic violence, female circumcision, rape, trafficking, coercive sterilization and abortion, and persecution based on sexual and gender identity.
Abstract ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------... more Abstract ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------- This essay introduces the Special Issue theme, gender violence and hegemonic projects. We discuss why re-thinking the relationship between gender violence and ...
In this essay, we argue that critical International Relations (IR) scholars must consider America... more In this essay, we argue that critical International Relations (IR) scholars must consider American Orientalism in tandem with American Exceptionalism in order to better understand US identity, foreign policymaking, and hegemony. We claim that American Exceptionalism is a particular type of American Orientalism, a style of thought about the distinctions between the “West” and the “East” that gives grounding to the foundational narrative of “America.” While Exceptionalism and Orientalism both deploy similar discursive, ontological, and epistemological claims about the “West” and its non-western “Others,” Exceptionalism is also rooted specifically in American political thought that developed in contradistinction to Europe. As such, we demonstrate that different logics of othering are at work between the West and the non-West, and among Western powers. We implore critical IR scholars to interrogate how the United States and Europe alternatively collude and clash in wielding normative power over their non-Western Others. We claim such research is important for exploring the staying power of American hegemony and understanding the implications of European challenges to American foreign policy, particularly given recent concerns about a so-called transatlantic divide.
The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 11 September 2001 (9/11) radically dest... more The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 11 September 2001 (9/11) radically destabilized the US sense of self and thus necessitated a particular reassertion of state identity that pivots violently on gender and race. This identity draws upon hypermasculinity, a religious code of ethics and the constitutive differences between Self/Other necessitating the persistent and forceful coding,
Abstract ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------... more Abstract ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------- This essay introduces the Special Issue theme, gender violence and hegemonic projects. We discuss why re-thinking the relationship between gender violence and ...
... As such, I claim that IFjP's importance for junior feminist faculty partly lies in i... more ... As such, I claim that IFjP's importance for junior feminist faculty partly lies in its careful, critical and sustained focus on scholarship by and ... Many of us consulted the conversation between Arat, Chazan, Shamas and Tarazi (2004)2. Arat, ZK, Chazan, N., Shamas, MA-D. and Tarazi ...
... Ward and Eithne Quinn offer separate analyses of black popular music, from rhythm and blues t... more ... Ward and Eithne Quinn offer separate analyses of black popular music, from rhythm and blues to hip-hop and gangsta rap, which suggest that debilitating patterns of misogyny and machismo in black popular culture can be tied to the goals ... Meghana V. Nayak Pace University ...
... political system (p. 13), Schmitz does not adequately examine contemporary discourses about ... more ... political system (p. 13), Schmitz does not adequately examine contemporary discourses about democracy.Tarak Barkawi and Mark Laffey (2001 ... the quality of democracy that emerged after the democratic transitions in Eastern Europe and Latin America (Jelin and Hershberg ...
This book:
● lays out the objectives of WS 166, Gender, Race, and Class, taught in the Women’s a... more This book:
● lays out the objectives of WS 166, Gender, Race, and Class, taught in the Women’s and Gender Studies Department, Pace University, New York City campus;
● provides a structure for any course addressing intersectionality, feminism, and oppression;
● describes the framework of intersectionality, which examines societal issues by analyzing the interlocking systems of oppression that shape people’s lives;
● argues for a transnational application of intersectionality that also centers U.S. Black feminists’ contributions to understanding oppression;
● includes journal articles, TED Talks, and class exercises that are generally accessible for most students or interested readers without previous exposure to these topics.
We designed this book to illustrate that intersectionality is a powerful tool for learning about and addressing injustice and inequity. When we analyze the world using an intersectionality framework, we learn about people’s lives and experiences in ways that we may never have considered, or wanted to consider. And the mere act of examining multiple systems of oppression is not enough, either, as the point of understanding oppression is to end it in all forms. As you read, be thankful for the discomfort, anger, and compassion that may arise; learning about oppression is never easy, but it is a worthwhile and meaningful task.
Recommended Citation Silberstein, Elodie; Tramontano, Marisa; and Nayak, Meghana V., "A Student Primer on Intersectionality: Not Just A Buzzword" (2020). Open Educational Resources. 3. https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/oer/3
A surprisingly understudied topic in international relations is gender-based asylum. Gender-based... more A surprisingly understudied topic in international relations is gender-based asylum. Gender-based asylum offers protection from deportation for migrants who have suffered gender violence and persecution in their home countries. Countries are increasingly acknowledging that even though international refugee law does not include "gender" as a category of persecution, gender violence can threaten people's lives and requires attention. But Meghana Nayak argues that it matters not just that but how we respond to gender violence and persecution.
Asylum advocates and the US government have created "frames," or ideas about how to understand different types of gender violence and who counts as victims. These frames are useful in increasing gender-based asylum grants. But the United States is negotiating the tension between the protection and the restriction of non-citizens, claiming to offer safe haven to persecuted people at the same time that it aims to control borders. Thus, the frames construct which migrants are "worthy" of protection. The effects of the asylum frames are two-fold. First, they leave out or distort the stories and experiences of asylum seekers who do not fit preconceived narratives of "good" victims. Second, the frames reflect but also serve as an entry point to deepen, strengthen, and shape the US position of power relative to other countries, international organizations, and immigrant communities. Who Is Worthy of Protection? explores the politics of gender-based asylum through a comparative examination of US asylum policy and cases regarding domestic violence, female circumcision, rape, trafficking, coercive sterilization and abortion, and persecution based on sexual and gender identity.
Abstract ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------... more Abstract ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------- This essay introduces the Special Issue theme, gender violence and hegemonic projects. We discuss why re-thinking the relationship between gender violence and ...
In this essay, we argue that critical International Relations (IR) scholars must consider America... more In this essay, we argue that critical International Relations (IR) scholars must consider American Orientalism in tandem with American Exceptionalism in order to better understand US identity, foreign policymaking, and hegemony. We claim that American Exceptionalism is a particular type of American Orientalism, a style of thought about the distinctions between the “West” and the “East” that gives grounding to the foundational narrative of “America.” While Exceptionalism and Orientalism both deploy similar discursive, ontological, and epistemological claims about the “West” and its non-western “Others,” Exceptionalism is also rooted specifically in American political thought that developed in contradistinction to Europe. As such, we demonstrate that different logics of othering are at work between the West and the non-West, and among Western powers. We implore critical IR scholars to interrogate how the United States and Europe alternatively collude and clash in wielding normative power over their non-Western Others. We claim such research is important for exploring the staying power of American hegemony and understanding the implications of European challenges to American foreign policy, particularly given recent concerns about a so-called transatlantic divide.
The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 11 September 2001 (9/11) radically dest... more The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 11 September 2001 (9/11) radically destabilized the US sense of self and thus necessitated a particular reassertion of state identity that pivots violently on gender and race. This identity draws upon hypermasculinity, a religious code of ethics and the constitutive differences between Self/Other necessitating the persistent and forceful coding,
Abstract ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------... more Abstract ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------- This essay introduces the Special Issue theme, gender violence and hegemonic projects. We discuss why re-thinking the relationship between gender violence and ...
... As such, I claim that IFjP's importance for junior feminist faculty partly lies in i... more ... As such, I claim that IFjP's importance for junior feminist faculty partly lies in its careful, critical and sustained focus on scholarship by and ... Many of us consulted the conversation between Arat, Chazan, Shamas and Tarazi (2004)2. Arat, ZK, Chazan, N., Shamas, MA-D. and Tarazi ...
... Ward and Eithne Quinn offer separate analyses of black popular music, from rhythm and blues t... more ... Ward and Eithne Quinn offer separate analyses of black popular music, from rhythm and blues to hip-hop and gangsta rap, which suggest that debilitating patterns of misogyny and machismo in black popular culture can be tied to the goals ... Meghana V. Nayak Pace University ...
... political system (p. 13), Schmitz does not adequately examine contemporary discourses about ... more ... political system (p. 13), Schmitz does not adequately examine contemporary discourses about democracy.Tarak Barkawi and Mark Laffey (2001 ... the quality of democracy that emerged after the democratic transitions in Eastern Europe and Latin America (Jelin and Hershberg ...
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● lays out the objectives of WS 166, Gender, Race, and Class, taught in the Women’s and Gender Studies Department, Pace University, New York City campus;
● provides a structure for any course addressing intersectionality, feminism, and oppression;
● describes the framework of intersectionality, which examines societal issues by analyzing the interlocking systems of oppression that shape people’s lives;
● argues for a transnational application of intersectionality that also centers U.S. Black feminists’ contributions to understanding oppression;
● includes journal articles, TED Talks, and class exercises that are generally accessible for most students or interested readers without previous exposure to these topics.
We designed this book to illustrate that intersectionality is a powerful tool for learning about and addressing injustice and inequity. When we analyze the world using an intersectionality framework, we learn about people’s lives and experiences in ways that we may never have considered, or wanted to consider. And the mere act of examining multiple systems of oppression is not enough, either, as the point of understanding oppression is to end it in all forms. As you read, be thankful for the discomfort, anger, and compassion that may arise; learning about oppression is never easy, but it is a worthwhile and meaningful task.
Recommended Citation
Silberstein, Elodie; Tramontano, Marisa; and Nayak, Meghana V., "A Student Primer on Intersectionality: Not Just A Buzzword" (2020). Open Educational Resources. 3.
https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/oer/3
Asylum advocates and the US government have created "frames," or ideas about how to understand different types of gender violence and who counts as victims. These frames are useful in increasing gender-based asylum grants. But the United States is negotiating the tension between the protection and the restriction of non-citizens, claiming to offer safe haven to persecuted people at the same time that it aims to control borders. Thus, the frames construct which migrants are "worthy" of protection. The effects of the asylum frames are two-fold. First, they leave out or distort the stories and experiences of asylum seekers who do not fit preconceived narratives of "good" victims. Second, the frames reflect but also serve as an entry point to deepen, strengthen, and shape the US position of power relative to other countries, international organizations, and immigrant communities. Who Is Worthy of Protection? explores the politics of gender-based asylum through a comparative examination of US asylum policy and cases regarding domestic violence, female circumcision, rape, trafficking, coercive sterilization and abortion, and persecution based on sexual and gender identity.
● lays out the objectives of WS 166, Gender, Race, and Class, taught in the Women’s and Gender Studies Department, Pace University, New York City campus;
● provides a structure for any course addressing intersectionality, feminism, and oppression;
● describes the framework of intersectionality, which examines societal issues by analyzing the interlocking systems of oppression that shape people’s lives;
● argues for a transnational application of intersectionality that also centers U.S. Black feminists’ contributions to understanding oppression;
● includes journal articles, TED Talks, and class exercises that are generally accessible for most students or interested readers without previous exposure to these topics.
We designed this book to illustrate that intersectionality is a powerful tool for learning about and addressing injustice and inequity. When we analyze the world using an intersectionality framework, we learn about people’s lives and experiences in ways that we may never have considered, or wanted to consider. And the mere act of examining multiple systems of oppression is not enough, either, as the point of understanding oppression is to end it in all forms. As you read, be thankful for the discomfort, anger, and compassion that may arise; learning about oppression is never easy, but it is a worthwhile and meaningful task.
Recommended Citation
Silberstein, Elodie; Tramontano, Marisa; and Nayak, Meghana V., "A Student Primer on Intersectionality: Not Just A Buzzword" (2020). Open Educational Resources. 3.
https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/oer/3
Asylum advocates and the US government have created "frames," or ideas about how to understand different types of gender violence and who counts as victims. These frames are useful in increasing gender-based asylum grants. But the United States is negotiating the tension between the protection and the restriction of non-citizens, claiming to offer safe haven to persecuted people at the same time that it aims to control borders. Thus, the frames construct which migrants are "worthy" of protection. The effects of the asylum frames are two-fold. First, they leave out or distort the stories and experiences of asylum seekers who do not fit preconceived narratives of "good" victims. Second, the frames reflect but also serve as an entry point to deepen, strengthen, and shape the US position of power relative to other countries, international organizations, and immigrant communities. Who Is Worthy of Protection? explores the politics of gender-based asylum through a comparative examination of US asylum policy and cases regarding domestic violence, female circumcision, rape, trafficking, coercive sterilization and abortion, and persecution based on sexual and gender identity.