The Feminist Theory Workshop in the Fall of 2009 will focus on issues of gender and sexuality-based justice in transnational and international contexts. Readings and speakers will cover issues of sex trafficking, gender and colonialism, development, and human rights. Key questions will include: to what degree do efforts to combat gender-based discrimination on the international or global scale risk repeating a kind of colonial exercise; how have campaigns to combat sex trafficking become tied up with the politics of prostitution/sex work; how can global efforts to expand women's rights avoid positioning cultures as more or less primitive, more or less liberal; and how do gender and sex rights claims get used as proxies for other global struggles?

The Workshop will be comprised of outside speakers for half of the sessions, and selected readings related to the work of the outside speakers in the intervening sessions. Students will be expected to write three short reflection papers and one 15 page paper on a topic of their choosing, approved by the Professor. Students will be evaluated on the basis of their class participation, short papers and their final paper.

No laptops will be allowed in the Workshop.