Critical Race Feminine Women's labor and Fashion Theories

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1 Texas Woman s University Women at Work: Race, Migrations, and Labors WS 5903, Section 50, Internet Summer This course fulfills: An elective for the MA and PhD degree in Women s Studies Course Prerequisites: There are no prerequisites for this course Faculty Contact Information: Dr. Danielle Phillips Virtual Office Hours: Mon.&Wed. 12:00-1:30 DPhillips3@twu.edu (can speak via text chat or ) Graduate Assistant Contact Information: Michelle Slaughter Virtual Office Hours: Wednesdays 11:00am-1:00pm (available via Mslaughter1@twu.edu) Course Description During this course we will examine women s labor and migration experiences across race and ethnicity through a historical and contemporary lens in a variety of work spaces. We will begin our journey by deepening our understanding of critical race theories and critical race feminist theories. These theories will serve as analytic frameworks that we will use throughout the semester to analyze how race, class, gender, and sexuality shaped the labor and migration experiences of African American, white American, Caribbean, and Italian American working class, middle class, and wealthy women. After grasping an understanding of critical race theories we will embark on a journey of examining the history of enslaved Black women s labor in South Carolina within the context of European imperialism and US western expansion during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Then, we will travel to the Caribbean to examine how slavery has shaped the contemporary labor experiences of market women in Jamaica. Next, we will travel back to the United States and explore the similar and divergent labor experiences of women in New York City, New Jersey, and Atlanta. While analyzing women s labor experiences in the twenty first century, we will explore US media representations of women s labors across race and ethnicity.

2 By the end of the summer session, you should have a deeper understanding of how to use critical race and critical race feminist theories to examine the distinctions and connections between women s labor and migration experiences across race, ethnicity, time, and space. Goals and Outcomes By the end of the summer session you should be able to do the following: 1) Trace how ideas of race, class, gender, and sexuality in the United States both shaped and were shaped by women s migration in the past and how similar ideas and migrations continue to do so in the present 2) Explain how European imperialism and US western expansion shaped the labor and migration experiences of women in the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries 3) Use critical race and critical race feminist theories as analytic frameworks to investigate the labor and migration experiences of women across race, ethnicity, time and space 4) Describe the connections and distinctions between women s labor and migration experiences 5) Articulate and identify the particular racial, class, and gender politics that impact the labor and migration experiences of women in a variety of work spaces Assignments Each week you will be responsible for reading course materials listed under the Course Readings section of the Blackboard site. To access the modules click on Course Readings in the course menu on Blackboard. Each weekly module folder contains a list of the readings that you should complete for each week of the semester. You will have four major writing assignments for this course: 1) Facilitations; 2) Responses to Facilitations; 3) Pre-Discussion Blog Entries; and 4) Post-Discussion Entries. Please see information below for more information about the assignments.

3 Writing Assignments You have a total of four writing assignments that should be completed each week in the course. Please see descriptions below. 1. Pre-Discussion Blog Entries (20%) The blog assignment is designed to give you an opportunity to articulate your initial thoughts about the readings. Please do not panic. I do not expect for you to become experts on the readings overnight. You should think of your blog entries as a space in our course to begin processing the ideas presented in the articles. Thus, you should imagine your blog entry as a weekly free-write exercise that allows you to articulate your initial ideas about the course materials each week. Michelle Slaughter will initiate the free-write exercise by posting a question for everyone to address in their blog entries. Your responses to her discussion question must be at least 4 sentences and your responses must by posted by Tuesdays at 11:59pm. Although Michelle will initiate the pre-discussion, feel free to use the blog as a space to think about how the readings expanded your own understandings of the course topics. Thus, the language for your blog entries can be more informal than the posts you will attach to the Discussion Board. Yet, please keep in mind that your blogs are available for your colleagues to read. Thus, you should refrain from using inappropriate language. In addition, please feel free to post articles, photos, links to websites, or film clips that you think are related to the readings. In other words, you can write your blog entries in creative ways! After you have posted your blog entry, Michelle Slaughter will respond to the ideas and questions in your brief response to the readings. Again, do not panic. The purpose of Michelle responding to your blog entry is to encourage you to think about the connections between your blog entry and the course content. In other words, she will encourage you to think further about your initial responses to the readings in an effort to help you develop those ideas into a deeper understanding of the readings we will discuss on the Discussion Board. Thus, feel free to share aspects of your discussion with Michelle on the Discussion Board, when you think that it is appropriate to do so. In other words, your entries do not have to always be separate and apart from the conversations you will have with your colleagues on the Discussion Board. Ideally, the conversations on the Pre-Discussion Blog and the Discussion Board will intersect. I will grade your blog entries at the end of each week, which you will be able to view at the Grade Center on Blackboard. I will use the following guidelines below as a rubric to evaluate your entries.

4 Guidelines for Blog Entries (25 points will be deducted for each guideline that is not adhered to in the blog entry): Entries must be at least four sentences Your responses to Michelle s question must be posted to Blackboard no later than Monday at 11:59pm of each week. If you cannot post your entry and respond to Michelle s response by the assigned deadlines, then you should post your entry and response at an earlier day and time. The posts should not read as a summary of the readings! You should use the blog as a space to articulate your ideas about the readings. Directions on how to access the blog: 1) Log onto the course s Blackboard site 2) Click on Pre-Discussion Blog in the course menu 3) Click on the link for step by step directions on how to write a blog and respond to blog posts 4) Then, go for it! 2. Discussion Board Postings (20%) This is my favorite assignment of the course because it will allow us to deepen our understandings about the readings through consistent virtual interaction! I would like for us to use the Discussion Board as a space for us to exchange ideas and participate in lively discussions about the readings! The overall purpose for the Discussion Board activity is to stimulate conversations between you, your colleagues, Michelle, and myself about the assigned readings. Thus, you should consider the weekly discussions on the Discussion Board as the cornerstone of our learning community. Each week you will contribute to the class discussion via the Discussion Board by serving as either a facilitator or a respondent. When serving as a respondent or facilitator, you are responsible for writing on the Discussion Board at least three times a week. In other words, facilitators and respondents should engage in ongoing conversations about the readings each week from Tuesdays-Fridays. Then, respondents and facilitators should allocate time on Saturdays-Mondays towards preparing to discuss the new set of readings for the following week.

5 When you serve as a facilitator, you are responsible for posting a think piece and 1 discussion question about the readings no later than Tuesday at 11:59pm. Respondents will respond to the facilitator s question and the response of another colleague to the facilitator s question by Wednesday at11:59pm. Then, the facilitator will respond to the respondents posts and post an additional discussion question by Thursday at 11:59pm. Respondents must address the second discussion question posted by the facilitator and the post of another colleague by Friday at 11:59pm. Please see guidelines below that outline my expectations for this weekly assignment. Please read carefully! Guidelines for Facilitators As a facilitator, your primary role is to engage your classmates in a thoughtful discussion about the readings. Do not panic. As with your blog entries, I do not expect for you to become experts on the readings overnight! Your think piece should reflect that you have conducted a close reading of the texts and have developed your own ideas about the content. I also encourage you to write about aspects of the readings that challenged you the most. Please remember that your think piece must not read as a summary of the readings! You must assume that your colleagues have read the materials due that week. Your role is to challenge yourself and your colleagues to develop a deeper and more critical understanding of the ideas presented in all of the readings. I have randomly assigned people to facilitate discussions about the readings each week. Please see Facilitation Schedule in the Announcements area of the course. Your think piece must be posted to the Discussion Board no later than Tuesday at 11:59pm of your assigned week. If you are unable to post your think piece by this deadline, then you should post your think piece on the previous day (Monday). Rubric for Grading Facilitations I will use the rubric below to grade your facilitations. 25 points will be deducted for each guideline that is not adhered to. Thus, to receive full credit for your facilitation, please keep the following in mind: Your think piece must include a discussion of all of the readings assigned for the week. In addition, the discussion question presented in the think piece must relate to all of the readings. If you find it difficult to develop a discussion question that encompasses all of the readings, then you should include two discussion questions in your think piece. You must include the title of the articles and the page numbers that serve as a basis for your think piece commentary and discussion questions.

6 Think pieces must include a 2 paragraph analysis of the readings and 2 discussion questions. Thus, your think piece must not read as a summary of the readings! In addition, your discussion question(s) must encourage discussion between you, your colleagues, and me. It is imperative that you refrain from posting fact-based or opinionbased questions. Please see the Tips on how to write think pieces and Tips on how to create discussion questions sections of this syllabus to review writing and reading strategies that you can use to develop engaging think pieces and questions! Think pieces must be posted to the Discussion Board no later than Tuesday at 11:59pm. If you are unable to post by the deadline, then you should make arrangements to post your think piece at an earlier day or time. If you are facilitating the discussion during a week that we will view a video clip, then your commentary must include a discussion of the film AND the new readings. You must engage in a conversation with your colleagues by providing a 2-3 sentence response to each of your colleagues responses by Thursday at 11:59pm. You should also use your colleagues responses as a basis to create and post a new discussion question by Thursday at 11: 59pm. In other words, you will post a new discussion question on the Discussion Board on Thursday to keep the conversation going between your colleagues and yourself and lead us to a deeper analysis of the readings. Remember that these subsequent discussion questions must adhere to the guidelines for the discussion question(s) that will be included in your think piece. Your questions must not be fact-based or opinion-based questions. Also, remember to cite the page number, title of articles, and the topic of the discussion you had with your colleagues on the Discussion Board that served as the inspiration for your second discussion question. Your colleagues will be required to respond to your first discussion question by Wednesday at 11:59 pm and they will respond to your new discussion question by Friday at 11:59pm.

7 Tips on how to write analytical paragraphs for facilitations Appropriate questions that you should consider when writing your think pieces include: a. Which aspects of the authors arguments are you having difficulty with understanding? b. What contributions do the readings make to the topics of race, class, gender, sexuality, women s labor, and women s migration? c. What are the similarities and the differences between the labor and migration experiences of women in the multiple readings? d. How are the methodological approaches of the articles similar and/or different? What are the implications of such methodological approaches? e. What methodological approaches in the articles did you find helpful to deepening your understanding of labor and migration? f. Are there counter ideas and methodological approaches that the authors could have considered to strengthen their arguments? g. Are their points highlighted in your colleagues blog entries for the same week that you might not have considered? How did their commentaries encourage you to think about the readings in a different way? The discussion question(s) in your think piece should not be fact-based or opinion-based questions, but rather questions that will stimulate discussion and that will further your understanding of the authors arguments. Tips on how to create discussion questions (partly adopted from: Good discussion questions are not answered by "yes" or "no." Instead they lead to higher order thinking (analysis, synthesis, comparison, evaluation) about the work and the issues it raises. Good discussion questions call for more than simply recalling facts or guessing what the teacher already wants to know, but are open-ended, leading to a variety of responses. Good questions recognize that readers will have different perspectives and interpretations and such questions attempt to place readers in dialogue with each other.

8 Good discussion questions depend on careful readings of the text. They often cite particular scenes or passages and ask people to look at them closely and draw connections between these passages and the rest of the work. Good discussion questions are simply and clearly stated. They do not need to be repeated or reworded to be understood. Good discussion questions are useful to the students. Good questions might target passages or issues that students may find difficult to understand. Good discussion questions encourage students to consider how their own cultural context might influence their interpretation of the readings. Good discussion questions make (and challenge) connections between the readings on the syllabus and the overall themes of the course. Rubric and Guidelines for Grading Respondents (20%): 25 points will be deducted for each guideline that is not adhered to. You are responsible for providing thoughtful responses to each of the facilitators analyses and discussion questions that they will post on the Discussion Board on Tuesdays and Thursdays by 11:59 pm. You are responsible for posting a response to the facilitator s question and the response to the facilitator posted by one of your colleagues on Wednesdays and Fridays by 11:59 pm. In other words, you should have posted to the Discussion Board at least 4 times a week. Of course, you are welcome to post more than 4 times a week. Also, challenge yourself to respond to the post of a different colleague each week! To maximize learning opportunities in the course I will expect you to have engaged in a conversation with each of your colleagues by the end of the summer session. Remember that the purpose of this exercise is to engage in a consistent dialogue and not a one-way conversation with your colleagues and the facilitator. Your responses to the facilitator s discussion questions and analyses must be at least 4-6 sentences (or one paragraph) and you must include the title of the articles and the particular page numbers that serve as a basis for your responses.

9 Appropriate questions that you should consider when responding to the facilitators questions include: a. What similarities and differences did you observe between your response to the reading/film and the facilitators think piece and discussion questions? b. How did the facilitators discussion questions and think piece help expand your understanding of the article? c. Are there counter perspectives that the facilitator did not consider when writing her or his commentary? 3. Final Project Assignment [Reflective Writings] (20%) Michelle Slaughter will post a commentary to the Post-Discussion Blog area of the course that links what was discussed during the week to a current event. You must respond to two of Michelle s posts on the Post-Discussion Blog by July 6. Your responses must be at least 4-6 sentences and include at least one reference to a book or article we have read in the course. TWU Attendance and Participation Policy Although this course is online, it is important that you understand that the format of the course does not lessen the expectations that I have for you regarding participation. It is strongly suggested that you are strict about time management so that you will be able to dedicate the necessary amount of time to complete the readings and assignments in a manner that is complete, careful, and on schedule. The guidelines highlighted in the Master s Program in Women s Studies handbook regarding class attendance, class participation, and how to interact with instructors are also applicable to this course. I will expect you to participate in class discussions in Blackboard via the Discussion Board at least 4 times a week as a facilitator or as a respondent. Please see commentary and facilitation guidelines above for information regarding what is required of you for the weekly postings. In addition, you should also post an entry to your blog once a week along with a response to Michelle s response to your blog entry. Thus, you must have written on our Blackboard site a total of at least 6 times each week. Online activity less than four times a week will result in deductions from your Discussion Board and Blog grades. More than 1 week of insufficient activity on the Discussion Board and Blogs will automatically result in a failing grade for the course.

10 If you are unable to participate in class discussions during a particular week due to an emergency, then it is your responsibility to notify me about the emergency and to retrieve the notes and information about the assignments that you missed from your classmates. If you submit a late assignment due to an emergency, then you will have 3 days after the deadline to submit the assignment. The assignment will not be accepted after 3 days after the deadline for the assignment. You will only have 1 opportunity to submit late work. Any other late work will not be accepted. I do not issue incompletes unless you are unable to finish the course due to dire and extreme circumstances and you must provide official documentation of the event(s). In addition, you must provide documentation as to why you cannot register for the course when it is offered again. When you make comments or ask questions on the discussions board and blogs, they should reflect how you have thought about the readings for that week. In other words, I will determine your participation grade by how your contributions demonstrate that you have actually read the texts and have dedicated a considerable amount of time thinking about the analyses that you post on the discussion board. If it is clear that you have not dedicated time toward developing ideas about the texts, then points will be deducted. The syllabus is subject to slight changes throughout the summer session. Please be sure to check the Announcements tab for important announcements during the summer session. Any changes to the syllabus will be announced there. Grading Policy Your overall grade will be based on six components to this course: 1) Ice Breaker Activity; 2) Pre-Discussion Blog Entries; 3) Facilitation; 4) Responses to Facilitations; 5) Final Exam: Post Discussion Blog Entries Ice Breaker Activity 20% Final Exam (2 Reflective Writing-Post Discussion Blog Entries) 20% Pre-Discussion Blog Entries 20% Facilitation 20% Responses to Facilitations 20%

11 Disability Support Policy Statement: If you anticipate the need for reasonable accommodations to meet the requirements of this course, you must register with the office of Disability Support Services (CFO 106, , ) in order to obtain the required official notification of your accommodation needs. Please plan to meet with me by appointment or during office hours to discuss approved accommodations and how my course requirements and activities may impact your ability to fully participate. Academic Integrity: Honesty in completing assignments is essential to the mission of the University and to the development of the personal integrity of students. In submitting graded assignments, students affirm that they have neither given nor received unauthorized assistance, and that they have abided by all other provisions of the Code of Conduct in the TWU Student Handbook. Cheating, plagiarism, fabrication or other kinds of academic dishonesty will not be tolerated and will result in appropriate sanctions that may include failing an assignment, failing the class, or being suspended or expelled. Suspected cases in this course may be reported to Student Life. The specific disciplinary process for academic dishonesty is found in the TWU Student Handbook. Refer to the TWU library link, Avoiding Plagiarism, for information about how to complete assignments with integrity. In an effort to ensure the integrity of the academic process, Texas Woman s University vigorously affirms the importance of academic honesty as defined by the Student Handbook. Therefore, in an effort to detect and prevent plagiarism, faculty members at Texas Woman s University may now use a tool called Turnitin to compare a student s work with multiple sources. It then reports a percentage of similarity and provides links to those specific sources. The tool itself does not determine whether or not a paper has been plagiarized. Instead, that judgment must be made by the individual faculty member. Required Books Course Materials 1. Black Rice: The African Origins of Rice Cultivation in the Americas by Judith A. Carney 2. Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century by Laura Shapiro 3. Raising Brooklyn: Nannies, Childcare, and Caribbeans Creating Community by Tamara Mose Brown 4. Higglers in Kingston: Women s Informal Work in Jamaica by Winnifred Brown-Glaude

12 **The other required readings are located under the corresponding Course Readings on Blackboard as pdf documents. Also, please note that you should view media clips that are posted in some of the weekly module folders. Week 1 (June 3-7) The Formation of Race and Women s Labor: Forced Migrations To Caribbean and US South 1. Black Rice: The African Origins of Rice Cultivation in the Americas by Judith A. Carney 2. Morgan, Jennifer L., Some Could Suckle Over Their Shoulder: Male Travelers, Female Bodies, and the Gendering of Racial Ideology, (97-108) [article on blackboard] 3. Omi, Michael & Howard Winant. Chapter 4, Racial Formation in Racial Formation in the United States by (53-76) [article on blackboard] Week 2 (June 10-14) 1. Higglers in Kingston: Women s Informal Work in Jamaica by Winnifred Brown-Glaude Kitchens to Reality Television Shows: Eating and Consuming Representations of Middle-Class and Wealthy Women at Work Week 3 (June 10-14) 1. Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century by Laura Shapiro Week 4 (June 24-27) 1. Watch video clips from Housewives of Atlanta, New Jersey and Beverly Hills (view under course readings) 2. All Hail the Queen?

13 Mothering in the Home and the Academy: Immigrant Domestic Workers and Women Professors Week 5 (July 1-5) 1. Raising Brooklyn: Nannies, Childcare, and Caribbeans Creating Community by Tamara Mose Brown 2. Vacation Nannies Franklyn D Resort in Jamaica Video Clip: 3. Juliann Allison, Composing a Life in Twenty-First Century Academe: Reflections on a Mother s Challenge