Professor Judith Grant
Mondays 2-4:50
VKC 154
Political Science 391 Honors Seminar Gender and Technology Required Books:
Hopkins, Sex/Machine
Martha Nussbaum and Cass Sundstein eds. Clones and Clones
Stone, The War of Desire and Technology
Bernice Hausman, Changing Sex
Anne Fausto Sterling, Sexing the Body : Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality
John Colapinto, As Nature Made Him : The Boy Who Was Raised As a Girl
Course Reader:
Firestone, Shulamith, Dialectic of Sex (Chapter 10)
Ortner, Sherry "Is Woman To Nature as Man is to Culture?"
Edwards, Paul, 1990 "The Army and the Microworld: Computers and the Politics of Identity" Signs 16:1 102-127
Pamela Kramer and Sheila Lehman, Mismeasuring Women: A Critique of Research on Computer Ability and Avoidance, Signs, 1990, vol. 16, no. 11
Berkowitz, Jonathan and Jack Snyder 1998 "Racism and Sexism in Medically Assisted Conception" Bioethics 12:1 25-44
Stein, Edward, 1998 "Choosing the Sexual Orientation of Children" Bioethics 12:1 1-24
Van Niekerk, Anton and liezl Van Zyl The Ethics of Surrogacy: Women's Reproductive Labor by, The Journal of Medical Ethics, 1995, 21: 345-349
McLachlan, Hugh, "Defending Commerical Surrogate Motherhood against Van Niekerk and Van Zyl," ,Journal of Medical Ethics, 1997; 23: 344-348
Mahowald, Mary, and Dana Levinson and Christine Cassel, "The New Genetics and Women," Signs 16:1
Rimm, Marty, "Marketing Pornography on the Information Superhighway: A Survey of 917,410 Images, Descriptions, Short Stories, and Animations Downloaded 8.5 million Times by Consumers in Over 2000 Cities in Forty Countries, Provinces and Territories," The Carnegie Mellon Study
*Ross, Eillen, 1995 "E-Mail Stalking: Is Adequate Legal Protection Available?" John Marshall Journal of Computer and Information Law 13 405-432
*Volokh, Eugene, 1996 "Freedom of Speech in Cyberspace from the Listener's Perspective: Private Speech Restrictions, libel, State Action, Harassment and Sex" University of Chicago Legal Forum 377-436
*"Are Harassing E-Mail Messages Electronic Violations of Stalking Laws?" About Women On Campus 94:34 5
Turkle, Sherry and Seymour Papert, 1990 "Epistemological Pluralism: Styles and the Computer
Joy, Bill, "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us," Wired magazine, April 2000
Articles marked with * are still pending as of the writing of this syllabus and may not be included in your course reader at this point. They will follow.
Related topical articles (not required)
Recommended Reading List for this class
How to Contact Me:
Office hours will be posted shortly. Please note that office hours are not on a "drop by" basis. Appointments must be made even during scheduled office hours. This will avoid you standing in line, and me sitting in an empty office.
Office: VKC 230 room C
Mailbox: VCK 327
Email address: grantj1@ohio.edu
Faculty Advisor to:
Gender Studies Undergraduate Student Association
Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Assembly (GLBA)
SC Friends of Lesbians and Gays (SC FLAG)Website: http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~grantj1 (where you can find copies of the syllabus and other important announcements)
Phone and voice mail: 213-740-1685,
FAX: 213-740-8893
Grades will be based on
Oral presentations
2 Short papers (about 5 pages each)
Thesis proposal, abstract and bibliography (about 10 pages)
About the oral presenations: I am running this class more or less like a graduate seminar. This means that it is not a lecture course, and that I will expect you to do most of the talking. Therefore, you must all come to class prepared to discuss the readings for that day in great detail. Every class session one of you will be responsible for giving 10 or 15 minutes of opening remarks on the reading for that day. These comments (as well as my own) will form the basis for the class discussion for that day. Since there are very few of you in this class, you will all be giving several oral presentations on the readings.
About the short papers: You will have to write two short papers in this course. I will hand out topics in advance. These will not be research papers, but will be more akin to take-home exams.
About the paper proposals: In a sense the most important assignment is the paper proposal as it will form the basis for the work you do on your thesis next semester. You will note that there are two dates on this syllabus reserved for you to present your research ideas, and that the proposals are due on the last day of class.
Tentative Schedule of Readings and Assignments:
August 28 -- Introduction
September 4, no class, labor day
September 11 -- Shulamith Firestone, selections Dialectic of Sex
Sherry Ortner, "Is Woman To Nature as Man is to Culture?"
Edwards, Paul, 1990 "The Army and the Microworld: Computers and the Politics of Identity" Signs 16:1 102-127
Pamela Kramer and Sheila Lehman, Mismeasuring Women: A Critique of Research on Computer Ability and Avoidance, Signs, 1990, vol. 16, no. 11
September 18 -- Hopkins, Parts I and VI
September 25 -- John Colapinto, As Nature Made Him : The Boy Who Was Raised As a Girl
October 2 Bernice Hausman, Changing Sex
October 9 Hopkins, Part IV
FIRST PAPER DUE
October 16 Anne Fausto Sterling, Sexing the Body : Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality
October 23 -- Stein, Edward, 1998 "Choosing the Sexual Orientation of Children" Bioethics 12:1 1-24, and
Berkowitz, Jonathan and Jack Snyder 1998 "Racism and Sexism in Medically Assisted Conception" Bioethics 12:1 25-44
Stein, Edward, 1998 "Choosing the Sexual Orientation of Children" Bioethics 12:1 1-24
The Ethics of Surrogacy: Women's Reproductive Labor by Anton Van Niekerk and liezl Van Zyl, The Journal of Medical Ethics, 1995, 21: 345-349
Defending Commerical Surrogate Motherhood against Van Niekerk and Van Zyl, Hugh McLachlan, Journal of Medical Ethics, 1997; 23: 344-348
The New Genetics and Women, Mary Mahowald, Dana Levinson and Christine Cassel, University of Chicago, Milbank Quarterly, vol. 74, no. 2, 1996
October 30 Hopkins, Part II and III
November 6 Stone, The War of Desire and Technology
Marketing Pornography on the Information Superhighway: A Survey of 917,410 Images, Descriptions, Short Stories, and Animations Downloaded 8.5 million Times by Consumers in Over 2000 Cities in Forty Countries, Provinces and Territories by Mary Rimm, Study for Carnegie Mellon
*Ross, Eillen, 1995 "E-Mail Stalking: Is Adequate Legal Protection Available?" John Marshall Journal of Computer and Information Law 13 405-432
*Volokh, Eugene, 1996 "Freedom of Speech in Cyberspace from the Listener's Perspective: Private Speech Restrictions, libel, State Action, Harassment and Sex" University of Chicago Legal Forum 377-436
*"Are Harassing E-Mail Messages Electronic Violations of Stalking Laws?" About Women On Campus 94:34 5
November 13 Preliminary oral reports re your honors theses
November 13 Hopkins, Part V.
SECOND PAPER DUE
November 20 -- Edwards, Paul, 1990 "The Army and the Microworld: Computers and the Politics of Identity" Signs 16:1 102-127,
Turkle, Sherry and Seymour Papert, 1990 "Epistemological Pluralism: Styles and the Computer Culture" Signs 16:1.
"Why the Future Doesn't Need Us," by Bill Joy
Wired, April 2000
November 27 -- Martha Nussbaum and Cass Sundstein eds. Clones and Clones
December 4 -- Final Oral Reports AND THESIS PROPOSALS DUE
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