AEA’s Women’s and Gender Studies in Europe 2012: Call for Applications
Posted on Tuesday, March 6th, 2012
AEA’s Women’s and Gender Studies in Europe program is currently accepting applications for Fall 2012 (March 30 deadline). If you are interested in women’s, gender, or sexuality issues and/or in feminist/queer theory–particularly as they pertain to the European context–you should take advantage of this opportunity and Apply Now!
Successful participants earn 16 semester credits from Antioch University in Women’s and Gender Studies.
A new curricular feature scheduled for fall 2012: a week of classes and seminars dedicated to studying European feminist and queer film and video!
The WGSE program participants study feminist and queer theory (WGS350), feminist methodology (WGS 250), and European situated feminisms (WGS 240) while traveling to Utrecht & Amsterdam, Berlin, Krakow and Prague. As well, each student develops and conducts a self-designed independent research project (WGS 396) on a topic of her/his interest (such as reproductive rights, LGBTQ issues, trafficking, sex-work, queer youth support organizations, immigration, European Muslim women’s issues, feminist/queer art, etc.).
Participating students attend lectures and take seminars with a range of prominent feminist and queer scholars and activists, including Rosi Braidotti (Continental feminist philosopher, Utrecht), Julia Ehrt (European Trans-gender Council), Gloria Wekker (leading theorist of intersectionality), Vera Chytilova (Czech film director), Rebecca Gomperts (founder of Women on Waves, Amsterdam), and many many others.
Furthermore, the program is an excellent opportunity to establish contacts with WGS students and feminist/queer activists from all over Europe – particularly during the first 9-day part of the WGSE program, which converges with the NOISE summer school in WGS (organized by Utrecht University’s Gender Studies department and located in Utrecht this year).
The WGSE program foregrounds past- and present-day experiences of women and religious, sexual and ethnic minorities across Europe. It is our goal to present Europe to the students from the perspective of minority and immigrant populations, and the readings, lectures, and class discussions are designed to fulfill this goal. Students learn about the struggles of the Roma women in the Czech Republic, the past and present experiences of the citizens of Jewish, Afro-German, and Turkish backgrounds in Germany, about the experiences in the Netherlands of those marked as “allochtonous,” as well as the ways in which the Polish political and religious establishment ensures a continued homogeneity of the Polish population. These topics are foregrounded throughout the semester, and they are framed through our discussions of post-colonial theories and theories of nation/sexuality/gender. While set in Europe, the WGSE program’s focus is determinedly on the margins, and participants learn about the diversity that is Europe from the perspectives of ethnic/racial and sexual minorities.
Please visit the program at: aea.antioch.edu/ws/
Check out the WGSE photo gallery on Flickr here!
Contact AEA for questions regarding admissions and financial aid, or Iveta Jusova, Ph.D., Director of the WGSE program, with questions about the program at: Ijusova@antioch.edu
