Political Science: Women’s Caucus for Political Science Part 1

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Dr. Janni Aragon | Leave a comment

I’m re-visiting notes from my archival visit at Radcliffe. What do I remember? Wanting to use every precious minute, while they were open, so I would inhale a Cliff Bar surreptitiously outside the restroom and then return to the work of poring through the archival matter. The librarians were helpful with my repeated requests and made me feel like what I was doing was important. I can’t say that for all of my archival visits. (As an aside, Duke had the best staff and I befriended one librarian, who now is in Miami, via San Diego, and Los Angeles). A big, warm hello to Cristina Favretto! One of the best librarians I have ever met! We met at the Women in Higher Ed conference in Minneapolis many years ago.

I need to back up and explain a few things. My dissertation examined women in Political Science, The Movement into the Academy: Women and Political Science. When I came to Political Science, after having earned a BA in Women’s Studies and a MA in Liberal Arts and Sciences, at first blush I thought that feminist Political Scientists were not that radical. And during the early years of graduate school, I occasionally second guessed the decision to pursue a doctorate in Political Science. I knew that my research work would focus on the qualitative and not include multivariate regressions or the need for SAS or SPSS.

But, the focus on statistics and on work that I never really pursued pushed me harder into Political Theory and Gender and Politics. I’m glad that my dissertation chose me. I realised that the foremothers, if you will, in Political Science were not seemingly behind. With the archival work I found that they were fighting similar fights that feminist colleagues were fighting in different departments. In some instances, the struggles were worse, but never isolated. Here, I am referring to the Chilly Climate and other ways that women faculty were made to feel isolated in academe.

Playing academic detective in the archives and attending networking events within Political Science certainly humbled those initial beliefs about my sisters in Political Science. I was humbled to find that the establishment of the Women’s Caucus for Political Science (WCPS) in 1969 preceded most other disciplines caucuses for women. However, it was shortly thereafter in some instances weeks at the other disciplinary annual meetings that similar caucuses and status of women committees were founded. The WCPS was instrumental in being a resource for women in Political Science.

The women’s movement did not pass Political Science, as it was part of it, too. But, it was only through my archival research at Radcliffe, Smith and Duke that this full picture became clear. Sure, some books have examined particular campuses and their historic struggles, but by and large I imagine that most Political Science students think that the women’s movement of women’s liberation movement on campuses really took place in departments of Women’s Studies. Sadly, they would be wrong. There were coffee klatches at community centers, as well as campus student union buildings. As a matter of fact, it was during the heyday of the movement that Women’s Studies departments or programs were founded. So, there were allies across campus, as Women’s Studies was in its nascent form.

I am proud to be an alum of San Diego State’s Women’s Studies department, the first Women’s Studies department. But, I know that when I sat at the 30^th anniversary dinner in 1999 I felt proud to have benefited from the hard work of those initial five women who were brave enough to take a stand and form the WCPS. I must have missed the 40^th anniversary celebrations, but nonetheless I know that in my work and mentoring I and so many others continue their hard work. If anything, I have learned that there are important allies across campus and that there is a helluva lot of great work being done in Political Science.

Revisiting a Favorite Book: Like Water for Chocolate

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Dr. Janni Aragon | Leave a comment

I’ve been reading lots lately and I have also re-read a few books. I came across an old favorite. Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments, with Recipes, Romances and Home Remedies (1989) contains all the great ingredients for a best-seller: love, betrayal, hardship, food, fantasy, and death. At first glance, many dismiss the book as a mere love story touched with tragedy for Tita de Le Garza, the protagonist. Upon closer examination, though, the book provides a strong example of fiction, cultural archetypes, and theory. I argue that Like Water for Chocolate is a text of theory in the flesh (apologies to Moraga and Anzaldua) and is part of the canon of strong Latina/o fiction.

Esquivel uses narrative form as she explores Mexican folklore, racism, sexism, sexuality and women’s role in society. Tita embodies every woman–an affirmation of the reality of a life. The good, happy, sad and dare I say bad. The main action of Esquivel’s book is Tita’s struggle for freedom against an authoritarian mother and cultural traditions that Tita finds suffocating. The story has mysticism and fantasy added to it. And, it’s important to note that the timeline is during the Mexican Revolution in war-torn Mexico. Thus, Tita’s life is in constant flux with the denial of her true love and the subsequent hostile environment that she lives in–he life mirrors Mexico at the time. She is Mexico.

What made the book so popular to many was the magical parts. Yes, Tita has a certain culinary flare and her emotions seep into the food that she makes. Tita’s only respite is the kitchen among the pots, pans, food, and her memories. Due to a family tradition she is not allowed to marry and must take care of her mother, while her older sister marries her true love. We have unrequited love, betrayal, and cooking! I don’t want to give away the entire plot, but this book was just as good for this third read as it was during the first and second reads. The book is both fun and serious. You’ll enjoy it and you’ll most likely want to eat some good, spicy food when you finish it.

Of Heroes and the Fellowship of Women/Guest Post

Posted on July 5, 2011 by Dr. Janni Aragon | Leave a comment

Today’s post is a guest post via Breathe Now. I am one of the four co-founders for Breathe Now. Our conference will take place in Victoria, BC on Friday, Sept 30th and Saturday, October 1st. This conference is geared for college aged women through women established in their careers. This particular post penned by the lovely and talented Janice Mansfield was posted on April 18th on http://breathenow.ca/2011/04/of-heroes-and-the-fellowship-of-women/.

Thanks to the powers of Social Media, I was alerted last week to the fact that Marilyn Waring was going to be speaking at the University of Victoria as part of the Centre for Cooperative and Community Based Economy‘s Distinguished Speaker series.

Marilyn Waring is a distinguished economist, researching and exploring issues of gender balance and the impact it has in the traditional economic paradigm. Her work also extends to analysis of environmental issues, governance, human rights, and economic valuations of public goods or “the commons”, and she regularly contributes to international discussions on economic measurement and valuation.

As an economist in my previous career, I have to say I did a quiet squeal at the prospect of listening to her latest. Her groundbreaking work in the latter 1980s on public accounting practices and their omissions of subsistence activity (much of it by women) in developing countries was front and centre in my bookshelf.

After the Thursday evening talk, my friend Dr. Janni Aragon invited me to come as her guest the next day for an afternoon of tea and talk with Dr. Waring — an exciting prospect indeed to meet and talk with someone who has had such an influence and impact on my thinking early on in my career.

The following day, we gathered around a table with tea with Dr. Waring as a small group of women, seeking fellowship and connection. The first thing Marilyn said when we sat down was she seeks out opportunities to listen to what other women are interested in and researching, as she spends so much of her time on the road talking. The thing that struck me through the afternoon was the genuine interest with which Dr. Waring had for areas of work being undertaken by each woman in the room — and a diverse group indeed (Political Science, Environmental issues, Cooperative Economic models, Womens Studies …). Dr Waring has such a wealth of knowledge and experience, she spoke to each woman with an equal level of expertise, but was also making notes through the afternoon of things that piqued her interest, and provided some great guidance and feedback for the undergraduate students who had joined us.

Janni and I had the chance through this discussion to share the fact that we are two of the co-founders of the Breathe Now conference — an opportunity for all women to connect, decompress, enjoy the fellowship of each other and talk about substantive issues they are dealing with in a supportive environment. While neither of us remember the exact quote (I have to confess being a little starstruck!), she was quite interested in the conference, and remarked that it was such a such great idea to bring women together to support each other. Dr. Waring is a mentor in the truest sense of the word, and the afternoon with her and other like-minded women was a priceless experience.

It struck me after, that this afternoon of tea and easy conversation was a micro-version of what we are hoping to achieve through Breathe Now — mentorship and fellowship with some goodies on the side!

Reasons Why I Love(d) and Miss the Re-Imagined #BSG

Posted on June 27, 2011 by Dr. Janni Aragon | 2 Comments

How do I count the ways? I was recently in Seattle with my family and we visited the Experience Music Project for the second or third time. This time was primarily so we could visit the Battlestar Galactica #BSG exhibit. We were not disappointed. But, the exhibit did make me think about the exhibit and some of the reasons why the series resonated with me. The first point I need to add is that I had ear-marked the series as a Summer catch up, but then read a colleague’s interpretation of the series and decided that I needed to watch the series. There are some spoilers below, so please be warned. Spoiler Alerts.

I appreciate science fiction as a genre, but add to this a dystopic setting (future or past) and I am apt to find something interesting in the story. #BSG did not disappoint and it was filmed locally in Vancouver, BC. And, this caused some excitement to try to find places that looked familiar. And, I recalled from the earlier series that the Cylons really freaked me out, but these new Cylons–some were human! How could this happen. Well, I set out to find out with the re-imagined series.

The plot focuses on the last battlestar and rest of the fleet that survives an attack. What we find is that the Education Secretary becomes President (notice, not Prime Minister) of the surviving fleet, as they try to survive and find a new place (possibly Earth) to live. She leads the people to the best of her ability, but constantly finds herself in opposition to the military tactics at the hand of the Admiral. The characters prove interesting. We see that there are lots of strong women characters in the series and that the leads come from different ethnic backgrounds, as well.

The episodes, though, also touch on different topics that vary from understanding what it means to be human, to discussing war, religion, sexual assault, and feuds between different people to name just five rather quickly. Likewise, the series did so while entertaining the viewer. #BSG gave a new meaning to toasters and “what the frack.” Several social scientists have spoken to the series applying theories to certain episodes and I have had conversations about the issues of collective security and the responsibility to protect. That is, there is something there within the series that speaks to political philosophy and political science at large.

Because of all the things that I’ve shared rather quickly and incompletely, I miss the series. And, by this I do mean the re-imagined series. I did watch the original in the late 1970s with my two younger brothers, but only recall that it seemed rather cheesy. I was glad that Starbuck in the new #BSG was a woman with enough bravado for a few men. Starbuck embodies masculinity and militarism with her brash attitude and strength of character, but she is also human–she is flawed and her past haunts her. So many feminist viewers have identified with her.

The Cylons in this series are also “skin jobs”, since some of them are human looking and are sleeper agents and don’t know that they are Cylons until they switch. Then, of course, some are human looking and are well aware that they are Cylons. One of the interesting episodes is about Helena Cain–who offers the viewer another complicated woman. She is the captain of the Pegasus and when we find her it appears that this strong female leader has a thoroughly cruel streak. What is the viewer to make that the Cain has allowed a sleeper agent, (Gina a clone of Six) her former lover, to be broken and degraded by “any means necessary”? This is when some viewers might feel a sense of empathy toward her former lover, and then do a double take and think, “Wait, am I feeling bad for the toasters?” Right. Even typing that sentence made me smirk, since this might sound ridiculous to the uninitiated to the #BSG series. Well, hopefully this blog post wasn’t fracking rambling. So say we all.

Managing the Classroom: Teaching Race and Gender

Posted on June 20, 2011 by Dr. Janni Aragon | 8 Comments

It is a constant struggle to teach diversity in the classroom. I am finding that as soon as I think that the rules of engagement are understood, I get reminded that they are not. In a perfect situation the classroom environment will include trust, respect, and an understanding that knee jerk opinions are not part of intellectual discussion. However, I find that occasionally I get “schooled” by some comments that give me pause.

This term I am teaching a Youth Politics seminar with less than two dozen third through fifth years and Gender and International Relations with less than sixty students. I am also managing and co-teaching a course with 225 students and will speak to situations that I have encountered. To protect my students and myself, these scenarios will be reflective of the last year and not necessarily this particular term.

When I am teaching touchy subjects like gender and race, I find that I have to be ready for different types of reactions. There are the students who feel validated by the reading and other students who feel challenged, sceptical or even angry. I lead my classes in a lecture and discussion format, so I engage with the students and their comments lots. I am a strong believer that they are part of the learning team in the classroom: texts, lectures, current events, and student discussion. There are costs to not lecturing and leaving the classroom. I engage the students more and because of this—they have more opportunity to participate. I will not change this, as I find that this is how I teach.

Lately, I have been most challenged with the responses to students’ reaction and use of language. I strongly adhere to the idea that language is powerful and certain words are “loaded” in the same way that certain topics are value-laden. This is not a shared sentiment by all students. I need to check myself and remember that I am also there to facilitate discussion, engage student interest, and, oh yes, teach materials. There is usually a student or two has an “anything” goes sort of attitude and I have to balance all the students’ needs and my own politics. This presents a challenge.

I find that the one thing that I have no patience for is overt racism. Even typing up this sentence reminds me that I have issues with covert racism, too. Oh, choosing our battles in the classroom is tricky. I can easily engage with discussions of gender, but race. I find that the overt racism can make my heart skip a beat. I cannot explain if this is because of the fact that I am a Latina teaching a mostly homogenous student population or if it’s more. Whatever it is, it is compounded by the fact that so many of the Canadian students seem to think that racism is a thing of the past or something that only Americans are guilty of—and in the South, for that matter. And, my friends, these are statements and beliefs that I have heard in my classroom.

Some days it is quite easy, I am at the front of the class walking back and forth juggling ideas, course material, student comments, and student reaction. My love of teaching keeps me in check and I enjoy seeing the ways in which some students are really excited about the materials. Then, there are other days when one student is out of line or that presents me with a teachable moment. It might be that I need to remind the student about decorum, collegiality, or boundaries. Occasionally I have been known to call a student out and just say, “What you just said was offensive.” Of course, the next thing I do is contextualize the statement and then move on to the next point in the lesson plan or lecture.

It’s these occasional moments, though, that I reply over and over in my mind for the next few hours. I am thinking aloud here and being ever so careful—since this is the blogosphere and any one of my students could google me and find this post. I welcome other educators to give advice about those thorny moments in the classroom.

This post was originally posted on Equality 101, which is now defunct.

Slutwalk and the Feminist Debates

Posted on May 11, 2011 by Dr. Janni Aragon | 4 Comments

Can I just say that the debates about the veracity of Slutwalk on the WMST-L have really hurt my feminist heart. The Women’s Studies Listserv has several thousand subscribers and the subscribers vary from those in Women’s Studies or other disciplines. You don’t have to be an academic to be on the list and lots of activists and writers subscribe. The WMST-L provides a beacon of feminist information sharing and dare I say networking. Occasionally a debate will transpire on the list among some of the list members. Once again we have a round of back and forth where the debate is not so much about stopping violence against women, but instead is about semantics and feminist politics. Who has the right to say that they are the most feminist?! Using pornographic languages is apparently problematic and defeats the purpose of the walks. And, the salvos go back and forth.

This is a great example of how some academic feminist ideology not only turns off the mainstream from ideas, but also causes major fissures among the various feminist camps. Now, I’m not so pollyannish to expect us to all get along. What I don’t like, though, is how it appears that the debates become mired in certain conversations that smell of generational bullshit and one-upwomanship on who owns the most feminist politics. Don’t get me started about how these conversations at times don’t offer an analysis that remembers class, race, sexuality and ability, but that would really complicate things, right?

Can’t we agree that the Police Officer should not have blamed the woman for her dress? He should have not said that she should not dress like a slut. For information about this Toronto situation see: http://www.slutwalktoronto.com/ And, can we agree that he should have kept his mouth shut or perhaps condemned the assailant. Yes, bring men into this discussion. Don’t rape women!

Then, the response with the Slutwalks in Toronto, Victoria and elsewhere was really about reclaiming the word and explaining to the public—don’t rape women. Stop violence against women. You say slut to demean women, well fuck you, we’re taking this word back! We’re going to go out in the public space and use this word and bellow a resounding, no. How is this not empowering? Well, the word is heternormative, demeaning, sexualizes women, and is an example of porn culture. Yes, but the point is that Slutwalk is reclaiming this word—empowering women to say, “Guess what—rape is never acceptable.”

There is power in words. Words are signifiers. We know this. However, we also know that we can take back words and refashion them and say that these words don’t hurt us anymore. Slutwalk is getting press around the globe and when more people talk about curbing violence against women this is a win for feminisms.

But, the debate about this term being problematic is really beside the point in my opinion. I’m sure Inga Muscio is smiling about these debates and thinking back about the flak she got with her first book. But, that my friends, is another blog post.

Native Appropriation: Part I

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Dr. Janni Aragon | Leave a comment

I read lots of Young Adult literature #YALit and am always looking for books that I can incorporate into my lectures or assignments. I’ve previously read a few books by Scott Westerfeld and ordered The Uglies, The Pretties, and The Extras. There are more in this series, but these are the three that I own. This series of books have been recommended to me for a few years, so I finally ordered them.

The books are set in a dystopic future where teenagers 16 and up are surgically enhanced to be pretty. When children are born they are littlies and with the onset of puberty around age 12 the tweens are sent to live in dorms and are henceforth referred to as “uglies.” And, they are waiting until they have their corrective surgery to make them pretty, so that they can go live in Pretty Town and have all of their needs met so that they can party all night long. Parents are “middle pretties” and the aged are “late pretties.” Their faces are crafted to perfection so that they can all conform and be happy. Sounds like an idea future?

Right about now, I’m sure that some of you are thinking, “Why are you reading this garbage?’ Well, for a few reasons. The most important is that there are messages here between the lines and frankly some of the uglies know that there is more out there beyond the confines of the suffocating lack of choices. Westerfeld refers to the ways in which previous generations destroyed the land and one another and how this new culture is better. He’s making commentary here. And, we see that some of the uglies want to go to the edge of civilization or even past and find more to life. These few uglies are looking for the “smokies” people who are making it on their own and have shirked the surgery and the exhausting perfection.

In the first volume, the main two female protagonists are Shay and Tally. These two enjoy adventure and want more. Shay leaves to the Smokes, and Tally later follows. But, things do not go as planned. Spoiler Alert.

In the next volume, Tally and Shay have been made pretty. Their lives are great–lost of fun and parties. The pretties have purge packets they can take to help them not get fat! They obviously have everything. Ha!

But then something happens. Tally tries to escape Pretty Town, but has a misstep with her escape and stumbles upon a tribe of primitives. I started this section with some reservation wondering if Westerfeld would play with the tired tropes and well the book has taken a disappointing turn. Of course, the “prims” refer to Tally as a god. How could they not, she’s beautiful, she’s perfect and she fell from the sky.

I’m not done with the book, but from what I’ve now read the next few chapters might be painful. I conferred with a friend and she noted that she stopped reading it right around the next chapter. Apparently it gets worse with the native appropriation and depiction of prims. Westerfield is not artfully playing with history here. Instead, he’s using some of the tired tropes and this is not creative–no, in my opinion it’s highly problematic. But, as I noted in a Twitter tweet, this book is giving me another example to refer to in a Politics and Popular Culture seminar. Ah, another teachable moment.

Addendum: Well, I finished the book. And, indeed things did get more interesting and problematic. Spoiler alert. The prims live on a reservation and are part of an anthropological study that examines violence. Scott Westerfeld–I would feel more comfortable if each volume included a reader’s guide or reader’s questions to complicate the storyline. Readers could make connections between the treatment of Indigenous peoples in the past and present and think about the ways in which they are treated in this dystopic future.

Teaching Transformation: Book Review

Posted on March 30, 2011 by Dr. Janni Aragon | Leave a comment

This blog post was originally posted on Gender Across Borders as part of the Feminism and Education series. It ran yesterday at http://tinyurl.com/45bozm8. Today, I am posting it on my blog.

Teaching Transformation: Transcultural Classroom Dialogues (2007) by AnaLouise Keating is a much needed book for educators. The book casts a wide net, as those interested in feminism, transformative teaching, pedagogy, race, and sexuality will get something out of this book. The book continues in a long line of great books about pedagogy like Paolo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed and Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks. Keating unpacks issues of dialogue, power, discussion, and pedagogy in her book.

The major strengths of the book lie in the fact that Keating willingly shares her successes and teachable moments with us. I hasten to say failures, since they were moments when she learned something new and this does not constitute a failure. She also reminds us that you cannot teach about race without also discussing Whiteness. By not including Whiteness, we place it in the place of dominance. Thus, unpacking Whiteness in the classroom is needed. She shares how difficult this can be in the classroom, as it requires serious introspection by students and the instructor. Keating reminds us to think about how the learning environment needs to provide students with a framework. And, this is not just the syllabus, but the way that the class will study the topics, treat one another, and go to the material.

In a similar fashion, Keating acknowledges that teaching gender requires an inclusive framework, too. While the term Intersectionality is only used three times in the book and is in the index, her method is clearly offering an Intersectional approach to her pedagogy. Although, from perusing the index, I see that interdependence, interconnectivity, transformational multiculturalism, and relational teaching strategies are used more. In my opinion, these are fruit from the same tree and make her book well-suited for the feminist instructor.

What this book does that most others have not, though, is include 7 separate appendices which the nascent to seasoned instructor will find useful. Appendix 1 “Dialogue: Some of My Presuppositions” provides a framework for the classroom discussions. What are the rules of engagement for the class? She spells this out with six presuppositions. They vary from social justice exists, our educations have been biased to people have a basic goodness (125-26). In Appendix II “Listening with Raw Openness,” she reminds us that listening is a crucial component of teaching and transformative dialogue. Appendices IV and V relate to Whiteness and the importance of also teaching Whiteness when having discussions about race. The Appendix 6 offers several sample syllabi from different courses she has taught.

The book made me think of my agency as an instructor, but also the students who sit in my classes. They have agency as well and I have to remember to nurture this and allow them to explore it both in class and in their assignments. Learning is not static and as educators we need to keep abreast of new teaching strategies. Feminist educators need a copy of Teaching Transformation on their bookshelf—nestled right beside books by bell hooks.

Each term I re-evaluate my courses and think of the hits and misses. Keating’s book caused me to think about how I will reflect about my courses this term. I have already followed some of her suggestions and will continue to do so as I begin intensive grading this next week. This book speaks to educators in the Humanities and Social Sciences at the high school through post-secondary levels.

Rebuttal to Margaret Wente

Posted on March 9, 2011 by Dr. Janni Aragon | 2 Comments

Wouldn’t it be great if the Globe and Mail ran a regular column that responded to Margaret Wente? They don’t and I’m not a journalist, but I will respond here to her article published on March 8th. The Globe does not like people linking directly to their articles, so I’ll just note the title, “A Legacy of Success.”

In Margaret Wente’s world, women are white and have lots of class, education, and other privilege. I’m not sure where she lives, but it is not the reality that I see on campus at the University of Victoria or one that I am completely familiar with in San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties in Southern California. My reality or familiarity with women’s realities varies. See here I use the plural as we cannot use the singular, since it doesn’t speak to the varied ways that women live their lives in the West.

It is no doubt that the 20th and 21st centuries have held some of the largest gains for women in the West. We do have more women completing school and attending college. However, our social mores and social policies have not changed quite as quickly to aid families with these changes. We still see women doing more care work in and outside of the home. We see that the economic Gender Gap between women and men has increased. And, this is only looking at women and men and not disaggregating the numbers for different racial and ethnic groups, as the gap is wider. Women might live longer, but more apt to work in the Pink Collar Ghetto. Thanks to this we see that the feminization of poverty continues. More women are poor or vulnerable.

We might have some of the most educated women in the West ever–according to Wente, however, if the economic Gender Gap is increasing and so few women are leaders of Fortune 500 companies one might surmise that there is more work to be done. Right? Then, if we look to the criminal justice system. We see that Aboriginal women constitute some 20-25% of the incarcerated federally, yet Aboriginal people as whole constitute only 4% of the population in Canada. Thus, Aboriginal women are over-represented in prisons in Canada. If we were to look at racialized or women of color in the US, we would also see that they are over-represented in prisons. Angela Davis and Julia Sudbury have each spoken to the problems of racism and the Prison Industrial Complex. The struggle is not over. Continue reading →

Dr. Janni Aragon

You have questions, I have answers!

Category Archives: Feminism

Political Science: Women’s Caucus for Political Science Part 1

Revisiting a Favorite Book: Like Water for Chocolate

Reasons Why I Love(d) and Miss the Re-Imagined #BSG

Managing the Classroom: Teaching Race and Gender

Slutwalk and the Feminist Debates

Native Appropriation: Part I

Teaching Transformation: Book Review

Rebuttal to Margaret Wente

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