The annotated bibliography asks you to find a minimum of five articles on a specific topic related
to our course. The bibliography will include three components:
a) Statement of Topic and Research Questions: A paragraph stating your topic and explaining your reasons for choosing this topic. What kind of questions are you interested in answering through your research?
b) Annotations: Annotations for a minimum of five articles pertaining to this topic. The articles can come from books or scholarly journals. Annotations include full bibliographic information, using the class style guide (Chicago Style). You will automatically forfeit 30% of your grade if you do not correctly use the class style. The bibliographic information is followed by a short summary of the article (in your own words!) and a brief assessment of it. Briefly note its strengths and weaknesses, and whether or not it aids you in answering your research questions. This means you must read the articles!
c) Final Statement: This will be a paragraph or two giving a concise overview of what you have learned from the research you have conducted. Has your perspective on the issue changed at all? Did anything surprise you? Maximum one page.
More information will be forthcoming in class and on Connect. For the moment, the following are
some websites that will aid you in the creation of an annotated bibliography:
http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/skill28.htm
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/614/01/
http://www.library.mun.ca/guides/howto/annotated_bibl.php
This course is about Gender and Women’s Studies is an interdisciplinary program that examines the social and cultural construction of gender in relation to other social categories, including “race,” nation, sexuality, and class. This introductory course offers a range of perspectives from different academic disciplines and activist voices. It provides an overview of the historical struggle against gendered inequality and familiarizes students with some of the foundational scholarship in Gender and Women’s Studies by tackling such questions as the sex/gender system, the operations of privilege and oppression, the range of social identities, the creation of cultural meaning, and the development of the nation-state as an institution that mediates gender and race.
As an integral part of the critical examination of questions relating to gender, we will work on developing the analytical, writing and research skills that will prove valuable for this course and the rest of your academic career.
Course objectives
To familiarize students with the history of gender studies and feminist analysis in North America;
to introduce critical intellectual traditions for thinking about gender, race, and sexuality;
to examine the development of concepts of race, gender, and sexuality in the Canadian colonial context;
to introduce the diversity of positions and strategies used in gender and women’s studies; and
to provide foundational research skills for further study in the field.
