Requirements for a major in African Feminist Studies
AFS1100S - UNDERSTANDING GENDER
This course is capped at 450 students for 2022.
NQF credits: 18
NQF level: 5
Convener: TBA
Course entry requirements: None.This course is a requirement for students majoring in Gender Studies but is also open as an elective to students in all other faculty disciplines.
Course outline: The aims of this course include increasing students’ awareness of the relevance of gender issues to their lives and developing a critical understanding of the multiple and contested meanings of gender in contemporary African and international contexts. It introduces key concepts concerning gender and sexuality, culture and identity, context and the dynamics of masculinity and femininity. It explores connections between gender, ‘race’, class, generation and location and draws on a number of different resource materials: including visual materials such as documentaries, film and media, art.
Lecture times: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 5th period.
DP requirements: Students are expected to attend all classes, and to submit all required assignments by deadlines identified in the course curriculum.
Assessment: Continuous assessment (essays, projects, tests, etc.) counts 100%
AFS1101S - UNDERSTANDING GENDER
NQF credits: 10
NQF level: 5
Convener: TBA
Course entry requirements: None (extended programme students only).
Co-requisites: AFS1100S.
Course outline: The purpose of this course is to augment and support its co-requisite course: AFS1100S (Understanding Gender). It aims to improve students’ performance by enhancing their grasp of key ideas and concepts, and by developing their mastery of the disciplinary discourse. It provides additional pedagogic enrichment in the form of regular Plus Tutorials that extend into Writing Hub exercises and consultations. In these tutorials, students will receive explicit support around the co-requisite course assignments and detailed feedback on their written work.
DP requirements: No DP requirements.
Assessment: This course will be assessed on a Pass/Fail basis. In order to receive a pass grade, students will be required to complete at least 80% of all course requirements (attendance at tutorials, submission of exercises etc).
AFS2100F - GENDER, SEXUALITY, POLITICS
NQF credits: 24
NQF level: 6
Convener: TBA
Course entry requirements: 2nd year status
Course outline: This course explores debates around gender and sexualities as a way both of deepening knowledge about the politics of gender continentally, and of exploring the complexity of different African contexts’ engagement with broad discussions on sexual rights. The course is divided into two sections which broadly focus on South Africa, Kenya and Uganda. The first section addresses concepts on gender and sexualities through an examination of how sexualities were remade as a result of colonial conquest as well as how debates over gender and sexualities shifted post- ‘independence’. The second section looks at contemporary debates in gender politics and sexualities. These include debates of the (de)criminalisation of sex work, culture and sexuality, reproductive health rights and sexual rights, and gender and the media.
Lecture times: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 3rd period.
DP requirements: Students are expected to attend all classes, and to submit all required assignments by deadlines identified in the course curriculum.
Assessment: Continuous assessment (essays, projects, tests, etc.) counts 100%
AFS2102S - GENDER & THE POLITICS OF DEVELOPMENT
NQF credits: 24
NQF level: 6
Convener: Y Clarke
Course entry requirements: 2nd year status
Course outline: The aim of this course is to enable students to understand and analyse the impact of development practices, particularly as they have affected women and men in different contexts. The course will offer an introduction to debates around the gendered impact of different economic and political development trajectories, and policies, such as industrialisation, agricultural transformations, democratisation, and contemporary structural adjustment programmes. Case studies drawn from different regions and contexts will be used to illustrate the theoretical debates, including those distinguishing “women in development” approaches from “gender and development” approaches.
Lecture times: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 3rd period.
DP requirements: Completion of all semester coursework by deadlines as specified on the course curriculum.
Assessment: Continuous assessment (essays, projects, tests, etc.) counts 100%.
AFS3100F - THEORIES, POLITICS AND ACTION
NQF credits: 30
NQF level: 7
Convener: Assoc Professor F Seedat
Course entry requirements: AFS2100F and one of the following electives: AFS2102S, HST2047S, REL2047F, ANS2402S, ANS2401F, SOC2004S, or permission of the Head of Department.
Course outline: In this course we will examine how women's movements have emerged in the context of struggles against other forms of social injustice and have informed theories about gendered oppression. Focusing on women's and feminist movements mainly in the South and East, the course examines how feminist theories have not only been shaped by the specificities of the local contexts and struggles; but also how they have been shaped by the global flow of information about women's and queer movements elsewhere. In addition, we examine how the questions that feminists and women activists have raised have destabilised the taken-for-granted assumptions about masculinities. We will also take a brief look at the construction and multiple meanings of sexuality and masculinities, especially in African contexts. The course is designed to acquaint students with literature about women's and feminist movements in the non-western world. It encourages students to think critically about the relationship between theories and practice, as well as about the applicability of feminist theoretical concepts across diverse contexts. Coursework is also designed to develop students' writing and seminar presentation skills.
Lecture times: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 4th period.
DP requirements: Completion of all written coursework by deadlines as specified on course curriculum.
Assessment: Continuous assessment (essays, projects, tests, etc.) counts 100%.
AFS3101S - THE POLITICS OF GENDERED KNOWLEDGE
NQF credits: 30
NQF level: 7
Convener: Assoc Professor F Seedat
Course entry requirements: AFS3100F, or permission of the Head of Department.
Course outline: The course offers senior students an opportunity to develop feminist/queer research skills through study and by designing and undertaking research. It also explores some of the key challenges of engendering knowledge, feminist and queer perspectives on research and a range of questions - political, theoretical and methodological - pertinent to African feminists and African-based researchers in the social sciences.
Lecture times: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 4th period.
DP requirements: Completion of all semester coursework and research assignments by deadlines as specified within the course curriculum.
Assessment: Continuous assessment (essays, projects, tests, etc.) counts 100%