October 22, 2021
New Course: The Cultural and Social Construction of Girls and Girlhood: Critical Feminist Perspectives
Dr. Cheryl van Daalen-Smith, York University, Toronto, Canada
Graduate Program in Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies
Drawing upon multiple theoretical perspectives from contemporary girlhood studies, students explore the cultural and social construction of girls and girlhood. Critical feminist perspectives combined with “girls” own experiences enable students to uncover and critique the ways in which girlhood is socially constructed and regulated through time, place and space. The role of oppression will be explored through an intersectional lens.
Expanded Course Description:
Drawing upon multiple theoretical perspectives from contemporary girlhood studies, students will explore the cultural and social construction of “the girl”, girls and girlhood. Critical feminist perspectives and analyses combined with “girls’” own experiences, enable students to uncover the ways in which girlhood, and by default enforced yet devalued femininity, is both socially constructed and regulated through time, place and space.
The course strives to facilitate the enjoyment of deep reading and scholarly debate on a variety of topics relating to girls and girlhood where the role of oppression will be explored through a critical, feminist and intersectional lens. Through the physical and emotional manifestations of girlhood as experienced and told by “girls” themselves, students develop an awareness of the connections between the personal and social relations of power as they relate to lived experience, identity construction, subjectification and resistance. Readings, facilitated discussions both online and in class, together with learning evidences enable students to challenge and interrogate how gender, race, class, ability, colonization, and the regulation of girls’ bodies, minds and desires collude to enforce the societal enforcement of normalcy, criminality, sanity, etc. Through deep reflection and critical discourse analysis, what we think we “know” about girls and girlhood as an identity category is interrogated, critiqued and deconstructed. Course concepts include: Girl, Girlhood, Girl Power, Girlhood Studies, Citizenship, Girl-Driven, Marginalization, Girl-Centredness, Activism, Agency, Authenticity, The Body, Colonialism, Critical analysis, Digital participation, Discourse analysis, Empowerment, Feminist, Gender, Gender Role Prescriptions, Gender-based analysis, Girl Power, Femininity, Hegemony, Heteronormativity, Identity, Intersectionality, Neoliberalism, Normativity, Oppression, Pathology, Racialization, Regulation, Representation, Resistance, Trauma, Sanity, Sexuality, Sexualization, Social construction, Subjectivity, Subjectification, Surveillance, Trauma, Resistance, Violence, Visibility, Voice.
Winter Term Jan-March 2022: Online, Synchronous with some possible blended features
Program : PhD program in Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies
Date: Thursdays 1:30-4:30 Synchronous
Contact: cvandaal@yorku.ca
September 23, 2021
September 16, 2021
The Girls Studies Research Network held a Pan-Canadian panel on Girls Studies: The State of the Art at the Interdisciplinary Feminist Sessions, Women's and Gender Studies et Recherches féministes conference on 30 May 2021. The panel was chaired by Deanne Williams, and GSRN members discussed the 'girl effect' (Anuppiriya Sriskandarajah), girls as knowledge producers (Natalie Coulter), girl performers and the law (Clara Chapdelaine-Feliciati), as well as Indie girl culture (Morgan Bimm) and the 'Tomgirl' in child literature (Ameera Ali), along with faculty from other Canadian universities who presented papers on how Black girls use social networks (Kisha McPherson, UBC, Vancouver), historical accounts of French minority young girls (Marie-France Guénette, université Laval, Québec) and inclusive digital literacy for girls (Amélie Lemieux, Mount St Vincent University, Halifax
July 22, 2021
Anuppiriya Sriskandarajah, assistant professor in the Department of Humanities and co-investigator Desirée de Jesus, assistant professor in the Department of Communication and Media Studies were awarded a Connection Grant of $15,934 for their project “Motion, Stop, Motion: Self-Imaging Racialized Girlhoods in the Time of COVID-19.” The workshop aims to equip racialized girls and young women from immigrant communities with film production and editing skills to creatively express their lived experiences of the pandemic and their imagined futures post-COVID-19.
“In the context of Covid-19, inequalities that many racialized communities were all too familiar with have become more difficult to deny by the general public. Covid has exacerbated these existing inequalities and brought to the fore many discussions that often went unheard,” Sriskandarajah said. For both Sriskandarajah and de Jesus, the project is timely and can result in a fruitful examination of an untapped research area with tangible engagement with the community at-large.
“While there are many anticipated outcomes, we believe that the creative expression of the girls’ critical insights will also enrich youth workers' and policy makers’ efforts to design effective recovery initiatives,” de Jesus said.