Human Rights Syllabi: Seminar: Women and Militarization

Professor Enloe Fall, 2002
Office: JEF 418 Monday, 2:30-5:30
Email: cenloe@clarku.edu Women's Studies Seminar Room
Office tel: 508-793-7155 Carriage House
Office mailbox: Govt. Dept Office
Office Hrs: Tues: 10:30 - 11:40
Wed: 2:30-4:00

Seminar: Women and Militarization
WS/GOV/IDCE 261/361

In this seminar we will explore the myriad (and offer surprising) ways in which people and institutions - and entire societies - take on the assumptions, the values and the roles of militarism. Especially, we'll ask how it is that women (themselves so diverse) become the objects of militarizing efforts - and when women embrace militarization, and when women resist militarization.

Among the countries whose experiences we will delve into will be: South Korea, Japan, the U.S., Argentina, Britain, Viet Nam, Tanzania and the former Yugoslavia.

Assignments and grading:
Because this is a seminar, the ultimate course grade will be based chiefly on 2 major assignments that will come due towards the end of the semester:
- your research paper: 40%
- your take-home final exam: 40%

So you'll need to pace yourself, keep up with the reading, start your research paper work early, in order to leave yourself enough "quality time" to write both major papers.

In addition, because a seminar calls on you to take active part in the discussions every week, based on the readings, class participation also will be counted in your final course grade - 20%.

There is substantial reading, so do keep up. A rule of thumb is approximately 5 hours of reading in preparation for every 3-hour weekly seminar.

Note: There are both undergrads and grads in this course. Although your assignments will be the same, your research papers and exam essay will be graded separately and each by own appropriate standards.

Required Readings:

All of these books are available for sale at the Clark University Bookstore.

In addition those books marked below with an "*" are also on a 2 hour reserve in Goddard Library.

*Hugh Gusterson - Nuclear Rites: A weapons Laboratory at the End of the Cold War, University of California Press.

Yuki Tanaka, Japan's Comfort Women, Routledge

* Katharine Moon, Sex Among Allies: Military Prostitution in U.S. - Korea Relations, Columbia University Press.

* Cynthia Enloe, Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women's Lives, University of California Press.

Karen Gottschang Turner with Phan Thanh Hao, Even the Women Must Fight: Memories of War from North Vietnam, Wiley

Human Rights Watch, Seeking Protection: Addressing Sexual and Domestic Violence in Tanzania's Refugee Camps, Human Rights Watch

Slavenka Drakulic, S., a novel about the Balkans, Penguin

* Rita Arditti - Searching for Life: The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo and the Disappeared Children of Argentina, University of California Press.

Virginia Woolf, Three Guineas, Harcourt Brace.

Schedule of Readings and Assignments:

Wed., Aug 28 - (a "Clark Monday") - Why Militarization? Why women?

Start reading: Gusterson, Nuclear Rites.

Mon., Sept. 2 - Peace-time Militarization depends on "masculinities" and "femininities".

Read & be ready to discuss: Gusterson, cover - p. 130.

Sept 9 - The American Context of Feminism, peace movements and weapons sub-cultures.

Read and discuss: Gusterson, p. 101 - END.

Sept 16 - Masculinized Sexuality and Public Policy of Soldiering: Japan in World War II

Read and discuss: - Tanaka, Japan's Comfort Women - ENTIRE.

* The Research Paper assignment will be described in class.

Sept. 23 - What Korean women working as prostitutes reveal about U.S. military policy.

Read and discuss: Moon, Sex Among Allies, cover - p. 103.

Sept. 30 - Is prostitution "normal"? "necessary"? for effective male soldiering?

Read & discuss: Moon, p. 104 - END.

Also: Maneuvers, cover - p. 107.

Oct. 7 - Making " femininity" fit for soldiering.

Read and discuss: Turner, Even the Women Must Fight. - ENTIRE;

Also: Maneuvers, Chap 6.

*Be ready to describe your Research Paper's Progress.

Oct. 14 - Fall Break

*Catch up on your reading!

Oct. 21 - What has made men's rapes of women in wartime invisible?

Read and discuss: Drakulic, S., cover - p. 43.

Also: Maneuvers, Chap. 4.

Oct. 28 - Women as Victims and Women as agents:Read & discuss: Drakulic - p. 44 - END. (including "Readers Guide").

Nov. 4 - Militarizing "post-war" life: Women as refugees from war.

Read & discuss: HRW, Seeking Protection, ENTIRE.

Nov. 11 - Militarizing wives, widows & mothers.

Read & discuss: Maneuvers, Chaps. 5, 7 & conclusion.

Nov. 18 - Resisting: Demilitarizing women's lives.

Read & discuss: Arditti, Search for Life, cover - p. 101.

Nov. 25 - Redefining "human rights":

Read & discuss: Arditti, p. 102 - END.

Dec. 2 - Complicity, resisting & thinking as a feminist:

Read & discuss: Woolf, Three Guineas, cover - p. 84

Also: The "Notes"

** Final Take-Home Exam handed out in class **

* Seminar Research Papers DUE in class. Be ready to discuss your findings.

Dec. 9 - "As a woman...". Does militarization matter?

Read & discuss: Woolf, p. 85 - END (plus "Notes").

*Continued discussion of your research findings.

*Your Final Take-Home Exam Essays are DUE no later than 3:00 p.m., Monday, December 16th in the Women's Studies Office, in the Carriage House.

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