Women's Studies on Its Own

Robyn Wiegman is Associate Professor of Women’s Studies and the Margaret Taylor Smith Director of Women’s Studies at Duke University. She is the author of American Anatomies: Theorizing Race and Gender and coeditor of The Futures of American Studies, both published by Duke University Press.

“Women’s Studies on Its Own charts the course academic feminism has taken in the thirty years since the founding of the first Women’s Studies program. Even better, it offers a game plan for the next thirty years. It's indispensable.”-Cathy N. Davidson, coeditor of No More Separate Spheres! A Next Wave American Studies Reader “As we enter something of a ‘post-identity politics’ era, one in which colleges and universities are increasingly held accountable for the kinds of knowledge they produce (and how and for whom), Women's Studies on Its Own offers both a rationale for and a critical analysis of the state of the field.”-Jill Dolan, author of Geographies of Learning: Theory and Practice, Activism and Performance "From the wealth of material and argument in the book, it is possible to construct a model women’s studies program. . . . Women’s Studies on Its Own offers much to ‘change life.’. . ."- David L. Sterling (History: Reviews of New Books)

• Introduction: On Location / Robyn Wiegman 1I: Histories of the Present Feminist Cultural Literacy: Translating Differences, Cannibal Options / Sneja Gunew 47Transnational Practices and Interdisciplinary Feminist Scholarship: Refiguring Women's and Gender Studies / Caren Kaplan and Inderpal Grewal 66Notes from the (Non)Field: Teaching and Theorizing Women of Color / Rachel Lee 82The Progress of Gender: Whither "Women"? / Robyn Wiegman 106The Present and Our Past: Simone de Beauvoir, Descartes, and Presentism in the Historiography of Feminism / Jane O. Newman 141II: Institutional Pedagogies (A Forum) Contending with Disciplinarity / Kathleen M. Blee 177The Past in Our Present: Theorizing the Activist Project of Women's Studies / Bonnie Zimmerman 183Rethinking Collectivity: Chicago Feminism, Athenian Democracy, and the Consumer University / Judith Kegan Gardiner 191From Politics to Professionalism: Cultural Change in Women's Studies / Jean C. Robinson 202Battle-Weary Feminists and Supercharged Grrls: Generational Differences and Outsider Status in Women's Studies Administration / Devoney Looser 211Taking Account of Women's Studies / Diane Elam 218Nice Work, If You Can Get It---and If You Can't? Building Women's Studies Without Tenure Lines / Robyn R. Warhol 224The Politics of "Excellence" / Jeanette McVicker 233III. In the Shadow of Capital Academic Housework: Women's Studies and Second Shifting / Dale M. Bauer 245(In)Different Spaces: Feminist Journeys from the Academy to the Mall / Sivagami Subbaraman 258Analogy and Complicity: Women's Studies, Lesbian/Gay Studies, and Capitalism / Miranda Joseph 267Institutional Success and Political Vulnerability: A Lesson in the Importance of Allies / Marcia Westkott 293Life After Women's Studies: Graduates and the Labor Market / Maryanne Dever, Denise Cuthbert, and Lindsey Pollak 312IV: Critical Classrooms Strangers in the Classroom / Sabina Sawhney 341"Women of Color in the U.S.": Pedagogical Reflections on the Politics of "the Name" / Minoo Moallem 368Negotiating the Politics of Experiential Learning in Women's Studies: Lessons from the Community Action Project / Nancy A. Naples 383What Should Every Women's Studies Major Know? Reflections on the Capstone Seminar / Susan Stanford Friedman 416Subversive Couplings: On Antiracism and Postcolonialism in Graduate Women's Studies / Laura E. Donaldson, Anne Donadey, and Jael Silliman 438Afterword: Continuity and Change in Women's Studies / Gloria Bowles 457Bibliography: Locating Feminism 465Contributors 491Index 499