What does it all mean?

Entry:

How do we adequately create spaces that reflect the values of successful transnational feminism? Over the course of the semester, we have learned about the stories of transnational feminists trying to make classrooms a safe space to discuss ideas on gender, racism, xenophobia, class etc, while always keeping in mind that some voices aren’t heard in the process. The importance of making a classroom a democratic space with a horizontal power structure over a vertical one is an important place to start. In GNDR 335, the class is split into groups for teaching each other, organizing ourselves to put out a class-wide website and helping each other plan a community engagement event. We check in on our collective learning, asking each other questions about the content we read, the lectures we attend and the products we want to put out into the world. The engagement piece is an important part of the activism that is necessary for being a transnational feminist. Creating content that can be easily accessible and circulated is key to creating positive space that knows no borders.

Rationale:

With my original blog post, I hope to explain how structure and content are related in the context of transnational feminist pedagogy. As a geographer, I am constantly questioning what is considered space since so much community and interaction happens online. Building community and sharing ideas has been able to move past physical space because of the internet. Identities are able to defy geographical situatedness as well, because in a globalized, (post) colonial world, we belong to many places and communities. Transnational feminist pedagogy asks us to take on what Chandra Mohanty calls the “solidarity perspective”, which asks us to look at the specificities and differences of women’s lives all over the world, as well as the connections between communities internationally. Having access to the stories of people from the 2/3s world online reflects the solidarity perspective that Mohanty expects from us, and bringing our learning from the classroom and sharing it with the world, is taking this challenge one step further.

Author: Justine B