Undergraduate Course: Imperial Feminisms: The Anti-Colonial Examination of Gender and white Womanhood from the 19th Century to Present (PHIL10269)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Imperial Feminisms: The Anti-Colonial Examination of Gender and White Womanhood from the 19th Century to the Present is an interdisciplinary course examining the historical development of gender theory in the United States and the United Kingdom through the global expansion of feminist movements within imperial and colonial contexts. The course begins with an analysis of nineteenth-century suffrage debates, focusing on how arguments about womanhood, race, and civilization intersected with projects of segregation, racial hierarchy, and colonial governance. It then turns to the early twentieth century to explore the relationships between feminist activism, Jim Crow politics, women's participation in Ku Klux Klan organizations, and the political mobilization of motherhood and protection narratives amid challenges posed by Black Americans and colonized populations. The final section examines late twentieth-century developments in gender theory, including debates surrounding Black male criminality, compensatory masculinity theory, Title VII legislative debates, and the expansion of carceral approaches to domestic violence. Throughout, the course situates white womanhood as a historically contingent political identity and introduces students to critical historical and theoretical approaches for analysing gender, race, and power.
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| Course description |
Imperial Feminisms: The Anti-Colonial Examination of Gender and White Womanhood from the 19th Century to the Present is an interdisciplinary course examining the historical development of gender theory in the United States and the United Kingdom through the lens of empire, race, and political power. The course traces three major periods: nineteenth-century suffrage movements and the emergence of gender as a political construct; early twentieth-century mobilizations of white womanhood in support of racial segregation, domestic terrorism, and imperial governance; and late twentieth-century debates surrounding civil rights, criminalization, and the rise of intersectional and coalition-based frameworks. Drawing on primary documents, archival findings, and contemporary scholarship in history, Africana Studies, and political theory, students will analyze how concepts such as motherhood, protection, and vulnerability functioned within colonial and nationalist projects. This class emphasizes close textual analysis, historical contextualization, time-specific delineation of concepts, and critical discussion, enabling students to develop advanced skills in interpreting archival materials, evaluating competing theoretical frameworks, and connecting historical arguments to contemporary debates about gender, race, and democracy.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
Students MUST have passed:
Mind, Matter and Language (PHIL08014) AND
Knowledge and Reality (PHIL08017)
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | Students studying on MA Cognitive Science (Humanities) are permitted to take this course without having met the pre-requisites of Mind, Matter and Language and Knowledge and Reality. However, it is advisable that students discuss the suitability of the course with their Student Adviser and the Course Organiser before enrolling. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have completed at least 3 Philosophy courses at grade B or above. We will only consider University/College level courses. Applicants should note that, as with other popular courses, meeting the minimum does NOT guarantee admission. **Please note that honours Philosophy courses are high-demand, meaning that they have a very high number of students wishing to enrol in a very limited number of spaces.** These enrolments are managed strictly by the Visiting Student Office, in line with the quotas allocated by the department, and all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. It is not appropriate for students to contact the department directly to request additional spaces. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2026/27, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 22,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
174 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Midterm essay (1,500 words) - 40%
Final essay (2,500 words) - 60% |
| Feedback |
Feedback will be from written responses to essays, and introduction/abstracts submitted before each assessment. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Analyse historical texts concerning women's rights, suffrage, and feminism based on a time specific analysis of ideas, arguments, and political context.
- Understand the material history behind contemporary anti-colonial and decolonial arguments against feminism, white womanhood, and the role of the white woman in imperial and colonial conquests.
- Articulate the arguments in decolonial and anti-colonial theory through a historiographic analysis of the gender construct in the English speaking world.
- Explain the difference between decolonial, Africana womanist, Black non-aligned women, and Black Male Studies (sociogenic) perspectives on gender.
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Reading List
- Bhattacharyya, Gargi. 2013. Dangerous Brown Men: Exploiting Sex, Violence and Feminism in the 'War on Terror'. London: Zed Books.
- Blee, Kathleen M. 2009. Women of the Klan: Racism and Gender in the 1920s. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Bumiller, Kristin. 2013. "Feminist collaboration with the state in response to sexual violence : Lessons from the American experience." In Gender, violence, and
- Human Security : Critical Feminist Perspectives, by Aili Mari Tripp, Myra Marx Ferree and Christina Ewig, 191-213. New York: NYU Press.
¿. 2008. In an Abusive State: How Neoliberalism Appropriated the Feminist Movement against Sexual Violence. Durham: Duke University Press.
- Foster, Thomas A. 2011. "The Sexual Abuse of Black Men under American Slavery." Journal of the History of Sexuality 20 (3): 445-464.
- Gilman, Charlotte. 1900. Women and Economics: A Study of the Economic Relation between Men and Women as a Factor in Social Evolution. Boston: Small, Maynard, and Company.
- Jones-Rogers, Stephanie. 2019. They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South. New Haven: Yale University Press.
- McRae, Elizabeth Gillespie. 2018. Mothers of Massive Resistance: White Women and the Politics of White Supremacy. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Newman, Louise. 1999. White Women's Rights: The Racial Origins of Feminism in the United States. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Sneider, Allison. 2008. Suffragists in an Imperial Age" U.S. Expansion and the Woman Question, 1870-1929. London: Oxford University Press.
- Williams, Joyce, and Karen A. Holmes. 1981. The Second Assault: Rape and Public Attitudes. Santa Barbara: Praeger.
- Wynter, Sylvia. 2018. "Beyond Liberal Marxist Feminisms: Towards an Autonomous Frame of Reference." C.L.R. James Journal 24 (1-2): 31-56.
- Wynter, Sylvia. 2006. "On How We Mistook the Map for the Territory, and Imprisoned Ourselves in Our Unbearable Wrongness of Being, of Desetre: Black Studies Toward the Human Problem." In Not Only the Ma |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Critical thinking; problem solving; curiosity; reflection; inclusivity
The course requires students to learn interdisciplinary research skills as well as effective communication. Students will learn how to temporalize categories of philosophical analysis, read historical documents and materials, and assimilate historical facts within theoretical analyses. This requires reflection, deconstruction (clearing) of previous ideological tropes from Eurocentric discourses, and close textual exegesis. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Tommy Curry
Tel: (0131 6)51 3083
Email: T.J.Curry@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr Cameron Findlay
Tel:
Email: cameron.findlay@ed.ac.uk |
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