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Precarious Politics and Ethical Responsibilities: Teaching Gender in the Middle East
Conference presentation

Precarious Politics and Ethical Responsibilities: Teaching Gender in the Middle East

Nycole Prowse
2011 Learning & Teaching Week Program and Abstracts Book, p.23
Learning & Teaching Week, 2011 (Sunshine Coast, Australia, 19-Sep-2011–23-Sep-2011)
University of the Sunshine Coast
2011
url
https://www.usc.edu.au/View
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Abstract

Cultural Studies gender studies
This paper will discuss the problematics of teaching gender and identity by a third wave western feminist in the Middle East. The 21st century finds feminism in a precarious place. From a western perspective feminism has moved from a second wave collective culture towards individualized diverse forms of feminism. While a large percentage of western women decline from calling themselves feminist they live by feminist ideals in accordance with their individualized needs and desires. Conversely non-western women's sense of community and cultural identification sits uncomfortably with this western notion of individualism. That is, non-western concepts of gender and identity are viewed through cultural expectations. This paper, then, includes an exploration of the precarious politics and ethical responsibilities of teaching feminist concepts within a literature course to students in an American style university in The United Arab Emirates, while avoiding the danger of feminist imperialism. The paper considers pedagogical expectations in light of empirical research outlining the students' responses to the materials and concepts of gender and identity as they are portrayed in literature. Ultimately, it considers how education that encompasses the precariousness of third wave feminist politics, which in itself necessitates ethical responsibility, can empower women to overcome oppression on their terms within their cultural context.

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