A course that began this semester at the University of New Mexico Honors College aims to present different feminist perspectives and encourage exploration and critique of these theories.
“A Dialogue on Creating a Feminist Identity,” taught by Dr. Dawn Stracener, strives to enable learning through multidisciplinary experiences.
Above all, the course provides its students with tools to explore their own identities, feminist or not, Stracener said.
“Before we can understand how connected we are as human beings, we first have to understand who we are as people. What are the names I will inscribe on myself, rather than being inscribed by parents and institutions, like education and religion? Let me do that for myself,” she said.
Stracener, who has taught critical theory at the Honors College for 20 years, said there is a lot of pressure on young people to decide on their future quickly.
“It loses our ability to reflect on who we are and what our purpose is. I am hoping they learn and have the energy to heal that wound between women that is created by our competitiveness and this false sense of what is beautiful or what is intelligence that is put on us by family and media,” she said.
The course is expanding the view of what it means to be a feminist and encouraging students to find their own version of feminism that is appropriate for this time in their lives, Stracener said.
She said it is necessary to understand one’s identity, especially as a female or feminist and how that is shared with other women.
“Some (students) are on the brink of beginning to understand that being a feminist is a complex task. That is super healthy. You’ve got to wake up. It’s different than being unconscious and just moving around the world connected to our electronic beings. Instead, being observers of the world around us and seeing what is really going on and being able to take a stand, because you feel it is important. That is a moment of waking up,” Stracener said.
The course’s books include: China Galland’s “The Bond Between Women: A Journey to Fierce Compassion,” bell hooks’ “All About Love: New Visions,” Irene Diamond and Gloria Feman Orenstein’s “Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism” and Carol P. Christ’s “Rebirth of the Goddess: Finding Meaning in Feminist Spirituality.”
Although the idea of being your own feminist is an open concept, in her class, Stracener said she still requires rigorous critique of the presented theories and how they strike each student individually.
“It does not matter to me if you are a feminist or a cat woman. But to be in this class you must be able to critique the world around you — and that includes critiquing yourself,” she said.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
The learning process in Stracener’s class is multidisciplinary, in that it links feminist theories to creative outlets, like collages and poetry, she said. This serves to make the course experiential for the students.
“(Students) experience (the class) from within themselves in a very different way. It’s like the metaphor of the peeling of the onion; it’s just layer after layer. It is who we are. We are complex beings,” Stracener said.
The course also includes creative exercises, everyday journal questions and a 15-hour service project, she said.
Stracener said her teaching philosophy is: “I am not the bearer of knowledge. I am the learning facilitator.”
Aubrie Powell is a culture reporter at the Daily Lobo. She can be contacted at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @AubrieMPowell.
