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JOHN CABOT UNIVERSITY

COURSE CODE: "SOSC/GDR310"
COURSE NAME: "Gender, Culture, and Urban Spaces"
SEMESTER & YEAR: Spring 2025
SYLLABUS

INSTRUCTOR: Eleonora Diamanti
EMAIL: [email protected]
 HOURS: MW 11:30 AM 12:45 PM
TOTAL NO. OF CONTACT HOURS: 45
CREDITS: 3
PREREQUISITES: Prerequisites: Junior Standing
OFFICE HOURS:
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course examines how city spaces, social relations and urban cultural production are shaped by gendered power dynamics, using a feminist intersectional lens and exploring key terms in gender studies. On the one hand, the course looks at how gender is constructed in cities, creating exclusionary spaces through design, policy and institutions. On the other side, it explores how social groups resist and engage in practices of liberation from gendered power dynamics, reclaiming urban space through the production of cultural forms and diverse social relations. While critically exploring such dynamics, the course also aims to provide students with tools for re-imagining and shaping a more just and equitable urban environment. The course includes hands-on research through field observation and visits in Rome together with examples from a wide range of other geographical locations.
SUMMARY OF COURSE CONTENT:

The course explores the intersections of gender and the built environment, showing how cities have been built and planned to accommodate specific bodies, gender identities and sexualities, making urban life less accessible to others. The first part of the course introduces key terms from women’s and gender studies. It then analyzes how gendered bodies inhabit urban space from an intersectional feminist perspective, taking into account gender identities, sexualities, race, ethnicities, age and ableism. It draws on contemporary and more classical readings covering various global regions and disciplines: sociology, anthropology, geography, city planning, architecture, design, and urban history. Students learn how to conduct autoethnography and counter-mapping as feminist methods to counteract gender assumptions in academic production. They will also present an original research project on a specific theme or city. Key topics addressed in the course include: everyday experiences of urban life, asking who can use the city without fear and how fear has been used as an exclusionary tool; gendered urban planning and design; public policy and gender mainstreaming; collective participation and urban social movements, looking at desire as a tool for liberation from gendered power dynamics; housing, the home and who has access to domestic versus public space; informal urbanism; moral geographies, labor and sexuality; and global cities. 
LEARNING OUTCOMES:

Students will develop the following proficiencies and skills during the course:

·       Recognize the key paradigms, concepts and terminology used in sociological and anthropological debates concerning cities, gender and sexuality.

·       Understand data on global cities, gender and sexuality with an intersectional lens.

·       Reflect on the global dimensions of contemporary urban life, gendered dynamics, cultural processes and social interactions.

·       Connect individual cases of urban life to broader social and cultural frameworks.

·       Build critical analytical thinking skills and apply them orally and in writing, and through creative projects.
TEXTBOOK:
Book TitleAuthorPublisherISBN numberLibrary Call NumberCommentsFormatLocal BookstoreOnline Purchase
Feminist City: Claiming Space in a Man-Made WorldKern, L. Verso Books9781788739849  Ebook  
REQUIRED RESERVED READING:
NONE

RECOMMENDED RESERVED READING:
NONE
GRADING POLICY
-ASSESSMENT METHODS:
AssignmentGuidelinesWeight
Attendance and participation 10%
Midterm 25%
Autoethnography 20%
Counter-mapping 20%
Final project 25%

-ASSESSMENT CRITERIA:
AWork of this quality directly addresses the question or problem raised and provides a coherent argument displaying an extensive knowledge of relevant information or content. This type of work demonstrates the ability to critically evaluate concepts and theory and has an element of novelty and originality. There is clear evidence of a significant amount of reading beyond that required for the course.
BThis is highly competent level of performance and directly addresses the question or problem raised.There is a demonstration of some ability to critically evaluatetheory and concepts and relate them to practice. Discussions reflect the student’s own arguments and are not simply a repetition of standard lecture andreference material. The work does not suffer from any major errors or omissions and provides evidence of reading beyond the required assignments.
CThis is an acceptable level of performance and provides answers that are clear but limited, reflecting the information offered in the lectures and reference readings.
DThis level of performances demonstrates that the student lacks a coherent grasp of the material.Important information is omitted and irrelevant points included.In effect, the student has barely done enough to persuade the instructor that s/he should not fail.
FThis work fails to show any knowledge or understanding of the issues raised in the question. Most of the material in the answer is irrelevant.
-ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS:
ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS AND EXAMINATION POLICY
You cannot make-up a major exam (midterm or final) without the permission of the Dean’s Office. The Dean’s Office will grant such permission only when the absence was caused by a serious impediment, such as a documented illness, hospitalization or death in the immediate family (in which you must attend the funeral) or other situations of similar gravity. Absences due to other meaningful conflicts, such as job interviews, family celebrations, travel difficulties, student misunderstandings or personal convenience, will not be excused. Students who will be absent from a major exam must notify the Dean’s Office prior to that exam. Absences from class due to the observance of a religious holiday will normally be excused. Individual students who will have to miss class to observe a religious holiday should notify the instructor by the end of the Add/Drop period to make prior arrangements for making up any work that will be missed. The final exam period runs until ____________
ACADEMIC HONESTY
As stated in the university catalog, any student who commits an act of academic dishonesty will receive a failing grade on the work in which the dishonesty occurred. In addition, acts of academic dishonesty, irrespective of the weight of the assignment, may result in the student receiving a failing grade in the course. Instances of academic dishonesty will be reported to the Dean of Academic Affairs. A student who is reported twice for academic dishonesty is subject to summary dismissal from the University. In such a case, the Academic Council will then make a recommendation to the President, who will make the final decision.
STUDENTS WITH LEARNING OR OTHER DISABILITIES
John Cabot University does not discriminate on the basis of disability or handicap. Students with approved accommodations must inform their professors at the beginning of the term. Please see the website for the complete policy.
SCHEDULE

SCHEDULE

Week 1. Introduction: Whose city?

Week 2. The feminist city, urban planning and gender mainstreaming

Cities, disorderly women and public order

Week 3. The right to the city beyond gender binaries

Living, working and enjoying urban life beyond heteronormativity

Week 4. Masculinities and the built environment 

Are cities designed for men? What kind of masculinity?

Week 5. Intersectionality and accessibility

How do class, race and ethnicity, ableism, and sexual orientations intersect with gender in the experience of the city?

Week 6. Positionality, embodiment and autoethnography

Starting from one owns body and experience: the personal is political

Week 7. Midterm

Week 8. Youth culture, gender and the city

What is the space for youth in the city, and how does it intersect with gender?

Week 9. Urban ageing, gender and exclusion

No city for old people: how ageing and gender affect the urban experience

Week 10. From mapping to counter-mapping the city

Workshop on mapping the city otherwise

Week 11. Urban space, resettlement and indigeneity

Urban displacement, gender and the place of Indigenous people in urban settings

Week 12. Labor, sexuality and urban space

Moral geographies and sexual cityscapes

Week 13. Feminist activism and social justice

Reclaiming the streets and the digital sphere from a feminist perspective

Week 14. Conclusion

From fear to desire