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IntroductionSecond-wave feminism is a grass-roots socio-political movement that graduallymoved in the direction of the academy in the course of the 1970s and1980s, first in the United States and Western Europe. In contrast third-wavefeminism should be understood as both activist and academic from thestart. Contemporary feminists who are below 30 years of age often state thatthey picked up and themselves started to generate feminist ideologies duringtheir studies. The field of gender studies is both an outcome of and a breedingground for women’s movements in most parts of the U.S. 2 and Europe today.As a discipline gender studies has generated and employs feminist theories andmethodologies for its research. Teaching gender involves the transfer of thesetheories and methodologies, as well as transferring a variety of insights into thesituation of a variety of women (and men) through time and space. Whereas theimportance of the generational transfer of feminist knowledge is an integratedpart of gender studies, the concept of generation is usually questioned infeminist theory. This questioning is not directed at referentiality (i.e referenceto specific, predetermined age groups), or what I will call, following KarenBarad, ‘representationalism’, but generationality as such is looked at withgreat suspicion by gender studies’ theoreticians. Judith Roof has forcefullysummarized the criticism the concept of feminist generationality has received:“Importing the full force of Oedipal rivalry, recrimination, and debt, generationis neither an innocent empirical model nor an accurate assessment of ahistorical reality. Rather, generation reflects and exacerbates Oedipal relationsand rivalries among women, relies on a patriarchal understanding of historyand a linear, cause-effect narrative, and imports ideologies of property.” 3The following rough sketch provides the parameters of this discussion whichcontemporary feminist theory, or what I will call ‘third-wave feminist theory,’has begun to break through. Third-wave feminist theory is equally criticalof generationality, while simultaneously affirming its impact (i.e. it wants torethink the notion).Knowledge transfer amongst feminists is nowadays usually situatedwithin the field of gender studies. Gender studies is, in turn, the result ofthe epistemic turn in second-wave feminism which marked the starting point2Gender studies is used here as the equivalent or abbreviation of women’s/ feminist/ gender studies.3Judith Roof, “Generational Difficulties; or, The Fear of a Barren History,” in Generations: Academic Feminists inDialogue, ed. Devoney Looser and E. Ann Kaplan (Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 1997), 71.18
for the long march of feminists through the academy. The field of gender studiesis generally celebrated for its sustainability in the present, its constant emphasison feminist genealogies, and its future-oriented nature. Whereas grass- rootsfeminist activism is said to have slowly faded away in most First-World countries,gender studies or academic feminism is characterized as an epistemic projectthat is here to stay. Instances of knowledge transfer are, however, followingPlato, defined in generational terms; teaching involves seniors and juniors, thatis, masters and disciples. Nonetheless, taking into consideration the fact thatthe transfer of knowledge in the current-day West is taken to be generational,and that the issue is on the feminist agenda, feminist generationality, both as anempirical phenomenon and as a conceptual frame, is looked at with a criticaleye.The conceptualization of generation that is criticized, yet simultaneouslyre-affirmed (see below) in the work of Roof and others forms the startingpoint of this chapter. I will argue that by questioning representationalistunderstandings of generationality rather than generationality as such, thirdwavefeminist theory qualitatively shifts the common treatment of generationality.Contemporary feminist theory succeeds in setting in motion such aparadigmatic shift by taking on an outlook that I call ‘new materialist.’ 4 Thekey to new feminist materialism is an anti- or non-representationalist outlook.The central claim of this chapter is that contemporary feminist theory shouldbe credited for having created a conceptualization of generational processesthat is different from earlier definitions of (feminist) generation. I argue thatthird-wave feminist theory breaks through non-feminist as well as feministrenderings of generationality by answering the question: what does the new,third-wave feminist concept of generationality look like? On what grounds canit be argued that this concept is of benefit for capturing precisely the transferof feminist thought? Due to the fact that instances of generational transferof feminist knowledge take place in the classroom, in this chapter I will gointo the ways in which third-wave feminist generationality is played out in thegender studies classroom. In other words I will ask how third-wave feminism’sconceptualization of generationality is played out in the classroom. This questionhas a double edge: the concept I talk about is affected by the classroom aswell as affecting it.4Cf. Iris van der Tuin, “‘Jumping Generations:’ On Second- and Third-Wave Feminist Epistemology,” AustralianFeminist Studies, 24 (March 2009): 17–31.19
Page 1: Teaching with the Third WaveNew Fem
Page 4 and 5: © Åse Bengtsson and Catti Brandel
Page 6 and 7: “This Is Not Therapy!” 75Un/Exp
Page 9 and 10: PrefaceThe idea of writing this boo
Page 11 and 12: IntroductionDaniela Gronold, Brigit
Page 13 and 14: Brandelius who is portrayed on the
Page 15 and 16: The institutional context of Women
Page 17: The chapters present new feminist e
Page 22 and 23: Second-Wave Feminist Generationalit
Page 24 and 25: and conflictual ones), and since th
Page 26 and 27: This allows her to conceptualize a
Page 28 and 29: The Anglo-American and the French t
Page 30 and 31: To traverse the classifications of
Page 32 and 33: ing system without a General and wi
Page 34 and 35: Let me end this chapter by providin
Page 36 and 37: Buikema tells the story of Sarah Ba
Page 38 and 39: Roof, Judith. “Generational Diffi
Page 40 and 41: postmodern capitalism and the impli
Page 42 and 43: European scope and its neoliberal c
Page 44 and 45: front. A strong motivation offered
Page 46 and 47: In her editorial response to Hemmin
Page 48 and 49: Gender Studies’, 28 I agree with
Page 50 and 51: expected to play a central role as
Page 52 and 53: Implications for teaching gender: d
Page 54 and 55: These re- appropriations cannot be
Page 56 and 57: Puig de la Bellacasa, Maria. “Fle
Page 58 and 59: We are both white scholars who grew
Page 60 and 61: mapped in the first part of project
Page 62 and 63: able much earlier; therefore the pe
Page 64 and 65: Using the example of Germany Wollra
Page 66 and 67: of a link to already existing stere
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Implications of teaching Critical W
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ness to people with different backg
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theories. This concept can be fruit
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Räthzel, Nora. “Nationalism and
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nism’ in the classroom. Thus, whi
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As a method, memory work focuses on
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ence on the teaching. This was beca
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when we wanted them to do memory wo
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in the consciousness-raising groups
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as a therapeutic method, they not o
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“Empowerment has, however, someti
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fascination with the strong commona
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practice”. 43 She explains MacKin
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has been exposed to subjection by o
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Sebastien, Amanda. “Tendencies in
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a historical moment when technologi
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As earlier noted, there are certain
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new per se, they like Internet-base
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where technological and media accou
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to avoid binaristic traps, rejectin
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ReferencesBraidotti, Rosi. Metamorp
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IntroductionIn 2007, with two other
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WoMen at workIn all, it took us alm
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Facing Uncertainties and Self-quest
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Doctorate degree’s curricula for
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In addition, many feminist academic
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and duties which are seen as comple
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answers adapted to their own profes
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As the form of the message counts a
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ReferencesBlanchard, Soline, Jules
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As the learning outcomes demonstrat
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Within the organizational structure
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Gender-sensitive didactics can be p
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A further dimension is knowledge ab
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Teaching materialsSince language is
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and absences, both short term and p
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The cliché cloakroomSometimes it w
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and goatees, later almost all wante
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Presentations from the working grou
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ConclusionTeachers’ self-reflecti
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Mühlen Achs, Gitta. Geschlecht bew
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Milka Metso, PhD Candidate, Univers
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