Teaching with the third wave new feminists - MailChimp

industrial world and producing feminist knowledge which will be critical ofthe dominant order and of its own epistemological foundations in the spiritof antifoundationalism. 17 These hotly debated issues within Women’s/GenderStudies are inevitably foregrounded by the Bologna process.The second positive impact of the Bologna process on EuropeanWomen’s/ Gender Studies is its emphasis on issues of European diversity.According to Hemmings, the European tuning debate “necessarily foregroundsboth international differences and similarities within the field, andsituates these as institutional as well as theoretical questions”. 18 Some of thesequestions include the English language hegemony and issues of culturaltranslation which have been central within feminist European networking,and especially within ATHENA’s initiatives to advance the collaborationbetween European universities and the development of a European interdisciplinarycurriculum in Women’s/Gender Studies. Braidotti argues in her article“The Uses and Abuses of the Sex/Gender Distinction in European FeministPractices” that the project of setting up Women’s Studies in a Europeanperspective has to deal with issues of cultural and linguistic diversityin Europe which foreground differences among women. 19 For this reason,European Women’s/Gender Studies has been conceptualized as a trans -cultural and transdisciplinary enterprise which requires an open, dialogicalmode of interaction among Women’s Studies teachers and researcherscooperating in European networks. 20 European tuning seems to be a necessaryprerequisite for students’/staff’s mobility and interaction in the new Europeancontext, which can provide the institutional space for the sort of dialogue andcooperation mentioned above.Negative aspectsThe negative aspects of the impact of the Bologna process on Women’s/ GenderStudies can be summarized through two general points as well: a) issues ofcanonization of the field, and b) issues of neoliberalization.17Ibid., 1195, 1197.18Hemmings, “Tuning Problems? Notes on Women’s and Gender Studies and the Bologna Process”, 118.19For example, the different uses of the terms ‘gender/sex’ across different European languages expose the differentfeminist cultures that exist in Europe and the pressure of the Anglo-American dominance. See Rosi Braidotti, “TheUses and Abuses of the Sex/Gender Distinction in European Feminist Practices,” in Thinking Differently: A Reader inEuropean Women’s Studies, ed. Gabrielle Griffin and Rosi Braidotti (London and New York: Zed Books, 2002), 285-307.20Ibid.43