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Implications for teaching gender: deconstructing the academic feminism/feminist activism division / radical re-appropriationsSome of the tensions which have already been described are certainly part of theprice one has to pay for choosing the path of institutionalization. However, thisdoes not mean that European feminist scholars/teachers should abandon theiracademic positions and projects because they run the risk of being infected byneoliberal viruses; quite the opposite I would say. Feminist academics shouldstart developing multiple strategies which will guarantee both the field’s autonomyand radicality. Here I want to link this political urgency with my ownlocation as a Third-Wave feminist scholar.My motivating question in writing this paper is associated with our roleas Third-Wave feminists/teachers in relation to the present and the future ofEuropean Women’s/Gender Studies. Why do Third-Wavers enter the academia?Why do we seek for academic careers and why do we become teachers inWomen’s/Gender Studies? What is the feminist future(s) that we, as Third-Wavers, envision? Drawing on my location as a Third-Wave feminist situatedin a disciplinary context (linguistics) in the Greek academy which has beenstruggling for years against both privatization and a deeper neoliberalizationand which still lacks permanent forms for the institutionalization of Women’s/Gender Studies, I want to defend a multiplicity of strategies as a feministpolitical choice. I conceptualize multiplicity as ‘flexibility’, as the ability tomove ‘in’ and ‘out’; as being integrated but always remaining a critical outsider.In the Greek context, multiplicity or flexibility is understood in terms of thecritical implementation of the Bologna process which secures Women’s/GenderStudies’ institutional autonomy without totally adopting Bologna’s neoliberalrationale. I consider flexibility to be a feminist choice for the accomplishmentof a political vision (utopia) of an egalitarian education that is not marketorientedand which is deeply transformed by feminist knowledge.Being raised in the historical era of late postmodern capitalism whereintellectual labor has been the basic source of capitalist exploitation, I tendto see the academic feminism/feminist activism-social movement debate as aremnant of modernity, linked with Second-Wave feminist discourses. As suchit fails to keep up with the historical changes that have taken place in late postmoderncapitalism regarding the mode of production and the advanced role ofintellectual labor. Taking into account that intellectual capital is the capital inlate postmodern capitalism and that knowledge is the new valuable commodity50
of capitalist exploitation, we need to foreground issues of knowledge and power(what is knowledge and who can be a knower?), that is we need to highlightfeminist epistemological issues, as the new loci of social and political struggleand subversion. In our postmodern neoliberal world, politics can happen inthose contexts where intellectual labor is being standardized and controlled,that is in the universities. 42 In this sense, academic feminism (theory)/feministactivism (politics) binary proves to be deeply problematic and for this reasonit needs to be deconstructed and reconstructed from a Third-Wave feministperspective.In my opinion, this deconstructive and reconstructive move can resignifythe ‘political’ and help us move beyond nostalgia or pessimism concerningthe lost political force of Women’s/Gender Studies. 43 In order to help academicfeminism detach itself from stories of betrayal or elitism and acquire newpolitical meanings, I suggest that we, in the 3 rd Millennium, start theorizingacademic feminism and our work as teachers in Women’s/ Gender Studies as asort of feminist academic politics which take place within the critical epistemicproject of Women’s/Gender Studies. Feminist academic politics deal with issuesof feminist epistemology (knowledge and power, women’s discrimination andexclusion through science, women’s self-representation and self-determination)as well as with questions about the role and the future of higher education.In this sense, Braidotti’s questions in her article “Key Terms and Issues in theMaking of European Women’s Studies” are considered to be highly relevant:“what vision of the university do we espouse from within Women’s Studies?”,“what kind of education values do we uphold?”, “do we consider Women’s/Gender Studies to be a laboratory for the reworking of the scope and functionof higher education?” and “what view of the human subject do we defend in acontext of increasing Macdonaldization of culture?”. 44Feminist academic politics can start answering these questions throughthe symbolic re-appropriation of the ‘magical’ signs-concepts which circulatein neoliberal and feminist discourses and which we teach in Womens’/Gender Studies courses. Interdisciplinarity, flexibility, and European-nessneed to be re-appropriated and re-signified from a feminist perspective.42In no way, do I mean to reduce the significance of other forms of political action which take place outside theacademia. My aim is to show how blurred the boundaries have become between academic feminism and feministactivism in our postmodern era.43Robyn Wiegman, “Feminism’s Apocalyptic Futures,” New Literary History 31 (2000): 805-825.44Braidotti, “Key Terms and Issues in the Making of European Women’s Studies”, 24-25.51
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 20 and 21: IntroductionSecond-wave feminism is
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 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
Page 68 and 69: The alien’s green colour tells of
Page 70 and 71: Implications of teaching Critical W
Page 72 and 73: ness to people with different backg
Page 74 and 75: theories. This concept can be fruit
Page 76 and 77: Räthzel, Nora. “Nationalism and
Page 78 and 79: nism’ in the classroom. Thus, whi
Page 80 and 81: As a method, memory work focuses on
Page 82 and 83: ence on the teaching. This was beca
Page 84 and 85: when we wanted them to do memory wo
Page 86 and 87: in the consciousness-raising groups
Page 88 and 89: as a therapeutic method, they not o
Page 90 and 91: “Empowerment has, however, someti
Page 92 and 93: fascination with the strong commona
Page 94 and 95: practice”. 43 She explains MacKin
Page 96 and 97: has been exposed to subjection by o
Page 98 and 99: Sebastien, Amanda. “Tendencies in
Page 100 and 101: a historical moment when technologi
Page 102 and 103:
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
Page 118 and 119:
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
Page 146 and 147:
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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