Course level

Undergraduate

Faculty

Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences

School

Historical & Philosophical Inq

Units

2

Duration

One Semester

Attendance mode

In Person

Class hours

Lecture 2 Hours/ Week
Tutorial 1 Hour/ Week

Incompatible

PHIL7219

Course enquiries

Mx Josh Szymanski (Semester 2, St Lucia, In person)

Study Abroad

This course is pre-approved for Study Abroad and Exchange students.

Current course offerings

Course offerings Location Mode Course Profile
Semester 2, 2025 (28/07/2025 - 22/11/2025) St Lucia In Person Course Profile

Please Note: Course profiles marked as not available may still be in development.

Course description

This course sets out to critically analyse the relations between feminism and the tradition of Western philosophy and situate feminist thought from the 'second wave' onward as both a form and critique of philosophical inquiry. This involves critical engagement with concepts such as reason, desire, sexuality, identity, Self and Other, language and expression, normative 'masculinity' and 'femininity', and the category of 'woman' itself. This course interrogates the situation of patriarchal oppression from a feminist-philosophical standpoint but also critically examines Western feminist thought itself from Black, South-East Asian, Australian and American First Nations', and Queer perspectives to develop a broadly intersectional approach to feminist philosophy. In taking up this trajectory, this course explores questions like: How have women been historically excluded from philosophy? How has early feminist thought developed in a Western context - and how has this tradition been critiqued by Black and Postcolonial feminists? What does it mean to say that woman is 'Other' in patriarchal culture? How are femininity and maternity repressed and devalued in patriarchal culture? How do we 'become' gendered? And what kind of critical relationship should an intersectional feminism adopt in relation to gender categories?

Archived offerings

Course offerings Location Mode Course Profile
Semester 2, 2024 (22/07/2024 - 18/11/2024) St Lucia In Person Course Profile
Semester 2, 2023 (24/07/2023 - 18/11/2023) St Lucia In Person Course Profile
Semester 2, 2022 (25/07/2022 - 19/11/2022) St Lucia Internal Course Profile
Semester 2, 2022 (25/07/2022 - 19/11/2022) External External Course Profile
Semester 2, 2021 (26/07/2021 - 20/11/2021) St Lucia Internal Course Profile
Semester 2, 2019 (22/07/2019 - 16/11/2019) St Lucia Internal Course Profile
Semester 2, 2017 (24/07/2017 - 18/11/2017) St Lucia Internal Course Profile