Guía docente de Gender, Culture and Development: Africa (M15/56/4/21)

Main issues on development in Africa South of the Sahara. Gendered revolutions and public policies on gender equality, development and culture. African Gender Systems and Feminisms. Is culture an obstacle to development? Culture as local knowledge, experience and agency? Harmful practices against women revisited. 

Not applicable.

(1) Knowledge and application of concepts, such as culture, tradition or consuetudinary rights to the light of Gender and Women's Studies for African contexts.

(2) Understanding of African feminisms viewpoint as related to national/international development policies and issues.

(3) Analysis of specific gender equality reforms and projects in African countries.

Topic 1. DEVELOPMENT (1st and 2nd Session) – Study questions: Why do Development and Africa go along together (and apparently) that well? What is «development»? Only Western ideology or an economic, social, political, cultural issue...? How has «development» changed its meanings (discourses and practices) over time? To what extent this has had an impact on African countries and particularly on women? Women have always been integrated into development processes. What now? Gender equality and the market economy: Is it possible to overcome subordination in the actual context of globalization? Gender and women in developed and underdeveloped countries. What differences does it make? How is social media being used for specific issues in the developing countries? What role do the media play in the cultural dynamics of Development in African societies?

Topic 2. GENDER (3rd and 4th Session) – Study questions: The concept of gender in Africa: “traditional”/ cultural and gender systems. The “woman/gender question”, revolutions, reforms, and State Feminism. Gender subordination and development. African women’s movements and political transformation: challenges and advancements. African and Black Feminisms. How does the media affect Gender and women in Africa?

Topic 3. CULTURE (5th and 6th Session) – Study questions: What does culture have to do with development? Since when, how and why has it been relevant? How does culture relate to gender and development and why? Is GAD imposition of Western ideas in developing areas? Do gender and development interfere in people’s cultures? How can these issues be tackled on a practical level? Culture as experiences and agency: Harmful practices against women revisited.  In what ways Media and Culture and related? Have African women created their own representation through the media? What power do African women have toward media representation of themselves? What relevance do these processes have in the image that is transmitted globally? How does it engage new ways of creating and recreating culture and identities glocally? 

Based on main topics, DEVELOPMENT, GENDER and CULTURE, and respective related readings and case studies, students will develop an essay paper.

TOPIC 1

• ANYIDOHO, Nana Akua (2020) Women, Gender, and Development in Africa. In Yacob-Haliso, T. Falola (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of African Women's Studies, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
• CORNWALL, Andrea (2019), Decolonizing Development Studies: Pedagogic Reflections. Radical Teacher, 116: 37-46.
• CORNWALL Andrea & Althea-Maria RIVAS (2015), From ‘gender equality and ‘women’s empowerment’ to global justice: reclaiming a transformative agenda for gender and development, Third World Quarterly, 36:2, 396-415.
• EADE, Deborah (2009), Feminisms in Development: Contradictions, Contestations and Challenges; Gender Myths and Feminist Fables: The Struggle for Interpretive Power in Gender and Development, Development in Practice, 19:3, 427-429.

TOPIC 2

• BOSCH, Tanja (2011) African Feminist Media Studies. A view from the global South, Feminist Media Studies, 11 (1), pp. 27-33.
• HOGDSON, Dorothy (1996), My Daughter belongs to the Government Now": Marriage, Maasai and the Tanzanian State. Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne des Études Africaines, 30 (1), pp. 106-123. 
• MBILINYI, Marjorie (2015) Transformative Feminism in Tanzania: Animation and Grassroots Women’s Struggles for Land and Livelihoods. In Rawwida Baksh & Wendy Harcourt (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Transnational Feminist Movements: Knowledge, Power and Social Change. New York: Oxford University Press.
• OYĚWÚMÍ, Oyèrónkę (2004), Conceptualizing Gender: Eurocentric Foundations of Feminist Concepts and the Challenge of African Epistemologies. IN: African Gender Scholarship: Concepts, Methodology and Paradigms. CODESRIA (Ed.): 1-8. Dakar: Council for the Development of Social Sciences Research in Africa (CODESRIA).

TOPIC 3

• ABU-LUGHOD, Lila (2002), Do Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others. American Anthropologist, 104(3), pp. 783-790. 
• MANZANERA-Ruiz, Roser; Carmen LIZÁRRAGA-Mollinedo & Rose MWAIPOPO (2016) Gender Inequality, Processes of Adaptation, and Female Local Initiatives in Cash Crop Production in Northern Tanzania. Rural Sociology, 81(2), pp. 143-171.
• MBAKOGU, Ifeyinwa A. (2004), Is There Really a Relationship Between Culture and Development? Anthropologist, 6(1), pp. 37-43.
• ONYENANKEYA, Kevin Uwaecheghi; ONYENANKEYA, Oluwayemisi Mary; and OSUNKUNLE, Oluyinka (2019), Sexism and Gender Profiling: Two Decades of Stereotypical Portrayal of Women in Nollywood Films. Journal of International Women's Studies, 20(2), pp. 73-90.
• PYPE, Katrien and JEDLOWSKI, Alessandro. “Anthropological Approaches to Media in Africa.” IN: GRINKER, R.R. et al (Eds.) (2019) A Companion to the Anthropology of Africa. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
• GADZEKPO, Audrey (2009) Missing links: African media studies and feminist concerns. Journal of African Media Studies, 1 (1), pp. 69-80.

• AMADIUME, Ifi (1998), Reinventing Africa: Matriarchy, Religion and Culture. London: Zed Books. 
• AMADIUME, Ifi (1987a), Male Daughters, Female Husbands. Gender and Sex in an African Society. London: Zed Books .
• AMADIUME, Ifi (1987b), African Matriarchal Foundations. The Case of Igbo Societies. London: Karnak House.
• CORNWALL, Andrea (2010), Deconstructing Development Discourse:  Buzzwords and Fuzzwords. London: Practical Action.
• ARNFRED, Signe (Ed.) (2004), Re-thinking Sexualities in Africa. Nordiska Afrikainstitutet Uppsala.
• CODESRIA (2004), African gender scholarship: Concepts, methodology and paradigms. Dakar: Council for the Development of Social Sciences Research in Africa (CODESRIA).
• OYEWÙMÍ, Oyèrónké (Ed.) (2005), African gender studies. A reader. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. 
• OYEWÙMÍ, Oyèrónkè (1997), The Invention of Women. Making African Sense of Western Discourses. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
• RAWWIDA, Baksh & Wendy HARCOURT (Eds.) (2015), Oxford Handbook of Transnational Feminist Movements: Knowledge, Power and Social Change. New York: Oxford University Press.
• VIEITEZ-CERDEÑO, Soledad (2011), “Angola”, “Cape Verde”, “Green Belt Movement in Africa”, “Lesotho”, “Property Rights”, “Swaziland”. IN: Encyclopedia of Women in Today’s World. Mary Zeiss Stange and Carol K. Oyster (Eds.). New York: SAGE Reference.
• YACOB-HALISO, T. Falola (Eds.) (2020), The Palgrave Handbook of African Women's Studies, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Links to be provided in PRADO and lectures.

Article 17 of the Regulations for the Evaluation and Qualification of Students (University of Granada) establishes that the final grade in ordinary deadline will be based on a continuous assessment of each student (evaluación continua), except those students who have chosen final assessment (evaluación única final).

Tool 1: Attendance

Students are expected to attend classes regularly. Requirements:

• Students may be absent up to 4 hours per class (5 ECTS) without the need for justification.
• Absences greater than 4 hours in the class must be duly justified to both Professors
• Classes that are not attended (8 hours), both justified or not, will have to be made up by additional assignments as established by the Professor, so as not to impact the final grade.
• Students must not exceed 8 hours of unexcused absence in any GEMMA class (5 ECTS).
• A student absent over 8 hours in any class due to any major cause must contact the Professors (each case will be treated individually, and Professor will also decide).

Tool 2: Required reading

• Students also must use, at least, 75 hours to independent reading, studying, and homework.  

Tool 3: PRADO and UGR institutional mail address (user@correo.ugr.es)

• Students access class materials through PRADO, http://prado.ugr.es/, so each student must make sure to have access through user@correo.ugr.es (or otherwise contact PRADO/GEMMA administration). Please check FAQ-help PRADO and/or Access Guide for more information on how to use PRADO.
• Please be reminded that official communications always go through your institutional UGR mail address (user@correo.ugr.es). Make sure to regularly check your inbox, as well other folders: news listings, etc. (including SPAM).

Tool 4: Final grade

• Attendance (25%), Class presentations (25%) and active Discussions on readings (25%) Final Essay (25%) 

Tool 5: Office hours

• Students will make an appointment with the Professor for office hours on-demand.

• Reaction papers on mandatory readings by topic (50% final grade)
• Final exam (50% of final grade)

• Reaction papers on mandatory readings by topic (50% final grade)
• Final exam (50% of final grade)

Not applicable.