GNDR 1005-003 – Critical Reading and Writing: Identities and Difference

Winter 2023, Tuesdays/Thursdays: 9am – 10:15am

Department of Gender Studies

We respectfully acknowledge the territory in which we gather as the ancestral homelands of the
Beothuk, and the island of Newfoundland as the ancestral homelands of the Mi’kmaq and
Beothuk. We would also like to recognize the Inuit of Nunatsiavut and NunatuKavut and the Innu
of Nitassinan, and their ancestors, as the original people of Labrador. We strive for respectful
relationships with all the peoples of this province as we search for collective healing and true
reconciliation and honour this beautiful land together.

Instructor: Keif Godbout-Kinney

Pronouns: he/him/his
Email: kgodboutkinn@mun.ca (please use this email and not Brightspace to contact me or
submit assignments)
Office: A4082
Office Hours: Mondays 11:00 am – 1:00 pm and by appointment
Classes will be held in: SN3060

Teaching Assistant Name: Nafiseh Emadi

Email: naemadi@mun.ca

Course Description: This course incorporates both practical and theoretical approaches so that
students can begin to learn the basics of academic writing, the skills to analyze scholarly texts,
and carry out independent research within the broad context of gender. The focus is twofold: 1)
Students will engage in an exploration of feminist, queer, and critical race/anti-race scholarship
to develop critical reading and writing skills; 2) students will also explore ‘identity’ and
‘difference’ through various topics such as race, gender, sexuality, body, health, disability,
colonialism, social media, pornography, and more. These categories of ‘identity’ and ‘difference’
will be critically interrogated through the aforementioned lenses to understand how they are
socially constructed and deployed vis-à-vis hierarchies of power and knowledge.
We will focus on critically analyzing academic work, evaluating sources, framing questions,
developing arguments, and refining written work for gender studies and related fields. Questions
such as: What is identity? How are identities formed? And why does identity matter? will form
the analytic cornerstone to guide learning in this course. Students will examine the multi-layered
character of identity, consider the complex processes through which identities are constructed
and contested, and reflect upon whether and how identity matters to individuals and to society.
Feminist, queer, and anti-race scholarships will be both a guide to thinking and an object of
analysis in this course, and students will have the opportunity to explore how cultural discourses
(relating to work, nation, leisure, bodies, and more), representations (on television, in movies, on
the internet, in graphic novels, and so on), and institutions (such as the state, the family and the
law) shape identity.

This course will be reading and writing-intensive and participation in classroom discussions is
not mandatory for marks. However, it is in talking about and unravelling ideas that we begin to
learn critical thinking and reasoning. I am hoping that every day students come having
completed the readings assigned and with discussion notes so that we can have dynamic and rich
conversations. This is one of the most important functions of the Academe, to facilitate the flow
of ideas and knowledge between people and across myriad mediums.

All sections of this course follow Critical Reading and Writing Course Guidelines available
at https://www.mun.ca/hss/programs/undergraduate/critical-reading-and-writing-crw-course-
guidelin/.

Learning Outcomes: By the end of this course, students will have learned the following:
 Develop foundational critical reading and writing skills by engaging with feminist, queer,
and anti-racist scholarship about the construction of identities and difference
 Understand identity as multifaceted, relational, and power-infused
 Understand different ways that the categories of gender, race, class, sexuality, and ability
influence identity
 Present a cogent academic argument in clear and concise writing, and exhibit skills in
organization, analysis, style and presentation in written work at an undergraduate
university level

‘How do we make the space to talk honestly and wrenchingly about the multi-layered
systems of injustice that target some of us and privilege others for who we are? The
layers are so tangled: gender folds into disability, disability wraps around class, class
strains against race, race snarls into sexuality, sexuality hangs into gender, all of it
finally piling into our bodies.’ ~ Eli Clare

Course Format: This course will be delivered in-person at the regularly scheduled time of
Tuesday/Thursday 9:00-10:15am. Note: we are still living with covid, and this could potentially
affect the delivery mode for this course. It is unlikely but not impossible that we will have to
change to a remote-delivery format for a short period of time. You will be notified by email
from me, the course shell in Brightspace, and through university-wide messaging as soon as any
decisions about such changes are made. Should this be the case, students will need regular access
to a networked Mac or PC computer and adequate audio/video equipment.

Course Evaluation: All assessments for this course will be conducted online. Assignments will
be submitted to their corresponding brightspace dropbox. I will provide grades and feedback on
your assignments in brightspace.

Email: I will endeavour to answer your emails in a timely manner, and I appreciate that they can
be urgent/time sensitive. When you email, please reach out to my Memorial email account,
kgodboutkinn@mun.ca, and include the course name and number in your message. Please do not
email me from the Brightspace email. Please allow 48 hours for a response, though it typically
will not take this long. Emails from external addresses tend to be re-directed by the university’s
spam filter. Please note that your emails may sometimes not be answered on weekends. If your
query is complicated or requires a lengthy answer, please consider coming to office hours.

Appointments: I strongly encourage students to come to my office hours to discuss course

material or assignments. I know that it can be intimidating talking to your professor one-on-one,
so don’t feel like you need to come to office hours. But I will say that it can be beneficial to have
some extra time to talk about the course material and to get to know each other. It is often a
pleasant experience. All are welcome, and I hope to see you.

Formatting and Citations: All assignments should be double spaced, in Times New Roman and
12-point font. All citations must appear in APA format (7th edition). Copies of the APA style
guide are available in the Library, or online at the library’s homepage. You are encouraged to use
the helpful online Writing Lab at Purdue University: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

The following required readings are available at the bookstore, to purchase online (Amazon,
Chapters, etc), and the library may have copies though these would be limited, and we are
working from these texts extensively, so I recommend (if you have the means) to purchase
them):

 “They Say / I Say”: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing 5th Edition, by Gerald
Graff and Cathy Birkenstein (available online as an ebook).
 Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Allison Bechdel

All articles are available on Brightspace and the MUN Library Database

Grading Schema and Dates:

Proposal 10% January 19th

Annotated Bibliography 10% February 2nd
Draft Peer Review 10% March 16th
Critical Responses 20% Jan 26, Feb 9, Feb 23, Mar 30
Textual Report 20% April 6th
Final Research Paper 30% April 12th
Total 100%

Description of Requirements (Note, there is no final exam):

Essay Assignment: This is your major research project for the course and the culmination of all
your learning over the semester. For many of you, this could be your first time writing an essay
at the university-level, or maybe you’ve written many but are still seeking to improve your
academic writing skills. Thus, the essay assignment has been broken into a series of sub-
assignments that focus on a major component of academic writing so that you can practice, and
this will make the final research essay easier and more cohesive. Those subsections are: the
proposal and thesis statement, the annotated bibliography, the draft peer review, and the final
research essay. By breaking the final essay into these subsequent sections, the idea is that you
will have large sections finished when it comes time to write and hand in the essay, which
should make the process easier for you as well as helping you to develop critical reading and
writing skills and conduct independent research.

Proposal: Due January 19th. The proposal is the first parts of the essay. For this assignment, you
will hand in a one-page double-spaced outline on what you want to research and write about in
the final essay. You are allowed to write on any topic if it relates to the discipline of Gender
Studies. I strongly recommend you discuss your topic with me before writing the proposal.
There’s no one correct way to write a proposal, but this is just my suggestion: aim to write about
three paragraphs or so. The first paragraph will be the broad introduction to the topic. Explain
what it is, the context and importance, and why you’re interested in it. The next paragraph will
be your research question (thesis statement). This is the most important part of your proposal.
For the research question, you want to clearly and succinctly explain what the specific focus of
the essay will be. State what you’re going to do in the paper in the form of “in this essay, I will
argue/explore, explain….”. This is the “elevator pitch” of your paper, and this is where you’ll
practice stating the central point of your essay. A helpful practice can be, when you’ve come up
with a workable thesis statement, write it down on a sticky note and put it on your computer or
somewhere close you can always see it when you’re writing your essay. This will help you not to
get lost along the way. Your topic should be concise. For example, “the problem of rape culture”
is very broad, whereas “how rape culture effects Indigenous women in Canada” is more specific.
The final paragraph will be a loose methodology. With this, you’ll explain how you’ll approach
answering the research question in the paper. A methodology is essentially an explanation of
how you’ll collect the data and how you’ll go about writing the essay. – library resources,
content analysis

Annotated Bibliography: Due February 2nd. An annotated bibliography is a list of academic

sources you plan to use for a project, which includes the reference and a summary of the source
content. For your annotated bibliography, you will come up with a minimum of 5 academic
sources in APA (7th Edition) reference style. For each source, you will include a paragraph where
you briefly sum up what the main point(s) are, why it is useful to you, i.e., why you chose this
source, and any critical reflections you might have. The sources that you choose here will be
used in your final paper, however, you are allowed to change some of your sources if you decide
they are not appropriate, or you find more compelling ones. You may draw as many sources
from the materials covered in class, but only two of them will count towards the five minimum,
the rest must be external scholarly sources you found for your essay. They should be discipline-
appropriate, that is, related to the study of Gender in an overt way. There is no page-count or
word-limit.

Draft Peer Review: Due March 16th. For the peer review, you will submit a working draft of
your final essay. This should include material from the proposal and the sources from the
annotated bibliography and should approximate what your final paper will look like. You do not
have to be finished, but you should be mostly done, roughly ¾ completed. If you are done, that
is, you have an introduction, conclusion, and body of your essay, the comments will be more
helpful. The purpose of this assignment is for you to both receive comments on your essay, i.e.,
what works, what doesn’t, what is unclear, what needs improving, etc., and to practice peer
reviewing. As a broad guideline, consider offering comments on three areas of strength and three
areas for improvement. When you have received the comments on your work, it is up to you if
you wish to incorporate them or not, and you may decide that the comment would change the
focus of your essay or is asking for something beyond the scope of your research, or might be
missing the point entirely. This is all fine, it is not mandatory to incorporate the comments.
However, keep in mind, essay writing is difficult, and, in many cases, you have not expressed
yourself as clearly as you believe you did. Thus, it is extremely useful to have a second set of
eyes on your work to offer constructive feedback. Keep in mind, the purpose is not to be critical,
harsh, or mean, but to try and offer suggestions for improvement. Your work will also be
evaluated by one of your peers, so be thorough, engaged, and kind.

Note, this assignment is worth 10% of your final grade, but your peers will not assign you a
mark. Rather, you will submit one copy of your peer review to the person whose work you have
evaluated, and one copy to me. I will then assign your grade based on the quality and
engagement of your review.

Critical Responses: Due January 26th, February 9th, February 23rd, and March 30th. Over the
semester, you will write a series of critical responses where you take one of the readings from
class and critically engage with it. There will be a total of four responses each worth 5% (20%
total). Your response should be a minimum of 500 words (around two double-spaced pages), and
you will need to have a thesis statement outlining the focus of your response. You can consider
the following questions to help guide you:
 What argument is the author(s) making? What does the author use to ‘prove’ their
argument?
 Do you agree with the argument? Why/Why not?
 Did you find the reading effective? Why/Why not?
 What questions does the reading bring up?
 Are there other narratives (films, television shows, novels, biographies, songs) that this
reading reminded you of?

Can use I statements & contractions

Textual Report: Due April 6th. Remember the book reports you did in grade school? This is
similar, but here the scope has opened up beyond books. You may choose any narrative you like
(film, specific episode/season of a television show, miniseries, graphic novel, comic book, novel,
short story, visual album, etc.) and discuss it in relation to one of the topics or readings from
class. You must run your topic by me first, and remember, it must relate to Gender Studies
(Example: discussing race and feminism in Beyonce’s visual album Lemonade or examining
representations of colonialism and gender in the 2016 adaptation of Westworld). The objective
for this assignment is for you to take the readings and ideas in class, and critically apply them to
other creative works.

The textual report can be submitted as a written assignment, in which case you will need to write
between 1000-1500 words, or it could be submitted only to me as a presentation, in which case it
would need to be approximately 12 minutes. I am open to other mediums, such as if you wanted
to write a comic panel, record spoken word poetry, an acted skit etc., but this must be done in
consultation with me.

Final Research Essay: Due April 12th. This is the final assignment for the class and is the
culmination of all your previous work, which asks and answers a specific question by analyzing
existing research on a specific topic. This essay will draw on the proposal/thesis statement,
annotated bibliography, and peer review with the idea being that if you completed each of the
preceding assignments, you should have very little issue when it comes time to the essay. Your
paper will be based on any topic we have discussed in class this semester, or something you
came up with relating to Gender Studies. Your essay should be a minimum of 1500 words
(approximately six double-spaced pages), and part of what we’re practicing is working within a
specific framework, thus going under the 1500 words will result in a lower grade and going over
the 1500 words by more than about 200-300 words will result in a lower grade.

Important note: I do not record attendance; class attendance is your responsibility, and it is your
choice if you want to be here. It is encouraged that you come to class to attend lectures and
participate in discussion, but I understand there will be times you will be unable to make it, and
that’s fine. Testing material is taken from readings, documentaries, student presentations and
from lectures. Therefore, if you miss class, there is a good possibility that material absent from
the readings will be presented. The burden of obtaining this information is yours. You should get
notes from a fellow student. It is your responsibility to ensure you understand the notes. If you
need clarification regarding borrowed notes, see me during office hours (please bring the notes
with you). You don’t need to provide me with an excuse, but if you miss quite a few classes, I
encourage you to make an appointment with me. If something important comes up during class
and you need to leave suddenly that’s perfectly fine. Leave if you need to, just try to do so
without causing a disruption and be sure to email me at your earliest convenience.

Policy on late assignments: I will not penalize you for late assignments. I would strongly
encourage you to hand things in by the due date, otherwise you run the risk of assignments piling
up. However, I understand that “life happens” and things will come up. That’s perfectly fine, you
don’t need documentation, i.e., doctor’s notes, but please let me know if you can’t make the due
dates; email me or make an appointment during office hours to discuss this. If you let
assignments pile up, you run the risk of not being able to complete them on time before final
marks for the course need to be submitted to the registrar, in which case you take an automatic
zero on whatever assignment is outstanding. So, please manage your time wisely, and if you are
encountering issues, please make an appointment to discuss this with me. I want to see you
succeed, so think of me as an ally, not as someone you need to work against. Education is a
journey we undertake together.

Technology Policy: I don’t have a technology policy. I understand that people learn differently,
and for some it can be useful to have your computers/tablets/whatever else you use to take notes
and have something to focus on. I will ask that you keep your phones on silent while in class and
try to avoid distracting other students with your electronics.

Academic Offences:
Students are expected to adhere to those principles which constitute proper academic conduct. A
student has the responsibility to know which actions, as described under Academic Offences in
the University Regulations, could be construed as dishonest or improper. Students found guilty
of an academic offence may be subject to a number of penalties commensurate with the offence
including reprimand, reduction of grade, probation, suspension or expulsion from the University.
For more information regarding this policy, students should refer to the University Regulations
for Academic Misconduct (Section 6.12) in the University Calendar.

Scholastic offences are taken seriously, and students are directed to read the appropriate policy,
specifically, the definition of what constitutes a scholastic offence, at the following web sites:
http://www.mun.ca/writingcentre/plagiarism/
http://www.mun.ca/regoff/calendar/sectionNo=REGS-0748

Academic Honesty:

Learning to think critically involves trying to articulate and independently think through ideas
and issues. Your written work gives you a chance to come to terms with complex issues and get
some feedback on your efforts. You will avoid any misunderstanding or suspicion of plagiarism
if you stick to the following rules:

1) If you quote the exact words from any source, enclose the whole quote in quotation marks
(if it is short) or indent it (if it is longer–usually 4 lines or more).
2) Give full references to the sources. If you paraphrase material from any source, again full
references must be given. Unacknowledged paraphrase is plagiarism.
3) Give full reference to any ideas or concepts that you borrow, build on, or draw upon from
any external source. An easy rule of thumb is, if the idea did not originate with you, cite
it.
4) Never use another student's essay in writing your own, and never allow another student to
use your essay.
5) You can self-plagiarize. This could take the form of using an essay you wrote in one class
and submitting it in another class. You can cite yourself, but only for a few lines.
Plagiarized essays are given no marks; nor can they be resubmitted. For further information on
plagiarism consult the University calendar.

For academic advising, visit the Academic Advising Centre (SN-4053). For more information,
check out: https://www.mun.ca/undergrad/fyi/advice.php. NOTE: Students seeking advice about
a specific Major or Minor should contact the undergraduate advisor in that department.

For help with research, please contact the librarians at the QEII Library. They are more than
willing to sit down and spend an hour with you to work through possible search strategies in
relation to your chosen research topic. You can book a one‐on‐one appointment by following the
instructions here: http://www.library.mun.ca/forms/help/

For help with writing skills, contact the Writing Centre (SN 2053) or call 864‐3168 to book an
appointment. There are also first-come, first-served drop-in sessions for undergraduate
students. For more information, go to: https://www.mun.ca/writingcentre/

Accommodation at Memorial: Memorial University of Newfoundland is committed to

supporting inclusive education based on the principles of equity, accessibility and collaboration.
Accommodations are provided within the scope of the University Policies for the
Accommodations for Students with Disabilities (www.mun.ca/policy/site/policy.php?id=323).
Students who may need an academic accommodation are asked to initiate the request with the
Glenn Roy Blundon Centre at the earliest opportunity (www.mun.ca/blundon).
A statement regarding student health needs and doctors’ notes: There is nothing more
important than your mental and physical health. Doctors’ notes are not required for medical
absences in this course. You are encouraged to seek appropriate medical attention from the
Student Wellness and Counselling Centre. They can be reached at: 709.864.8500. I am
committed to working with students with pre-existing medical and mental health needs, as
well as new needs that may arise within the semester. I encourage you to reach out to
Memorial’s Counselling Services as early as possible to discuss any adjustments you think
may be necessary in this course. Let’s explore the options to help you succeed, no matter what
is going on.

Masks: This course is designed to be held in-person. Our class lectures have been carefully
designed to emphasize safety while providing a vibrant learning experience for all students.
Masks are not required at this time for students at MUN, however they are encouraged.
Should other health directives, or the overall situation connected to COVID-19 change over
the course of the term, a back-up plan for remote delivery is in place to ensure that the course
will continue and to minimize disruption to the student experience.

A Statement regarding transition to remote learning: If Memorial University campus

operations are required to change because of health concerns related to the COVID-19
pandemic, it is possible that this course will rapidly move to a fully online delivery format.
Should that be necessary, students will need to have access to a networked PC or Mac
computer with webcam and microphone, for remote delivery of the class. The university has
published minimum computer requirements  which you can review.
 Should we shift our class to remote lectures, this will likely remain in-place for a minimum of
two weeks as a “circuit-breaker” to allow the university and province to evaluate safety
requirements.

Remote lectures for our class will include a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous
delivery. If this transition occurs, we will update the course syllabus and post to Brightspace
to announce the revised lecture schedule.

Outline of Topics and Readings:

(As the schedule outlined below may change depending on our progress through the material,
you will be responsible for any changes to this outline that may be announced in class.

Students are reminded that privacy laws and expectations continue in remote learning, and that
lecture notes, PowerPoint slides, videos and all other course materials are copyright of the
instructor, unless otherwise noted. Students must not record, publish, send, post on an internet
site, sell, rent, or otherwise distribute this work without the instructor's express permission. 

The lectures, displays, and all material delivered or provided in GNDR 1005 Critical Reading
and Writing: Identities and Difference by Professor Keif Godbout-Kinney, including any visual
or audio recording thereof, are subject to copyright owned by Professor Keif Godbout-Kinney,
unless otherwise noted. It is prohibited to record or copy by any means, in any format, openly or
surreptitiously, in whole or in part, in the absence of express written permission from Professor
Godbout-Kinney any of the lectures or materials provided or published in any form during or
from the course. Students must not publish, send, post on an internet site, sell, rent, or otherwise
distribute this content without the instructor’s express permission.

WEEKLY LECTURE TOPIC OTHER WEEKLY TOPICS

Course Overview
Week 1
Jan 5th  Read entire syllabus/Course overview/Introductions

Week 2 Thinking Difference

Jan 10th, 12th  Audre Lorde, “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women
Redefining Difference” in Sister Outsider, pp. 114-123
(pp. 62-67 for the pdf in Brightspace)
 They Say / I Say, Introduction, pp. 1-18, and Chapter
1, pp. 19-31
Feminism and Personhood
Week 3 Jan. 19th, proposal due
 Eva Feder Kittay, “Woman as Metaphor,” pp. 63-86
Jan 17th, 19th  They Say / I Say, Chapter 14, pp. 187-198
Week 4 Race and Colonial Legacies Jan. 26th, 1st critical response due.
Jan 24th, 26th  Chandra Talpade Mohanty, “Under Western Eyes:
Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses,” pp.
333-358
 They Say / I Say, Chapter 2, pp. 32-46, and Chapter 3,
 pp. 47-56
Intersectionality
Week 5 Feb. 2nd, annotated bibliography due.
 bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman Chapter 3: The
Jan 31st, Feb 2nd Imperialism of Patriarchy, pp. 87-117
 Kimberlé Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins:
Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence
against Women of Color” pp. 1241-1299
Week 6 Memory and Knowledge Feb. 9th, 2nd critical response due.
Feb 7 , 9
th th  Sue Campbell, “Women, ‘False’ Memory, and
Personal Identity,” pp. 51-82
 Stephen Spencer, “Looking for Africville –
Complementary Visual Constructions of a Contended
Space,” pp. 1-18
Week 7 Winter Break, No Classes
Feb 14th, 16th
Week 8 Queer Lives Feb. 23rd, 3rd critical response due.
Feb 21 , 23st rd  Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, “Queer and Now,” pp. 1-20
 They Say / I Say, Chapter 7, pp. 96-106, and Chapter
12, pp. 172-176
Life Trajectories
Week 9
 Allison Bechdel, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
Mar 7th, 9th  Chiara Pellegrini, “The I in Trans Genre: An Interview
with Juliet Jacques.” Pp. 105-113
 Shari Brotman and Edward Ou Jin Lee, “Exploring
Gender and Sexuality through a Lens of
Intersectionality: Sexual Minority Refugees in
Canada,” pp. 151-156
Constructions of Gender
Week 10 Mar. 16th, draft peer review due.
 Film Screening: Her (dir) Spike Jonez
Mar 14th, 16th  Lina Gurung, “The Digital Divide: An Inquiry from
Feminist Perspectives,” pp. 50-57
 They Say / I Say, Chapter 4, pp. 57-71
(Dis)ability, Madness, and Independence
Week 11
 Stacy Clifford Simplican, “Feminist Disability Studies
Mar 21st, 23rd as Methodology: Life-writing and the Abled/Disabled
Binary” pp. 46-60
 PhebeAnn Wolframe, “The Madwoman in the
Academy, or, Revealing the Invisible Straightjacket:
Theorizing and Teaching Saneism and Sane Privilege”
pp. 1-24
Crime and Punishment Mar. 30th, 4th critical response due.
Week 12
 Angela Davis, “On the argument for police and prison
Mar 28th, 30th abolition”
 Sulaiman Giwa, “Community Policing in Racialized
 Communities: A Potential Role for Police Social
Work,” pp. 710-730
 They Say / I Say, Chapter 8, pp. 107-122, Chapter 5,
pp. 72-81, and Chapter 9, pp. 123-137,
Sex Worker Stories
Week 13 Apr 6th, last day of class.
 Cecilia Benoit, “Well, It Should Be Changed for One,
Apr 4th, 6th Because It’s Our Bodies’: Sex Workers’ Views on Apr 6th, textual report due.
Canada’s Punitive Approach towards Sex Work,” pp.
1-17
 They Say / I Say, Chapter 18, pp. 269-287 and Chapter
11, pp. 149-171