WGSS Teaching Resources
Teaching "Feminist Theory" next semester? "Race, Class, and Gender"? "Transnational Feminisms"? Signs is offering syllabus suggestions for some of the most commonly taught courses in women's, gender, and sexuality studies in the US:
- Gender, Representation, and Popular Culture
- Sexuality Studies and Queer Theory
- Transnational Feminisms
- Feminist Theory
- Race, Class, and Gender
The suggested articles represent only a few of the many articles in the full Signs archive that would be appropriate for these courses. Click the plus symbol to see the articles suggested for each course below.
Transnational Feminisms
Shakes, Nicosia. 2021. “Race, the Public Sphere, and Sexual Violence in the Mothertongue Project’s Walk: South Africa.” Signs 46, no. 3: 537-560.
Hewamanne, Sandya. 2020. “Surveillance by Another Name: The Modern Slavery Act, Global Factory Workers, and Part-Time Sex Work in Sri Lanka.” Signs 45, no. 3: 653-677.
Mason, Carole. 2019. “Opposing Abortion to Protect Women: Transnational Strategy since the 1990s.” Signs 43, no. 4: 665-92.
Korolczuk, Elżbieta, and Agnieszka Graff. 2018. “Gender as “Ebola from Brussels”: The Anticolonial Frame and the Rise of Illiberal Populism.” Signs 43, no. 4: 797-821.
Salem, Sara. 2018. “On Transnational Feminist Solidarity: The Case of Angela Davis in Egypt.” Signs 43, no. 2: 245-267.
Rajan, Hamsa. 2018. “The Ethics of Transnational Feminist Research and Activism: An Argument for a More Comprehensive View.” Signs 43, no. 2: 269-300.
Healy-Clancy, Meghan. 2017. “The Family Politics of the Federation of South African Women: A History of Public Motherhood in Women’s Antiracist Activism.” Signs 42, no. 4: 843-866.
Fernandes, Sujatha. 2017. “Stories and Statecraft: Afghan Women’s Narratives and the Construction of Western Freedoms.” Signs 42, no. 3: 643-667.
Berry, Marie E. 2015. “When ‘Bright Futures’ Fade: Paradoxes of Women’s Empowerment in Rwanda.” Signs 41, no. 1: 1-27.
Johnson, Janet Elise, and Aino Saarinen. 2013. “Twenty-First-Century Feminisms under Repression: Gender Regime Change and the Women’s Crisis Center Movement in Russia.” Signs 38, no. 3: 543-567.
Stewart, Abigail J., Jayati Lal, and Kristin McGuire. 2011. “Expanding the Archives of Global feminisms: Narratives of Feminism and Activism.” Signs 36, no. 4: 889-914.
Cerwonka, Allaine. 2008. “Traveling Feminist Thought: Difference and Transculturation in Central and Eastern European Feminism.” Signs 33, no. 4: 809-832.
Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. 2003. “‘Under Western Eyes’ Revisited: Feminist Solidarity through Anticapitalist Struggles.” Signs 28, no. 2: 499-535.
Shohat, Ella. 2001. “Area Studies, Transnationalism, and the Feminist Production of Knowledge.” Signs 26, no. 4: 1269-1272.
Feldman, Shelley. 2001. “Exploring Theories of Patriarchy: A Perspective from Contemporary Bangladesh,” Signs 26(4): 1097-1127.
Katz, Cindi 2001. “On the Grounds of Globalization: A Topography for Feminist Political Engagement,” Signs 26(4): 1213-34.
Freeman, Carla. 2001. “Is Local: Global as Feminine: Masculine? Rethinking the Gender of Globalization.” Signs 26, no. 4: 1007-1037.
Fernandes, Leela. 1999. “Reading ‘India’s Bandit Queen’: A Trans/national Feminist Perspective on the Discrepancies of Representation.” Signs 25, no. 1: 123-152.
Bunch, Charlotte, and Susana Fried. 1996. “Beijing’95: Moving Women’s Human Rights from Margin to Center.” Signs 22, no. 1 (1996): 200-204.
Evans, Harriet. 1995. “Defining Difference: The ‘Scientific’ Construction of Sexuality and Gender in the People’s Republic of China.” Signs 20, no. 2: 357-394.
Kaminsky, Amy. 1993. “Issues for an International Feminist Literary Criticism.” Signs 19, no. 1: 213-227..
Lazreg, Marnia. 1990. “Gender and Politics in Algeria: Unraveling the Religious Paradigm.” Signs 15, no. 4: 755-780.
Abu-Lughod, Lila. 1985. “A Community of Secrets: The Separate World of Bedouin Women.” Signs 10, no. 4: 637-657.
Rosaldo, Michelle Z. 1980. “The Use and Abuse of Anthropology: Reflections on Feminism and Cross-Cultural Understanding.” Signs 5, no. 3: 389-417.
Kandiyoti, Deniz. 1977. “Sex Roles and Social Change: A Comparative Appraisal of Turkey’s Women.” Signs 3, no. 1: 57-73.
Feminist Theory
Nash, Jennifer C., and Samantha Pinto. 2021. “A New Genealogy of ‘Intelligent Rage,’ or Other Ways to Think about White Women in Feminism.” Signs 46, no. 4: 883-910.
Schalk, Sami, and Jina B. Kim. 2020. “Integrating Race, Transforming Feminist Disability Studies.” Signs 46, no. 1: 31-55.
Cunniff Gilson, Erinn. 2016. “Vulnerability and Victimization: Rethinking Key Concepts in Feminist Discourses on Sexual Violence.” Signs 42, no. 1: 71-98
Magubane, Zine. 2014. “Spectacles and Scholarship: Caster Semenya, Intersex Studies, and the Problem of Race in Feminist Theory.” Signs 39, no. 3: 761-785.
Bettcher, Talia Mae. 2014. “Trapped in the Wrong Theory: Rethinking Trans Oppression and Resistance.” Signs 39, no. 2: 383-406.
Cho, Sumi, Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, and Leslie McCall. 2013. “Toward a Field of Intersectionality Studies: Theory, Applications, and Praxis.” Signs 38, no. 4: 785-810.
Carbado, Devon. 2013. “Colorblind Intersectionality.” Signs 38, no. 4: 811-845.
Grant, Judith. 2006. “Andrea Dworkin and the Social Construction of Gender: A Retrospective.” Signs 31, no. 4: 967-993.
Marcus, Sharon. 2005. “Queer Theory for Everyone: A Review Essay.” Signs 31, No. 1: 191-218.
Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie. 2005. “Feminist Disability Studies.” Signs 30, no. 2: 1557-1587.
Hekman, Susan. 1997. “Truth and Method: Feminist Standpoint Theory Revisited.” Signs 22, no. 2: 341-365.
Chodorow, Nancy J. 1995. “Gender as a Personal and Cultural Construction.” Signs 20, no. 3: 516-544.
Higginbotham, Evelyn Brooks. 1992. “African-American Women’s History and the Metalanguage of Race.” Signs 17, no. 2: 251-274.
Collins, Patricia Hill. 1989. “The Social Construction of Black Feminist Thought.” Signs 14, no. 4: 745-773.
Hawkesworth, Mary E. 1989. “Knowers, Knowing, Known: Feminist Theory and Claims of Truth.” Signs 14, no. 3: 533-557.
Alcoff, Linda. 1988. “Cultural Feminism Versus Post-Structuralism: The Identity Crisis in Feminist Theory.” Signs 13, no. 3: 405-436.
King, Deborah K. 1988. “Multiple Jeopardy, Multiple Consciousness: The Context of a Black Feminist Ideology.” Signs 14, no. 1: 42-72.
Flax, Jane. 1987. “Postmodernism and Gender Relations in Feminist Theory.” Signs 12, no. 4: 621-643.
MacKinnon, Catharine A. 1983. “Feminism, Marxism, Method, and the State: An Agenda for Theory.” Signs 7, no. 3: 515-544.
Boxer, Marilyn J. 1982. “For and About Women: The Theory and Practice of Women’s Studies in the United States.” Signs 7, no. 3: 661-695.
Rich, Adrienne. 1980. “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence.” Signs 5, no. 4: 631-660.
Shulman, Alix Kates. 1980. “Sex and Power: Sexual Bases of Radical Feminism.” Signs 5, no. 4: 590-604.
Dill, Bonnie Thornton. 1979. “The Dialectics of Black Womanhood.” Signs 4, no. 3: 543-555.
From the Feminist Public Intellectuals Project – free to access!
Halley, Janet. 2016. “The Move to Affirmative Consent.” Signs 42, no. 1: 257-279.
Walters, Suzanna Danuta. 2018. “In Defense of Identity Politics.” Signs 43, no. 2: 473-488.
Baker, Carrie N., Alexandra Brodsky, Tara L. Conley, Judith Levine, and Linda Hirshman. 2019. “Short Takes: Linda Hirshman’s Reckoning.”
Arwa Mahdawi, Peggy McIntosh, Laurie Penny, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, and Kate Manne. 2020. “Short Takes: Kate Manne’s Entitled.”
Stimpson, Catherine. 2021. “Dereliction, Due Process, and Decorum: The Crises of Title IX.”
Sexuality Studies & Queer Theory
Johnson, Merri Lisa. 2021. “Neuroqueer Feminism: Turning with Tenderness toward Borderline Personality Disorder.” Signs 46, no. 3: 635-662.
Owens, Emily A. 2019. “Reproducing Racial Fictions: Critical Meditations on (a) Lesbian Pregnancy.” Signs 44, no. 4: 859-82.
Klesse, Christian. 2018. “Toward a Genealogy of a Discourse on Women’s Erotic Autonomy: Feminist and Queer-Feminist Critiques of Monogamy.” Signs 44, no. 1: 205-231.
Sanz, Veronica. 2017. “No Way out of the Binary: A Critical History of the Scientific Production of Sex.” Signs 43, no. 1: 1-27.
Awkward-Rich, Cameron. 2017. “Trans, Feminism: Or, Reading like a Depressed Transsexual.” Signs 42, no. 4: 819-841.
Berg, Heather. 2017. “Porn Work, Feminist Critique, and the Market for Authenticity.” Signs 42, no. 3: 669-692.
Bettcher, Talia Mae. 2014. “Trapped in the Wrong Theory: Rethinking Trans Oppression and Resistance.” Signs 39, no. 2: 383-406.
Connell, Raewyn. 2012. “Transsexual Women and Feminist Thought: Toward New Understanding and New Politics.” Signs 37, no. 4: 857-881.
Lock Swarr, Amanda. 2012. “Paradoxes of Butchness: Lesbian Masculinities and Sexual Violence in Contemporary South Africa.” Signs 37, no. 4: 961-988.
Currier, Ashley. 2012. “The Aftermath of Decolonization: Gender and Sexual Dissidence in Postindependence Namibia.” Signs 37, no. 2: 441-467.
Kirkland, Anna. 2006. “What’s at Stake in Transgender Discrimination as Sex Discrimination?” Signs 32, no. 1: 83-111.
Marcus, Sharon. 2005. “Queer Theory for Everyone: A Review Essay.” Signs 31, no. 1: 191-218.
Fausto-Sterling, Anne. 2005. “The Bare Bones of Sex: Part 1—Sex and Gender.” Signs 30, no. 2: 1491-1527.
Heyes, Cressida J. 2003. “Feminist Solidarity after Queer Theory: The Case of Transgender.” Signs 28, no. 4: 1093-1120.
Roen, Katrina. 2002. “‘Either/Or’ and ‘Both/Neither’: Discursive Tensions in Transgender Politics.” Signs 27, no. 2: 501-522.
Wingrove, Elizabeth. 1999. “Interpellating Sex.” Signs 24, no. 4: 869-893.
Walters, Suzanna. 1996. “From Here to Queer: Radical Feminism, Postmodernism, and the Lesbian Menace (Or, Why Can’t a Woman Be More like a Fag?)” Signs 21, no. 4: 830-869.
Robson, Ruthann. 1994. “Resisting the Family: Repositioning Lesbians in Legal Theory.” Signs 19, no. 4: 975-996.
Gubar, Susan. 1984. “Sapphistries.” Signs 10, no. 1: 43-62.
Rich, Adrienne. 1980. “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence.” Signs 5, no. 4: 631-660.
Miller, Patricia Y., and Martha R. Fowlkes. 1980. “Social and Behavioral Constructions of Female Sexuality.” Signs 5, no. 4: 783-800.
From the Feminist Public Intellectuals Project – free to access!
Fischel, Joseph, Jaclyn Friedman, Shoniqua Roach, and Nona Willis Aronowitz. 2021. “Short Takes: Katherine Angel’s Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again.”
Bridges, Tristan, Nora Caplan-Bricker, Rachel Giese, Lisa Wade, and Peggy Orenstein. 2020. “Short Takes: Peggy Orenstein’s Boys and Sex.”
Race, Class, & Gender
Hammonds, Evelynn M. 2021. “A Moment or a Movement? The Pandemic, Political Upheaval, and Racial Reckoning.” Signs 47, no. 1: 11-14.
Nash, Jennifer C., and Samantha Pinto. 2021. “A New Genealogy of ‘Intelligent Rage,’ or Other Ways to Think about White Women in Feminism.” Signs 46, no. 4: 883-910.
Deer, Sarah, Jodi A. Byrd, Durba Mitra, and Sarah Haley. 2021. “Rage, Indigenous Feminisms, and the Politics of Survival.” Signs 46, no. 4: 1057-1071.
Schalk, Sami, and Jina B. Kim. 2020. “Integrating Race, Transforming Feminist Disability Studies.” Signs 46, no. 1: 31-55.
Strings, Sabrina. 2015. “Obese Black Women as ‘Social Dead Weight’: Reinventing the ‘Diseased Black Woman’.” Signs 41, no. 1: 107-130.
Cho, Sumi, Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, and Leslie McCall. 2013. “Toward a Field of Intersectionality Studies: Theory, Applications, and Praxis.” Signs 38, no. 4: 785-810.
Beloso, Brooke Meredith. 2012. “Sex, Work, and the Feminist Erasure of Class.” Signs 38, no. 1: 47-70.
Clark Mane, Rebecca L. 2012. “Transmuting Grammars of Whiteness in Third-Wave Feminism: Interrogating Postrace Histories, Postmodern Abstraction, and the Proliferation of Difference in Third-Wave Texts.” Signs 38, no. 1: 71-98.
Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie. 2005. “Feminist Disability Studies.” Signs 30, no. 2: 1557-1587.
McCall, Leslie. 2005. “The Complexity of Intersectionality.” Signs 30, no. 3: 1771-1800.
Trask, Haunani-Kay. 1996. “Feminism and Indigenous Hawaiian Nationalism.” Signs 21, no. 4: 906-916.
hooks, bell, and Tanya McKinnon. 1996. “Sisterhood: Beyond Public and Private.” Signs 21, no. 4: 814-829.
Friedman, Susan Stanford. 1995. “Beyond White and Other: Relationality and Narratives of Race in Feminist Discourse.” Signs 21, no. 1: 1-49.
Razack, Sherene. 1994. “What Is to Be Gained by Looking White People in the Eye? Culture, Race, and Gender in Cases of Sexual Violence.” Signs 19, no. 4: 894-923.
DuCille, Ann. 1994. “The Occult of True Black Womanhood: Critical Demeanor and Black Feminist Studies.” Signs 19, no. 3: 591-629.
Fraser, Nancy, and Linda Gordon. 1994. “A Genealogy of Dependency: Tracing a Keyword of the US Welfare State.” Signs 19, no. 2: 309-336.
Glenn, Evelyn Nakano. 1992. “From Servitude to Service Work: Historical Continuities in the Racial Division of Paid Reproductive Labor.” Signs 18, no. 1: 1-43.
Higginbotham, Evelyn Brooks. 1992. “African-American Women’s History and the Metalanguage of Race.” Signs 17, no. 2: 251-274.
Zinn, Maxine Baca. 1989. “Family, Race, and Poverty in the Eighties.” Signs 14, no. 4: 856-874.
Hine, Darlene Clark. 1989. “Rape and the Inner Lives of Black Women in the Middle West.” Signs 14, no. 4: 912-920.
Hurtado, Aida. 1989. “Relating to Privilege: Seduction and Rejection in the Subordination of White Women and Women of Color.” Signs 14, no. 4: 833-855.
Collins, Patricia Hill. 1989. “The Social Construction of Black Feminist Thought.” Signs 14, no. 4: 745-773.
Brown, Elsa Barkley. 1989. “Womanist Consciousness: Maggie Lena Walker and the Independent Order of Saint Luke.” Signs 14, no. 3: 610-633.
King, Deborah K. 1988. “Multiple Jeopardy, Multiple Consciousness: The Context of a Black Feminist Ideology.” Signs 14, no. 1: 42-72.
Williams, Patricia J. 1988. “On Being the Object of Property.” Signs 14, no. 1: 5-24.
Brewer, Rose M. 1988. “Black Women in Poverty: Some Comments on Female-Headed Families.” Signs 13, no. 2: 331-339.
Lewis, Diane K. 1977. “A Response to Inequality: Black Women, Racism, and Sexism.” Signs 3, no. 2: 339-361.
Hartmann, Heidi. 1976. “Capitalism, Patriarchy, and Job Segregation by Sex.” Signs 1, no. 3, Part 2: 137-169.
Gender, Representation, and Popular Culture
Vorsino, Zoe. 2021. “Chatbots, Gender, and Race on Web 2.0 Platforms: Tay.AI as Monstrous Femininity and Abject Whiteness.” Signs 47, no. 1: 105-127.
Roach, Shoniqua. 2019. “Unpacking Pariah: Maternal Figuration, Erotic Articulation, and the Black Queer Liberation Plot.” Signs 45, no 1: 201-225.
Nash, Jennifer C. 2019. “Writing Black Beauty.” Signs 45, no. 1: 101-122.
Dignam, Pierce Alexander, and Deana A. Rohlinger. 2019. “Misogynistic Men Online: How the Red Pill Helped Elect Trump.” Signs 44, no. 3: 589–612.
Jelača, Dijana. 2018. “Alien Feminisms and Cinema’s Posthuman Women.” Signs 43, no. 2: 379-400.
Adams, Alex. 2018. “Graner’s Laugh: The Conceptual Architecture of a Guantanamo Rape Joke.” Signs 44, no. 1: 107-130.
Cox, Lara. 2015. “Standing Up against the Rape Joke: Irony and Its Vicissitudes.” Signs 40, no. 4: 963-84.
Durham, Aisha, Brittney C. Cooper, and Susana M. Morris. 2013. “The Stage Hip-Hop Feminism Built: A New Directions Essay.” Signs 38, no. 3: 721-737.
Johnston, Josée, and Judith Taylor. 2008. “Feminist Consumerism and Fat Activists: A Comparative Study of Grassroots Activism and the Dove Real Beauty Campaign.” Signs 33, no. 4: 941-966.
Donadey, Anne, and Huma Ahmed-Ghosh. 2008. “Why Americans Love Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran.” Signs 33, no. 3: 623-646.
Spigel, Lynn. 2004. “Theorizing the Bachelorette: ‘Waves’ of Feminist Media Studies.” Signs 30, no. 1: 1209-1221.
Kuhn, Annette. 2004. “The State of Film and Media Feminism.” Signs 30, no. 1: 1221-1229.
Doane, Mary Ann. 2004. “Aesthetics and Politics.” Signs 30, no. 1: 1229-1235.
Petro, Patrice. 2004. “Reflections on Feminist Film Studies, Early and Late.” Signs 30, no. 1: 1272-1278.
Johnson, Liza. 2004. “Perverse Angle: Feminist Film, Queer Film, Shame.” Signs 30, no. 1: 1361-1384.
Aufderheide, Pat, and Debra Zimmerman. 2004. “From A to Z: A Conversation on Women’s Filmmaking.” Signs 30, no. 1: 1455-1472.
Mehaffy, Marilyn Maness. 1997. “Advertising Race/Raceing Advertising: The Feminine Consumer (-Nation), 1876-1900.” Signs 23, no. 1: 131-174.
Farrell, Amy Erdman. 1995. “Feminism and the Media: Introduction.” Signs 20, no. 3: 642-645.
Donovan, Josephine. 1991. “Women and the Rise of the Novel: A Feminist-Marxist Theory.” Signs 16, no. 3: 441-462.
Nead, Lynda. 1990. “The Female Nude: Pornography, Art, and Sexuality.” Signs 15, no. 2: 323-335.
Mayne, Judith. 1985. “Feminist Film Theory and Criticism.” Signs 11, no. 1: 81-100.
Gubar, Susan. 1984. “Sapphistries.” Signs 10, no. 1: 43-62.
Cook, Blanche Wiesen. 1979. “‘Women Alone Stir My Imagination’: Lesbianism and the Cultural Tradition.” Signs 4, no. 4: 718-739.
Tuchman, Gaye. 1979. “Women’s Depiction by the Mass Media.” Signs 4, no. 3: 528-542.
From the Feminist Public Intellectuals Project – free to access!
Hobson, Janell. 2016. “Celebrity Feminism: More than a Gateway.”