Abstract:
My honors thesis project is a culmination of my education in philosophy and women's studies. The goals of my project were to create curriculum that would give undergraduate students information about the systems of race class and gender oppression as well as a framework to analyze from and gain an understanding of liberating educational theory. I wanted to build an introductory level course that could fulfill University Core Curriculum requirements and give a basic understanding of how diversity developed our modern society. To achieve my goals I engaged in an extensive review of early to modern critical pedagogy literature from Paulo Friere and Henry A. Giroux to bell hooks and dozens of educators practicing and reflecting on pedagogical practices. I also reviewed undergraduate class, race, and gender course syllabi and texts commonly used in American universities. My results were the development of a Women's Studies 110: Class, Race, and Gender Systems of Oppression course schedule, guidelines, and assignments as well as a brief review of how, pedagogically speaking, the course is to be taught to best suit Ball State's campus. Ball State has specific institutional and infrastructural challenges to the democratization of knowledge, but there is hope for transformation that can start by an introductory women's studies diversity course as it gives radical information and methodology for change.