Threshold Concepts in Women’s and Gender Studies: Ways of Seeing, Thinking, and Knowing

Christie Launius · Holly Hassel

Dec 2014 · Routledge

About this ebook

Threshold Concepts in Women’s and Gender Studies: Ways of Seeing, Thinking, and Knowing is a textbook designed primarily for introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies courses with the intent of providing both a skills- and concept-based foundation in the field. The text is driven by a single key question: "What are the ways of thinking, seeing, and knowing that characterize women’s and gender studies and are valued by its practitioners?" Rather than taking a topical approach, Threshold Concepts in Women’s and Gender Studies develops the key concepts and ways of thinking that students need in order to develop a deep understanding and to approach material like feminist scholars do, across disciplines. This book illustrates four of the most critical concepts in women’s and gender studies: the social construction of gender; privilege and oppression; intersectionality; and feminist praxis, and grounds these concepts in multiple illustrations.

About the author

Christie Launius directs and teaches in the Women’s and Gender Studies program at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. She has taught the introductory course for almost 20 years at six different institutions. She is also active in the field of working class studies; she edits Working Class Notes, the newsletter of the Working Class Studies Association, and became president of the association in 2014.

Holly Hassel has taught women’s studies and English at the University of Wisconsin-Marathon County, one of the two-year campuses of the University of Wisconsin Colleges for over a decade. Her work on teaching and learning in women’s studies has been published in multiple books and journals. She is associate editor of the journal Teaching English in the Two-Year College.