Call for Proposals

The Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies seeks proposals for courses that extend and enhance the course offerings available to graduate students enrolled at member institutions and provide faculty with a unique opportunity for professional growth.

Courses offered through the Consortium allow faculty and graduate students to pursue new directions in feminist teaching and learning. We are looking for topics and syllabi that break new, interdisciplinary ground rather than simply summarize, analyze, and present the latest research. Courses will be team-taught, by faculty trained in different disciplines and affiliated with at least two different institutions and programs. In addition, in their conception and design, courses should reflect:

• (a) Interdisciplinary inquiry that overcomes the current fragmentary development of gender theory along traditional disciplinary lines;
• (b) Systematic attention to intersections of race, class, and culture with gender as categories of analysis;
• (c) A social and cross-cultural dimension that grounds both the concrete issues and the theory addressed in the course; and;
• (d) Attention to the implications of theoretical formulations for public policy and practice (i.e., the examination of the social implications raised frequently in women's studies scholarship).

Consortium courses bring together graduate students from a diversity of institutional and programmatic contexts. The typical class is comprised of about half Masters level students and half at the Ph.D. level with uneven preparation in women's studies. Occasionally undergraduate seniors writing honors theses in women's studies may be admitted if space permits and with the consent of the instructors. In addition, and with the consent of Consortium staff, instructors may post any reasonable pre-requisites as part of the publicized course description.

Course enrollment is limited to ensure the quality of faculty-student interaction (16 students for a two-member team; 20 students for a three-member team). The Consortium offers from one to three courses per semester. Fall courses begin in mid-September and end in mid-December; spring courses begin in early February and end in mid-May. Courses are held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, at times to be arranged in consultation with the faculty and coordinated with available classroom space. Instructors may be compensated through the granting of release time by their home institution or by direct stipend. The current course stipend rate at the GCWS for the 2005-2006 year is $7,500.00.

Proposals

All of the above considerations are criteria for the selection of courses and should be used by faculty teams submitting proposals as guides in the design and teaching of courses. Proposals should demonstrate how courses address the aforementioned in ways appropriate to their subject matter.

To begin the process, we ask for a confirmation of interest, general course topic idea, and starting list of teaching team members. This can be done by submitting a Statement of Interest Form. Once this is taken care of, the course proposala process may begin.

In submitting your proposal for a course to the Graduate Consortium, we ask that you include the following:

• A. Course objectives and narrative description
• B. Outline of course with major themes and topics to be covered during the thirteen-week course [this need not be a full syllabus]
• C. Bibliography of the major texts that will be read
• D. C.V. for each participating faculty member
• E. Notice of whether each faculty member requires a stipend or a course release (*It is the responsibility of the faculty member to get course release approval at her/his home institution)
• F. A list of alternate semesters the team is available to teach if the desired semester is not available

*GCWS courses are normally open to MA and PhD students [advanced undergraduates may be admitted under special circumstances].. There is an application process for admittance to all courses -- teaching teams will review the applications to select students for their courses. If there are particular expectations regarding student eligibility, please note this in the course proposal.

The description should specify the questions that the course will address, the disciplines represented by the participating faculty, and the ways in which your approach will be intellectually innovative and reflect the rubrics outlined above. You should also spell out how you and the other participating faculty will divide and share responsibilities. The week-by-week agenda need not be highly specific at this point, but it should make clear the logical progression and organizational materials of the course. Please let us know, as well, about any requirements beyond the predictable: special equipment or a field experience component, for example. We ask that you keep this material (excluding c.v.'s) to no more than six pages.

Course Proposal Process Timeline

Course proposals are due a year and a half before any teaching team plans on offering a course (contact the GCWS for the current deadline.) The GCWS Board Curriculum Committee reviews the proposal and if it is approved, the team is invited to move on to the next step which is the syllabus review process which is to prepare an initial draft of the syllabus. The GCWS board will discuss this first draft per the three GCWS mission and course goals and the teaching team will receive a list of talking points that summarize this discussion.

The team then is asked to re-submit a final draft of the syllabus to the board and is invited to an in-person discussion at a board meeting. The primary purpose of this discussion is to allow an opportunity for the board and faculty team to talk together about any unanswered questions or concerns and also express support for you and engagement in your course development process and conclusion. The course is not officially approved until all steps are complete.

The course development and syllabus review process is intended to be a collaborative and discursive process between the teaching team and the GCWS Board. The goal is to work together to create a course that considers the three key principles grounding the kind of feminist discussion that we seek to promote through the team teaching process (above).

Faculty Relationship Development

Faculty teaching teams are comprised of faculty from different institutions and across disciplines. The GCWS can assist you in finding other faculty who may be interested in co-teaching a course with you. Please contact the GCWS to check our faculty database to find faculty interested in gender and women’s studies from our eight member institutions and beyond. The current curriculum committee includes Sonia Hofkosh (Tufts), Sarah Leonard (Simmons College), and Hilary Poriss (NEU).

Faculty Development Workshops

Through the innovative concept of faculty development workshops, the GCWS can also offer you the chance to explore your topic of interest in collaboration with other faculty from across our institutions. Please see our ‘workshops’ web site page to learn about past and upcoming faculty development workshops. Workshops are developed in collaboration with the Curriculum Committee, GCWS staff, and at least three faculty from different institutions and disciplines. The goal of each workshop is to explore a topic or concept through an inter-disciplinary lens while gaining perspective from the other faculty participants. Workshop topics have ranged from “Civil Society: Transformations in Women’s Bodies” to “Hip-hop, Gender, and Culture.” Please contact GCWS staff person, Andi Sutton, to learn more at gcws@mit.edu.

Deadlines

The number of courses we can offer per year is limited, so proposals are considered in the order received. Please indicate your preference for which semester and year you are available to teach the course. Ideally, you should begin the course development no later than one year prior to teaching, but a three-semester advance-planning period is preferred.

Course Development Mini-grants

As resources permit, the Consortium will make available mini-grants in amounts not to exceed $1500 to faculty engaged in designing and developing a course to be offered through the Consortium. Faculty interested in receiving such support should state this in the cover letter accompanying the course proposal. Courses being mounted by faculty who have not previously taught together or those requiring the preparation of course specific materials are good candidates for such awards.

Review process

The Board of Directors takes an active role in the development, review, and approval of courses for the Consortium. Because every course offered through the Consortium is, in some sense experimental, we utilize an innovative course development process that may be new to you. After faculty teams develop and submit proposals for courses, the Board reviews and discusses them keeping in mind the criteria outlined in this Call, and gives both written and verbal suggestions that they hope will be helpful to the team as the course is revised and fleshed out. The faculty who have taught in the Consortium find this to be an exciting form of intellectual collaboration, well worth the extra energy and time.

The Consortium’s Board of Directors makes decisions about the quality and viability of course proposals and about the order in which to schedule them. The Board consists of a representative selected by the women's studies program of each member institution, with an additional member chosen by M.I.T. Feedback may include a request for timely revision in order to approve courses for the next academic year.

Release time

The opportunity to teach at the Consortium is understood to be one of the membership benefits that participating institutions may pass through to their affiliated faculty. The Consortium has developed funding and agreements with member universities to permit course release time or stipend payment for Consortium teaching. Consult with your Consortium Board representative or the GCWS Staff Program Coordinator for details.

All course proposals and inquiries should be sent to:

Andi Sutton, Program Coordinator
Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Building 16, Room 287
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
Ph. (617) 324-2085
Email: gcws@mit.edu

The Consortium

The Consortium is a pioneering effort by faculty members of six graduate degree-granting institutions in the Boston area and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. The program is designed to help realize the full potential of the new scholarship in women's studies by advancing theoretical developments in women's studies, by strengthening and supporting the development of participating faculty, and by enriching the graduate preparation of future faculty from a range of disciplines. The Consortium will provide an institutional context for scholarly collaboration in graduate seminars designed to expand the frontiers of this important and exciting interdisciplinary field.

Participating Institutions

• Boston College
• Boston University
• Brandeis University
• Harvard University
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Northeastern University
• Simmons College
• Tufts University
• University of Massachusetts, Boston

2007-08 Consortium Board of Directors

• Erica Harth , Brandeis University
• Robin Bernstein, Harvard University
• Heather Hindman, Northeastern University
• Ian Condry , Mass. Institute of Technology
• Sonia Hofkosh, Tufts University
• Sharlene Hesse-Biber, Boston College
• Jyoti Puri, Simmons College
• Chris Bobel, University of Massachusetts, Boston
• Shahla Haeri, Boston University