Feminist Geography

Undergraduate programme | Graduate Programme | Postgraduate Programme | Staff | Further Reading | Contact Information

Feminist geography aims to demonstrate the ways in which gender relations are both reinforced and reflected in the spatial arrangements of societies. Feminist work within geography began in the 1970s and has been important in the development of the discipline particularly in the areas of cultural geography, development studies, urban and rural geography and tourism studies as well as in the more specific areas of sexuality and space.

Undergraduate Programme in Feminist Geography

Unlike most other universities in Australasia, feminist geography at the University of Waikato is available to students from 100 Level through to 300 Level.

• At 100 Level, GEOG101 Geographies of Change: Local and Global Perspectives contains a block of lectures which introduce students to gendered and feminist perspectives in geography.
• At 200 Level, GEOG209 Contemporary Cultural Geographies. This paper introduces students to the exciting developments in cultural geography. It examines the contested nature of culture as an aspect of social relations, and the politics of representation. The paper draws on critical theory, including feminist, Marxist, postmodernist, anti-racist, post-colonial and queery theory, to explore the ways in which gender, sexuality, 'race', class and (dis)ability are integral to the social and cultural ordering of, and thinking about, spaces. During the semester we will pay attention to a range of places including homes, workplaces, streets, central business districts, shopping and recreation centres.
• At 300 Level, GEOG309 Gender, Place and Culture. This paper provides a forum for debate on 'difference' in relation to gender, place and culture. To understand 'difference' we draw on postmodernist, postructuralist, anti-racist, postcolonial, feminist, queer, Marxist and socialist perspectives. The aim is to examine various ways of challenging, dismantling, and transforming systems and structures of exploitation, oppression and imperialism.
• Also at 300 level, GEOG301 Research in Human Geography contains lectures of feminist perspectives and methodologies.

Many students choose to combine these papers with a number of other geography papers as well as papers from Women's and Gender Studies.

Graduate Programme in Feminist Geography

The graduate programme in feminist geography may be taken as an honours degree - BSocSc(Hons) - or as a Masters degree - MSocSc. Candidates for both degrees are advised to enrol in:

• GEOG501 Contemporary Geographic Thought. This paper introduces graduate students to a range of contemporary debates within geography, including debates around feminism/postmodernism.
• GEOG519 Crossing Boundaries. This paper examines the growing interest in links between the embodiment, subjectivity and space.
• GEOG590 Directed Research Project. Topics for this paper are to be developed in consultation with the relevant staff.

In addition to these three papers, students are required to take one other graduate level paper. Some students pursusing feminist geography choose to take their fourth paper from a range of options available in Sociology and Social Policy, Anthropology and Tourism Studies.

Students wishing to pursue a Masters degree enrol in a four paper thesis in their second year of graduate studies. Topics are developed in consultation with the relevant staff.

Postgraduate (PhD) Programme in Feminist Geography

There are a number of PhD (doctoral) students in feminist geography. Examples of recently completed research and research in progress include:

• Body tourism: gay pride parades.
• Constructing identities: gender, geography and the culture of fieldtrips.
• Discourses of poverty in the European Community: citizenship, employment and consumption.
• Women as Industrial Labour: An enquiry into economic and social consequences for households of the growth of garment manufacturing in Bangladesh.
• (Not) Speaking of Maternities: Pregnancy and Childbirth in Wanigela, Oro Province, Papua New Guinea.
• A Social Comment on Structural Change: Dairy farm women in the Waikato, 1946-1996.

Staff

The following staff members teach in feminist geography:

• Robyn Longhurst is a senior lecturer. She has an interest in postmodernism, poststructuralism, critical social theory on the body, including psychoanalysis, the 'culture' of workplaces, sites of consumption, and urban socio-cultural geographies in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Robyn has published in a number of refereed geographical journals. Her recent book is entitled Bodies: Exploring Fluid Boundaries (2001) London, Routledge
• Lynda Johnston is a senior lecturer. Her research interests include feminism and poststructuralism, gender, sexuality and embodiment, tourism and subjectivities, methodologies, constructions of geographical knowledge, and cultural geographies. She has recently co-authored a book called Subjectivites, Knowledges and Feminist Geographies: The Subjects and Ethics of Social Research (2002) Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield.
• Elaine Bliss is a senior tutor, production manager for the NZ Geographer and editor of Aro Whenua. Her teaching and research interests are in social geography and gender/development.

Further Reading

Additional reading on feminist geography at Waikato
Over the last few years a number of people have written on feminist geography at Waikato. For more information you might like to peruse:

Feminist Music Site Link
http://www.cwluherstory.com/CWLUGallery/feministmusic.html

Contact Information

Co-ordinator: Robyn Longhurst
Room: I2.12
Tel: +64 7 838 4466, ext. 8306
Email: robynl@waikato.ac.nz