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Negotiating Tensions: Teaching About Race Issues in Graduate Feminist Classrooms
- NWSA Journal
- Indiana University Press
- Volume 14, Number 1, Spring 2002
- pp. 82-102
- Article
- Additional Information
This essay discusses feminism and race—a complex issue that has been at the forefront of debates in NWSA's history—in the specific context of graduate feminist classrooms. Donadey examines how the struggle to move from a monist (gender-only) analysis of women's oppression to an intersectional framework tends to generate resistance in feminist theory classes, especially when questions of race and racism arise, and particularly at the graduate level. She analyzes ethical implications of such resistance, its disastrous consequences on students of color, and discusses the issue of instructor responsibility to name and expose racism. She presents several possible explanations for student resistance to multicultural feminist approaches. Finally, she offers strategies to respond effectively to student resistance.