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This course surveys the Development of Chicana feminist thought and practice. It focuses on historical and contemporary writings by Chicana feminists. It draws on interdisciplinary scholarship to provide an introduction to the historical and intellectual landscape of Chicana Feminism. 

Upon successful completion of the course, students should be able to:

1. Identify the ways in which Chicana feminists have responded to systemic social, economic, and political oppression. 

2. Analyze the multiple frameworks that Chicanas use to create contemporary scholarship and understand the systems, structures, and communities that their work addresses.

3. Critically reflect on the diverse experiences, perspectives, and expressions that exist among Chicanas.

To provide a transformative and empowering educational experience for ������������ students by centering the histories, voices, and knowledge traditions of Chicanas, Latinas, and other women of color. To cultivate learning spaces that honor community memory, resist erasure, and uplift the cultural, linguistic, and political practices that shape Chicana feminist thought. To educate and empower students to analyze systems of power, engage in self‑reflection, and communicate in ways that demonstrate respect for the lived experiences, struggles, and contributions of Chicana communities across the U.S.–Mexico borderlands and beyond. To support students in developing the critical consciousness, relational accountability, and creative praxis necessary to participate in movements for social justice, collective liberation, and community well‑being.

Class meeting time will often consist of lecture, full-class discussion, small group discussion; individual and collaborative projects, and/or flipped-classroom approaches where concepts learned outside of class are analyzed and applied when class meets. Meeting time may also include the following: writing; researching; viewing video and multimedia productions; listening to guest speakers; field trips.

May include:

• Informal response papers or journals
• Short formal papers on specific concepts, themes, and issues
• Multimodal or multi genre inquiry projects
• Video projects
• Oral presentations
• Oral histories and interviews
• Term or research projects, using a variety of research strategies
• Individual research, analysis, and presentation projects
• Group research, analysis, and presentation projects
• Participation in full-class discussions and small groups or teams
• Participation in online discussion forums
• Student-instructor conferences
• Portfolios

 Themes, Concepts, and Issues

• Historical development of Chicana feminist thought within and beyond the Chicano Movement
• Intersectional analyses of race, gender, sexuality, class, citizenship, and language
• Systems of power and oppression, including patriarchy, colonialism, racism, and heteronormativity
• Cultural production as resistance: artivism, print culture, photography, poetry, and storytelling
• Chicana feminist genealogies, including Soldaderas, Pachucas, Movement‑era feminists, and queer Chicana thinkers
• Sitios y Lenguas as frameworks for understanding place, language, identity, and political praxis
• Autohistoria, testimonio, and embodied knowledge as theoretical and methodological tools
• Queering Aztlán and critiques of heteropatriarchy within Chicanx political movements
• Resignification of cultural and religious symbols, including feminist reinterpretations of La Virgen de Guadalupe
• Community‑rooted knowledge traditions such as motherworks, caregiving praxis, and healing justice
• Spiritual activism and methodologies of the spirit in Chicana feminist organizing
• Archiving, memory, and Mij(a)rchives as feminist practices of documentation and cultural preservation
• Chicana feminist pedagogies, writing practices, and community accountability
• Collective liberation and community‑based strategies for social change

Skills

In this course, students develop the critical thinking, cultural responsiveness, and analytical skills needed to examine systems of power through Chicana feminist frameworks. Students learn to apply intersectional theory, engage in reflective and creative praxis, and communicate with respect for the histories, experiences, and knowledge traditions of Chicana, Latina, and other women‑of‑color communities.