Amy Heath-Carpentier

Furies and Die-Hards: Women in Rebellion and War juxtaposes contemporary social science perspectives on women and war with the history and testimonies of Irish women during the Irish revolutionary period (1898-1922), the Irish Civil War (1922-1923), and the Free State. Under English rule from the twelfth century Norman invasions to the establishment of the Irish Free State and the partition of Northern Ireland in 1922, Ireland presents a compelling, historical laboratory to deliberate on the relationship between gender and political conflict. Intentionally transdisciplinary, the course draws from across disciplinary discourses and highlights perspectives across race, gender, class, ethnicity, religion, and sexuality. Topics include: political organizing, nationalism, rebellion, radicalization, militarism, terrorism, pacifism, and peacebuilding. Rooted in Cynthia Enloe's enduring question "Where are the women?" and drawing on sociologist Louise Ryan's landmark essay by the same name, we inquire how and why Irish nationalist women, who were integral to building the revolutionary movement, became "Furies" and "Die-Hards" in the eyes of their compatriots when the Free State was established (Bishop Doorley, 1925; President Cosgrave, 1923). Taking advantage of the plethora of archival resources now available through the Irish Decade of Centenaries program, the course incorporates the voices of Irish women through their diaries, military records, letters, interviews, speeches, newspapers, and memoirs.

Gender is a central, but too often obscured dimension of the policy and practice of international affairs, relations, and development. In this transdisciplinary course, gender is not a synonym for women, as Terrell Carver reminds us. Students take gender seriously as an analytical category and examine how masculinities, femininities, gender identities, and sexualities shape the construction, implementation, and outcomes of global governance, politics, economics, and interventions. Traversing macro and micro levels, the course exposes students to diverse voices from around the world, which they utilize to conduct gender analyses on case studies relevant to their interests. Throughout, we will be mindful of 1) how gender functions in tandem with sexuality, class, race, religion, and ethnicity (intersectionality) and 2) how multidimensional identities morph historically, regionally, and culturally. The student builds a gender analysis toolkit and practices what Cynthia Enloe describes as "feminist curiosity," exploring the relationship between gender and power in various aspects of international affairs.