Department of Women and Gender Studies

Permanent URI for this community

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1

The Politics of Omission: Religion in Women’s Studies
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2008-11) McKeen, Leah A. D.
In this thesis I attempt to uncover how religion is included as a topic of discourse in Introductory Women’s Studies courses across Canada. This examination is framed by theories on difference and the relatively new field of epistemologies of ignorance. More specifically, I discuss the relationship between ignorance and what is included in curriculum, as well as how religion, as a particular kind of difference among women, is treated within women’s studies. In order to examine the discourse around religion in Introductory Women’s Studies I looked at the textbooks and syllabi used in these courses. This data was collected through website searches and e-mailed surveys. This examination concludes with two case studies (one on Muslim Women in Canada, the other on the same-sex marriage debate) which work to draw out particular discourses occurring in the textbooks used in the courses. Additionally, the case studies point towards directions one could take in order to more knowledgeably include religion as a topic of discourse.