Your Very Own Gender Studies Degree: Transnationalism, pt 1
But first, how can I get my Very Own Gender Studies Degree?
Transnationalism is an ongoing, but uneven series of cross-border movements (of people, ideas, culture, political, capital, etc), porous when considering national boundaries. Transnationalism challenges the purity and rigidity of the nation-state and heavily considers cultures of belonging or not belonging and diasporas. It considers these cross-border movements to be both mobile and fixed and analyses the world from a place other than one’s primary nation and location. *
“…a transnational sensibility lets scholars see the movement of goods, individuals, and ideas happening in a context in which gender, class, and race operate simultaneously.” **
* Notes are mine.
** From Transnationalism: A Category of Analysis by Laura Briggs, et al. Pg. 633.
Things to Think About
1. Consider the national boundaries that you carry around within you. How have those been constructed?
2. It’s important in Transnational studies to separate empire and people, for example, I am part of the American empire but I am also a person who lives in America. Why is this distinction important?
3. How can we practice considering the fluid movement of borders but keep cultural relativism out?
