The final exam is scheduled for Thursday, December 13, 11 am-1 pm, in our regular classroom.  Consultants from the Women's Studies Writing Center will run a review session for the exam on Thursday, December 6 (Dead Day), 1-2 pm in Econ 307. Come to the review session prepared to discuss the themes below.

Bring a blue book and pens or pencils to the exam (think legible). The exam will be open note. That is, you may bring to the exam one sheet (two sides) of notes made especially for the exam, not all your class notes. You may also bring a dictionary, but you may not consult any other books, notes, or articles during the exam. The final counts 25% of your total grade.

The exam will consist of one essay (chosen from three essay questions on one or more of the themes listed below). The question may ask you to consider particular authors or works in your analysis. You may bring in other class readings, including the group web sites. Your essay will be graded on sophistication of thesis; strength of argumentation; effectiveness and appropriateness of illustration from the semester's readings; style, and mechanics. You must answer the question fully to receive full credit. You should expect to take most of the two hours to plan, write, and proof your essay.

As you study for the essay portion of the exam, think about the following themes:

1. The contact zone--in domestic spaces and family relationships, in encounters between different cultures and religions in colonialist contexts, between genders.

2. Sex and sexuality as categories or domains in which political relationships are structured and reinforced.

3. The fragmentation, dismemberment, and sexualization of women in various discourses and arts; women artists' resistance to that objectification.

4. The intersection of gender and class in defining women's lives; women and slavery.

5. How gender organizes social, economic, familial relationships differently in different times and places.

6. Women's complex relationship to religion, as icons, goddesses, bringers of evil, theologians, worshippers.