Mid-semester course evaluation: what's working? what needs working on?

Thus far this course has taught me so much in terms of gender identity, feminism, defying binaries and hierarchies and exploring self-representation, including my own. In terms of the course material solely, I have been fascinated, scared and amazed by the texts we have read. I like the variety of the texts and the forms in which they are presented, they stem away from the usual formats I read in school and this has made it easier and more exciting to read them. They are engaging and eye-opening for me. Our discussions around the texts are eye-opening as well.

I really appreciate the discussion based format of this class; it allows me to gain multiple perspectives and opinions. I value the vulnerability that the class has shared with each other and the mutual respect among the classroom, it has allowed for us, I think, to have such deep and introspective conversations. The classroom set up also helps this, I like that we sit in a circle and are able to see everyone in a more intimate and personal way. I also like that when we speak, we are addressing the whole class and not just the professor, breaking down the power dynamic that often makes speaking intimidating for me. Also, because I am often a quiet person, not speaking for days often without realizing it, working in smaller groups is very helpful. Often I do not speak in class because before I can fully gather my thoughts for articulating, we as a class have moved on to another topic, so working in small groups helps me gather my thoughts and articulate them in a more private space, so that when we go back into a larger group, I know what I want to say and am more willing to share.

This class is one in which we do a lot of questioning. Questioning is a good way of opening us up to more opinions and allows us to do more critical thinking, however I often feel more confused when I leave the class and I never feel as if we come to any resolutions or conclusions about anything. Maybe not coming to a conclusion is a purposeful exercise to illustrate that not everything can be solved and understood so easily, however it seems that we just kind of leave the topic we were questioning the previous day and don’t fully flesh it out. If for some of the topics we talk about, we can come up with a solidified mutual understanding, if possible, I think I would feel less confused and unorganized about what we are learning.

I like the idea someone had in class of meeting in small groups before our papers are due to conference and bounce ideas off each other, and still meeting afterward to discuss them.  It would be really interesting to analyze feminist film or plays. I am hoping that we take a little closer look into to the different types of feminism and the intersectionality between different aspects of the feminist discipline.  

I am enjoying our class so far, and I love that I am able to question myself and what I feel it is that makes me who I am. I would definitely enjoy it if we had more articles to read that place the topics that we are discussing in class into a more cultural and societal context, in an effort to apply the knowledge that we have been acquiring to our every day lives. I also agree with Sam that it would be nice to have a better understanding of how we are going to be graded, just so that we can be aware of it during the semester. But like I said, I am very happy with our class so far. I feel like my motivations for joining the course are all manifesting themselves in the topics we discuss, and I have been exploring a lot of the concepts that I have been hoping to learn more about. 

I came into this class expecting something a bit more rigid in structure, talking about feminist theory more directly and encorporating texts in the usual style. The structure of class from the first day left me feeling bewildered and on-edge, but I'm slowly growing more used to the community style learning. Not raising hands and having the discussin moderated by the teacher was uncomfortable for me, and the first few meetings I was very hesitant to speak up in class due to this style. I am more comfortable having discussions and the like now but I still hold myself back for fear of being wrong because all of the vocal voices in class are very aware and knowledgeable on the issues at hand (from my perspective). I feel the structure is helpful for the more commanding voices but if you have any hesitation on a fast-moving topic you'll be washd away so to speak.

I feel like this class is lacking in the sort of hard knowledge that I came into it expecting, like more detailed discussions on specific thinkers and the waves of feminism, I feel like I'm missing some sort of foundation and that those sort of topics are only really glazed over (the waves of feminism in particular interest me greatly, and I came into the course thinking we'd be getting more of that style of information). A lot of out learning this class has been very personal, relying on interpretation of materials, but without some sort of base I feel at times hopelessly adrift among some classmates who clearly have more fluency in these topics.

We don't talk enough. I think that much is clear, especially with regards to our last class. As a class, we don't really challenge things as much as we could, especially, I think, if it could result in an "inappropriate" comment that might show that the speaker isn't checking their privilege and having problematic views. I think we can work on the silence by actually talking (and talking about the things we don't tend to).

But, I also think that there is a lot of helpful vocabulary missing from our lexicons--it is, at least, missing from mine. Descriptive, academic vocabulary is sometimes used in class. When it is, usually the same people are using the scholarly language, not by the whole class. Since this is a feminist class, and also because Bryn Mawr wants us to assert ourselves, presentations might be the go-to route to solve this problem. However, though that would help prevent one person or a few people from dominating the conversation, as opposed to all of us, I think that the way to get us speaking and using the language is to actually have us use the language, so if we were going to learn more about academic ideas and language that are used a lot in feminist scolarship, having us use Serendip could be really useful. Making a Sunday post about a researched term and having people post comments might get us actually using the vocabulary. It's really hard to force us to talk a certain way in class, but an assignment on Serendip could be more doable.

Additionally, I would find writing discussions with class members really helpful! Talking to Anne about my topic helped me a lot, but I think that talking about future papers even more, especially when they are in draft form would help me a lot! Talking about papers when they're finished can be helpful, but there's no way to impliment specific suggestions at that point.

It’s kind of amazing to me how much I’ve learned about gender in half a semester. I identify as a feminist but I didn’t realize how little I knew about gender before this class. I found it really intimidating to speak at first because a lot of people in class were using terms I didn’t know and I didn’t want to come off as uneducated on the topic. Now that I know what the terms mean I feel more comfortable expressing my opinions than I did at the beginning of the semester. I don’t feel as comfortable in an open forum setting sharing my ideas than I do having someone moderate the conversation but I think that having Serendip helps a lot with that. I like that if I have an idea that I wasn’t able to share in class its not lost but that I am able to share it in a blog post. I like how they work together to allow people to share their ideas in different formats. Just for the class discussion though I still have reservations about speaking.            

I have really enjoyed the small groups. I feel much more comfortable talking in those and I like the combination of the small groups and the large group. I know that for me it gives me time to think out my ideas and explore them before talking in the large group. I need to speak more in the large groups though. As the semester continues and we get to know each other’s point of views better it becomes easier to share.

I have generally liked the texts that we have read. I enjoyed the Dolls House and Persepolis more than Bornstein’s Gender Workbook. I have not had the opportunity to read graphic novels for a class at Bryn Mawr and I like reading and discussing them and it's been a different experience discussing them than a traditional novel.

            I really enjoyed the experience of writing the first essay on self-representation. I felt supported to explore my own identity. I learned a lot about myself while researching my topic and I feel that I have a found a truer way to express myself. The conference with Anne helped a lot and from the books that were recommended to me I found a new section of the library that I had not known existed until now. The topic that I covered on Christian feminism is still something that I am exploring and it has been great how the classwork has crossed over into my everyday life.

            I hope that as the semester goes on that I can express myself more and bring in my point of view during class discussions. I'm excited to see what else we are going to do in class. This class is different than what I expected but I really enjoy that it is. It has been a nice surprise this semester and I'm learning more about myself in this class than I have in other classes that I've taken at Bryn Mawr. 

This class has really changed the way that I think about a conventional classroom structure.  It really has been freeing to be a part of a classroom environment that doesn’t rely on a certain number of contributions or strict participation guidelines.  That being said, at times I feel like there is a comfortable discussion and other times it seems like a majority of the class is hesitant to speak, myself included.  I think the small group discussions are helpful in that they provide a springboard for the bigger discussion.  I know that I tend to feel more comfortable speaking in the small groups and one strategy I have for next quarter is to use the small group discussions as talking points so that I feel a little more prepared to speak in the larger discussion.  Because I am enjoying the casual class discussions, so I would feel hesitant to change that format and have students be called on.  But I understand that it might be helpful to change the format of class discussions so that there is a bigger push for quieter students to share their opinions.  I know that the exercise we did before break was really controversial because it really pushed people outside of their comfort zone but it could be that if we did an exercise like that once a week, the class might get even more comfortable with each other and the opinions they have to share.  Again, I also felt really anxious about sharing my response but I think it would be interesting the try the exercise a few more times to see if people being to feel like they can open up.

Aside from the discussion format, I have been happy with what I am learning in the class and the different ideas that everyone is presenting. When I registered for this class last year, I had no idea what my personal opinions were in the context of feminism.  I still don’t think that I know.  If anything this class is confusing me in a great way.  Even though I don’t have a concrete stand on feminism right now, this class has made me feel more confident about my beliefs and the way that I express them to people outside of Bryn Mawr. I am really happy with what I have been learning in the class but I would like to spend more time connecting a feminist context to the texts that we have been reading.  Sometimes I felt a little off track while we were reading “The Doll’s House” and I wasn’t quite sure how it connected to the class.  After a while, it started to make more sense but there were times when I was struggling to understand the feminist argument.  That could be because I still am learning about a feminist context in general but I really am enjoying the process so far.

I came into this class expecting something far simpler and straightforward - a basic analysis of gender and sexuality, nothing I hadn't encountered before - and instead I have learned to see the world in a whole new way. I am beginning to think outside of heteronormativity and see the flaws in social structures that I never bothered to question. I think what I like best about the class is that we study these issues in context - where do I fit in this world of gender? How do I understand and express myself within and outside social rules?

I'm glad that we have Serendip as a place to discuss outside of class. I know I have trouble communicating what I want to say in class and that I'm still getting over the fear of saying something "wrong". I would really like to work more in small groups because they are less intimidating and I often feel that the discussions I have in small groups are more productive for my understanding of the class material. I think that in small groups we are forced to refer to the text more to communicate our ideas and that helps move the discussion along and helps us learn in a context that we are all familiar with.

I have really enjoyed all of the texts we have read so far - they have been engaging and thought-provoking, and it's always nice to brag that reading The Sandman is your homework. I really like that every time we discuss a text in class, I come out of the class with a different opinion and thoughts about that text than when I came in.

I would definitely say that this is the class I struggle most with, not because of the workload but because it pushes the boundaries of my worldview a little more with every class. I have grappled with myself in this class and learned things about myself that I never knew. I hope to continue this journey and begin to open up a little more to the class as the semester goes on.

I was really excited when I first signed up for this course because feminism and gender were topics that I had only begun to touch upon in high school. Upon receiving the book list for this class I became even more excited. I recognized some of the books that were on the list and was keen on looking at them in a new light. The ones that I had never seen before deeply intrigued me. Though there were times when I found myself frowning while reading Kate Bornstein’s My New Gender Workbook, for the most part I understood the methods that she used to get her messages across. Having parents who have used similar techniques when trying to get me to understand what it’s like to be in another person’s shoes, I didn’t feel too angry when filling out the quizzes. I got frustrated, but that was the whole point the exercise. Kate Bornstein helped me to understand gender and fluidity in a way that I had never quite been able to grasp before. By using intersectionality and connecting the idea of gender being complex along with my experience of trying to figure out my racial identity, I was able to understand the position of non-cisgender people in a new way. 

I like the “round table” set up that we have in class and I am glad that we took the time to learn each others names. I feel that this allows us to be more open with one another and breaks through a barrier, thus giving us the courage to talk with one another. I appreciate how we divide into mini groups sometimes to answer questions that came up in our readings. This decreases the pressure on all of us to come up with a concrete opinion to be dissected by the whole class. Instead, we can bounce ideas off one another and ask the people in our group how they interpreted the question. As we share our thoughts with one another and genuinely listen to what is being said, we can expand our ideas and interpretations to include observations that group members made that we didn’t think of ourselves. This is always a fun experience for me and allows me to get to know my classmates better.

Serendip has been a useful platform when I have wanted to record my thoughts and experiences. I like that I can ponder on a discussion that we had in class or I can bring up a subject that popped into my head when reading other peoples posts. I like the accessibility that we have to each other that is sometimes limited in class by time or vulnerability. Since the questions that are brought up in class often take me a while to think about, I appreciate that Serendip allows me to layout and construct my thoughts online. That way I don’t have to rush myself to form an opinion in class that might not be representative of what I’m actually thinking or trying to say.

Right now, I think we’re becoming more comfortable with one another as a class and we are getting more used to the idea of stepping outside of our comfort zones. I think many of us have realized that we feel similarly about raising or talking about controversial topics. We don’t want to offend others and feel ostracized (verbally or silently) if our viewpoints aren’t shared by others. However, we’ll never learn (for ourselves and others) if we don’t ask questions or contribute points that may not bode well with everyone. When we did that exercise last Thursday that banned us from talking about the things we cared about, I realized how hurtful it can be to the whole class when we constantly censor ourselves. In a way, it’s more hurtful than asking a question that has difficult connotations. At least then we’re being honest with one another about what we’re really thinking and feeling. In the end, none of us are experts on this subject, that’s why we’re taking this class. We want to learn and that is something that we can only accomplish by not being afraid to make “fools” of ourselves in front of one another.  Overall, I am satisfied with what I have accomplished with this class, despite its challenges, and I’m excited to see how much more we can grow throughout the rest of the semester.

I enjoy the setup of our class-sitting in a circle and talking rather than being called on. As some other people have said, I like that we made learning names important, because I barely ever know all the names of the people in my classes. For the most part, I think that the atmosphere is inviting and comfortable because we know each other so people feel that they can voice their opinions. However, there are some times when we discuss touchy subjects when I can feel the scared silence that everyone shares. I know sometimes I want to ask a question but I don't want to be judged. I think that the last class we had before break was beginning to help with that silence, but we didn't really have enough time. I hope we continue discussing silence and voice next week.

I like when we break off into small groups and then report back, but sometimes when we come back to the big group and Anne brings up a question or topic, it wasn't something my small group discussed. I know that we have topics on the chalkboard to talk about in the small groups, but it isn't always clear what we are supposed to be doing in the small groups.

This class has been challenging and very good for opening my mind to new ideas. I hesitated to enroll, but I am glad I did, because although it can be intimidating and difficult, I think that it is a great experience for me as a student.

This class truly has enlightened me and made me question many aspects of gender, sexuality, and feminism, which I had never encountered or considered before.

When I first signed up for this course, I expected more theory than literature. Earlier in the semester, I was disappointed at the small amount of feminist theory in this class, I now understand that learning feminism through the literature and discussion can bring about many intriguing topics. To a certain extent I enjoy learning about feminism through literature, it more accessible than some theory (as I found with Judith Butler while writing by first web event.) But reading Judith Butler brought about many more questions than did the same amount of literature. Perhaps incorporating more theory into the course would spark more a more animated in-class discussion.

I really enjoy having Serendip as a portal to continue class discussion outside of the classroom. In other classes, if I leave class still pondering questions, I have no way of expressing my thoughts until the next class period, which could be several days from then. But with Serendip, our class is always in touch, always answering each other's questions and always challenging each other.

Challenging. When I think about my time in this class thus far, this word comes to my mind most frequently. And in the best possible way. My views of sexuality, gender, and feminism have been challenged. What I thought I knew has been challenged. I enjoy being challenged. Stationary knowledge is not as useful as knowledge that flows like a river, always twisting and turning, being joined by other tributaries, carving out new paths. This class has created new rivers, while shaping and adding to my existing bodies of knowledge.

There have been a few classes though which I felt were unproductive/not as productive as they could have been. I think the problem during these classes was that the conversation was not added to, instead it felt like the same ideas were being recycled over and over again, but in different ways. I think it might be helpful if when the conversation seems to come to a stand-still, someone picks a new direction for the conversation. As we established the first day, Anne is an equal with the rest of us during a conversation (a welcome change in the classroom power dynamics), so we should not rely on Anne to be the one to pick a new direction.

So far I have really been enjoying this class. I love the structure of the classroom, how we sit in a circle and can see and interact with each other, how we don't use hand raising to encourage normal discussion, and how we've broken down that power dynamic that usually comes in a classroom with a professor. I also like that we have grown to really know everybody in the classroom, to a point where we are able to be vulnerable in front of each other and share in really deep conversations on sometimes controversial topics. In a way, it has made me feel comfortable being uncomfortable in the class. I really love that we've covered so many topics and have been generating so many questions on topics that I have never really discussed in depth before. However, as I think some other people above have said, I often leave class more confused than when I came in. In one sense, that's good because it means our discussion was thought-provoking and made me think really hard, but at the same time, I often feel like we don't come to a clear conclusion and that leaves me with lots of questions, wishing we could go deeper. I think it would be helpful if at the end of our discussions, we at least summed up the ideas we discussed to give us a better conclusion.

I have really enjoyed reading the texts, and I love the variety of styles and topics that they've covered. I was still a little confused by how The Doll House connected to feminism and our discussion of gender representation. Of course there were some ties that I saw, but I wish we had discussed as a group more what the connection there was. However, many of the other readings have been really intruiging and thought-provoking. I also enjoy when we do small group discussions on the readings, etc. because it gives us a chance to really engage in a tight and short discussion and gives people who don't normally speak up much in the big group a chance to really voice their opinions and ask questions. I also really liked meeting in these small groups to discuss our papers after we wrote them. I think it would be nice to meet in small groups before writing papers just to bounce ideas off of each other, but I would also like to still meet with Anne because it really helped me last time to narrow down my thoughts into one solid topic. I also have really liked using Serendip to share our thoughts and have a way to archive some of our thoughts and opinions that stemmed from our discussions.