“History is about gods and kings, the rest is women’s studies.”
                                   – Jan Knippers Black

All of us occupy a political space dictated by gender, race, caste, class, and sexuality and this space governs our lives. The politics of entering this predetermined arena, challenging and redefining it beyond patriarchal, hegemonic, economic structures is the central thought underlying this course. This, I believe, is what constitutes Women’s Studies in the 21 st century. Some of the questions explored through Women’s studies are: What is gender? What is development? How do different economic development models, religions, cultures, and political regimes rely on particular configurations of gender relations to achieve their goals? What have been their varied impacts on women’s participation in America and around the world? In this course, these questions are examined alongside issues of human rights, colonization, globalization, war, exile, race, and education. The focus on women from South Asia is the starting point of a conversation about movement and learning beyond visible boundaries.