This is a comprehensive and interdisciplinary course designed for master’s students interested in exploring how gender, power, and space are interconnected. 

The course begins by examining the body as a site of geographical and feminist inquiry. Students will explore how bodies are regulated, represented, and experienced in different spaces and the implications of these dynamics for broader social and political processes. The course also investigates political ecology from a feminist standpoint. Students will learn about the gendered dimensions of environmental issues, focusing on how ecological crises and policies impact women and marginalized communities differently. This section emphasizes the importance of incorporating feminist perspectives into environmental justice and sustainability efforts. Finally, the course explores digital geographies, analyzing how digital technologies and spaces influence gender relations. Students will examine the opportunities and challenges that digital environments pose for feminist activism, identity, and community building.

In general, the course incorporates decolonial perspectives, challenging traditional Western-centric approaches to geography. Students will engage with scholarship from the Global South, examining how colonial histories and power relations shape contemporary geographical and social landscapes. This component encourages students to rethink and deconstruct dominant narratives and to advocate for more inclusive and equitable geographical practices.

The course is structured as a combination of seminars and lectures, fostering an interactive learning environment where student-instructor engagement is paramount. Throughout the semester, students will apply the concepts and theories learned to their everyday life experiences through various assignments. These assignments are designed to bridge theory and practice, encouraging students to critically analyze and reflect on real-world issues through a feminist geographical lens.

By the end of the course, students will have developed a nuanced understanding of feminist geographies and the skills to apply this knowledge in both academic and practical contexts.

When we mention politics, the images that typically spring to mind are politicians delivering speeches in parliament or in front of cameras, scenes from international summits filled with leaders and their advisors, political campaigns, and streets plastered with banners and posters bearing political slogans. We think of elections, and—if we approach the topic from a more critical standpoint—war, corruption, deceit, and so on. But what does geography have to do with politics? In essence, the answer is everything! This encompasses everything from the physical appearance of politicians (including their gender, physical gestures, and attire) to the locations of international summits, the architectural design of government buildings, the choice of streets for political campaigns and demonstrations, and the targeted geographies for forging new political and economic partnerships or declaring war. Furthermore, if we look beyond Politics with a capital “P”, we see that geography and politics intersect when we consider how states and geopolitical actions materialize through means such as the installation of security cameras on streets, moments of silence observed for national commemorations in schools or stadiums, racial profiling at airports or during traffic stops, and the intentional neglect of industrial zones and neighborhoods. Thus, geographers study the multifaceted nature of politics, examining everything from high-stakes geopolitical tensions to the minutiae of daily life, all through a spatial lens.

This course provides an in-depth introduction to the fascinating interplay between power and space, with a particular focus on the key concepts of political geography: the state and geopolitics. It explores how power influences spatial organization, and vice versa, utilizing a feminist (geo)political framework to shed light on the everyday processes of state formation and geopolitical maneuvering. In essence, this course zeroes in on the ordinary and practical aspects of daily life to demystify the mundane mechanisms of politics. The curriculum is split into two main subsections. The first delves into the concept of the state, starting with an introductory session before moving on to examine the everyday construction of states, state-like entities and practices, and the ambiguous territories of statehood. The second part of the course pivots to geopolitics, offering unique and often overlooked discussions on bodies, daily activities, and practices influenced by gender and race.

In recent years, there has been a discernible shift in geopolitical discourse, driven by critical, feminist, and decolonial perspectives challenging the mainstream focus on global and nation-state scales. These innovative approaches seek to unravel the complex interplay between geopolitical processes and the emergence of nuanced ways of understanding embodied, affective, everyday, and often obscured forms of global, geopolitical, and international structures. The past two decades have witnessed a flourishing body of work within feminist geopolitics, exploring a plethora of themes, engaging in rich conceptual debates, and spanning diverse geographies.

This seminar aims to map the evolution of this sub-discipline within feminist geography, casting a spotlight on its unique takes on geopolitics. Special attention will be devoted to dissecting various feminist theoretical lenses and their applications in deciphering discourses surrounding war, security, peace, subtle manifestations of racism and colonialism, gendered geopolitical structures, and the quotidian construction of states and international hierarchies.

Tailored for graduate students, this seminar fosters a space for engaging discussions intertwining feminist, post-colonial, and critical theories with national, international, and geopolitical narratives. No prior knowledge in geography or feminist theory is required, ensuring an inclusive learning environment for all participants.

What is space? What is place? Why do these concepts matter in understanding the world around us? This course explores how space and place are crucial notions for understanding a variety of issues, concepts, and phenomenon, such as religion, race, state, gender, geopolitics, and migration. Particularly, this course searches answers to a series of questions, such as what is a sacred space and how it is different from a secular space? How are race and gender socially constructed and how do they operate in everyday spaces? What is the state and where the state is located? How do geopolitics operate in and through unusual spaces, such as bodies and intimate relations?