Defying Borders: Transforming Learning Through Collaborative Feminist Organizing and Interdisciplinary, Transnational Pedagogy

The authors provide a case study of how a group of faculty members was able to initiate a transformation in student learning and institutional structures at a small university in the Midwestern U.S. through the introduction of collaborative feminist organizing and pedagogy. It details faculty-led initiatives that set the stage for innovative teaching and learning, and it describes the authors' experience in the face of resistance when introducing a global women's human rights course into the university's new core curriculum. Because of its divers, interdisciplinary and transnational content, this course challenged deeply ingrained disciplinary and pedagogical borders of both traditional area studies and the field of history. The authors argue that progress toward diverse curricula can be made when colleagues work collaboratively and apply innovative pedagogical models to the classroom. Although specific to one university, these challenges to and strategies for transformation have broader application to all faculty seeking to diversify curricula and institutions.