PSYC3125 Imagined Conversations: Women Past and Feminist Presence

Assignment 3

Imagined Conversations: Women Past and Feminist Presence

The purpose of this assignment is to have you familiarize yourself more deeply with women in

psychology/gender issues in psychology and to develop the ability to historically contextualize

the experiences and contributions of psychologists.

For this assignment, you will be required to write an imagined conversation between a

psychologist you select from the Women Past section of the Psychology’s Feminist Voices

website (http://www.feministvoices.com), and a psychologist you select from the Feminist

Presence part of the site. You are free to pick any two psychologists, but you must have a

rationale for the pairing – that is, why would these two psychologists be interesting to put “in

conversation”?

Possible rationales for pairing include similarities or differences with respect to social

location, research topic, methodological orientation, political values, etc.

You should read all of the material about each psychologist that is available at their

respective profile pages, and any other secondary literature that you think is necessary for

constructing this imagined conversation. Note that there are extensive lists of secondary sources

that you could consult at the Resources link on both Women Past and Feminist Presence

homepages. Note also that your textbook chapter on the science and politics of gender (Chapter

11) would also be a good source for background information, and there is a 40-minute video at

the site entitled The Changing Face of Feminist Psychology that you can also consult.

Preface your conversation with a brief introduction in which you 1) identify and describe

your two speakers (where and when do/did they work, in what area of psychology, on what

topics), and 2) present the rationale for your pairing. Your elaboration of these two points should

take up about one page.

Then, assume that the two speakers are located in their own historical period and place

but can communicate across time. What would they each like to know about the other’s

experiences? What has changed in psychology, what has remained the same? Have they faced

similar or different challenges and why? What observations might each have of the other’s career

and their specific lines of research or practice? Make sure the conversation is bi-directional (that

information flows both ways) and is historically and contextually accurate.

Practical Considerations: •Word limit is 1500 words (not including references or footnotes, if used)

•Please double-space, use 12-pt font, one-inch margins

•Be sure to include a title page that includes the name you have given to the conversation, your

full name, and your student number

•To cite sources other than the site itself, include a reference list at the end of your paper using

APA referencing style. Note: All of the reference lists on the site are constructed using APA

referencing style, so you can use these as your models. Also, there is specific referencing

information given for how to cite the oral history interviews that appear on the site on the first

page of the oral history transcripts themselves.

•Submit to Susannah through the Moodle site by midnight April 4th.