Marnia Lazreg is professor of sociology at Hunter College and the Graduate Cente

Marnia Lazreg is professor of sociology at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Her research primarily examines the place of Muslim women within global contexts of religion, colonialism, and human migration. Similar to Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí, Lazreg criticizes western feminism for attempting to universalize the particular experience of relatively elite white women in imperial, patriarchal western societies.
For this journal entry, follow the journal entry guidelines below (these will be the guidelines for all journals this term) and answer the following questions:
According to Lazreg, what are the central problems with identity-based versions of feminism and why do they obscure rather than clarify the experiences and challenged faced by, say, Algerian women?
According to Lazreg, what practices should African scholars use in their study of African women generally or Algerian women specifically? Explain at least two of her proposals or provide at least two examples from the text.
In your view, what contemporary relevance does Lazreg’s critique have for global understandings of gender, politics, and religion? Provide at least one or two specific examples with reasons for why these examples illustrate your view.
Please remember to quote at least once from the assigned chapter.
Advice for this and other journal entries:
While reading philosophical texts can be difficult, the terms of the journal entry assignments are not difficult. You don’t need to conjure up answers out of thin air; all you need to do is read the assigned texts, analyze/understand them to the best of your ability, and write a good faith journal entry responding to the questions in the prompts. Good faith journal entries based on your own understanding of the texts are always more rewarding and often receive better grades than bad faith journal entries that poach summaries from random internet sources (most of which are terrible in the first place).
That said, one thing you should look up is new words and terms you do not know. Learning new vocabulary and concepts is not the same as learning new information. Concepts allow us to organize information, so when you learn term concepts, you expand your ability to organize information. This class is just as much about learning new concepts as it is about learning new information, and if you try to put this new information into your old concepts, you will miss the point on a lot of the topics recover. So please, if you do not know a word or a term, look for a definition in the text or look up a definition!
Citing Sources:
Every journal entry requires you to quote from the assigned texts. You do not need a References, Bibliography, or Works Cited portion for the journal entries unless you are citing materials from outside the class. When quoting from the assigned materials, you must provide an in-text citation for each quote. These citations can simply use MLA the “author-page” citation format. Here is an example:
As Wiredu argues, “Without communication there can be no human community” (52).
Or
“Without communication there can be no human community” (Wiredu 52).
Any ideas, content, textual passages, or anything else not properly cited is plagiarism and will be subject to a zero tolerance policy for academic misconduct. Please see the course syllabus for the academic misconduct policy.
Journal Entry Guidelines
During the semester, students will complete journal entries in which they engage in thoughtful reflection of the ideas presented in specific assigned texts and videos. Each journal entry will be written in response to a prompt, but as long as the content is there, the student is free to choose the form in which they reply. The prompts for the journal entries are posted on D2L in the lesson modules (like this one).
Journal entries will be submitted electronically to the assignment links on D2L by uploading a file into the assignment dropbox. It is recommended that you save a copy of your journal entries on your own computer, just in case there is a malfunction in D2L and the entry is lost. Journal entries must be a minimum of 500 words each, and each journal entry must quote at least once from each reading assigned for that journal entry. Journal entries must respond to all parts of each assignment prompt. Journals will be due by their specified due dates. Late journal entries will not be accepted.
Grading scale for journal entries: Each entry can earn an “Excellent” (19-20 pts), “Good” (16-18 pts), “Satisfactory” (12-15 pts), or “Unsatisfactory” (0 pts). Everyone who submits their entries on time, follows the directions, and meets the minimum word requirement will earn at least a “Satisfactory” for the assignment. Everyone who satisfies the assignment requirements but also writes an excellent and thoughtful journal entry will earn an “Excellent” for the assignment.