As a collective meditation on Women and Gender Studies, Rethinking is more than an interrogation of the reigning assumptions of the field; it is a keen example of the critical art of intellectual risk. By confronting the limits of the field's foundational investments, this book-ambitious in scope, exacting in critical detail, and passionate in political commitment-insists that what is most vital about the field comes from the imperative to think again.-Robyn Wiegman, Women's Studies and Literature, Duke University
The book's focus on key words in women's and gender studies admirably maps past debates, interrogates unexamined assumptions, and pushes the boundaries of the field into new areas such as religion. An absorbing read for WGS faculty and excellent for intermediate/advanced courses in WGS.-Susan Stanford Friedman, Women's Studies and Literature, University of Wisconsin-Madison
By providing a series of provocative and thoughtful insights into foundational assumptions, intellectual dilemmas, and analytical challenges, Rethinking makes a valuable contribution to dialogues and debates emerging in the academic field of WGS. It offers a thought-provoking discussion of the discipline and will engage both scholars and advanced undergraduate and graduate students.-Sikata Banerjee, Women's Studies, University of Victoria
This thoughtful new book takes up and interrogates anew a range of terms that have been central to Women's and Gender Studies, which the authors argue have sometimes been adopted without adequate reflection on their meaning. Contributing authors offer focused meditations on particular concepts-from foundational assumptions like feminism to more recently contested concepts like transnational-with the editors including provocative questions throughout the volume to open up conversation about the possibilities these terms evoke or foreclose. The result is a critical addition to the bookshelf of anyone seriously considering the current state and future course of Women's and Gender Studies....Blending history, reflection, and analysis, the volume invites and even impels readers to engage with the vocabulary of Women's and Gender Studies in new and refreshing ways-an activity sure to be of great value to new students and seasoned practitioners alike. - On Campus with Women
In Rethinking Women's and Gender Studies, Orr, Braithwaite, and Lichtenstein have overseen the publication of a stylish, informative volume, characterized by a wonderfully simple structure. [...] The result is a fresh and lively work that never feels overly didactic or prescriptive. So much thought has gone into making this an accessible and readable text that even the table of contents is a delight. - Emma L. E. Rees, University of Chester, UK, in Women's Studies Quarterly
The anthology [...] offers an up-to-date examination of the central concepts of self-/attribution in Women's and Gender Studies (WGS) in the context of the current restructuring of universities - such as, methods, pedagogy, community, discipline, and institutionalization. - Jennifer Buhner, querelles-net
Rethinking Women's and Gender Studies takes the reader beyond an introduction to the major issues--and even beyond the dirty laundry--in the field. [...] [T]he collection serves as a way to navigate through the eclectiv web of scholarship, activism(s), tensions, and debates that collectively we know as women's and gender studies. [...] [T]his kind of tension is necessary for a thought-provoking conversation. I highly recommend Rethinking Women and Gender Studies as a companion to theoretical texts and as a guide that will continue to shape the future of the field. -Glenda Jones, University of Wisconsin-- Stout, Feminist Collections, 2014
