Laying the Groundwork: Practical Approaches to Teaching Feminism in Introductory Premodern Courses in an NYC Community College

Teaching medieval feminism at an open-enrollment community college to students who are often “English language learners” and lack traditional academic skills presents both unique challenges and opportunities. Students arrive with an aptitude for grasping structural oppression and intersectionality, but will struggle, and resort to AI, if immediately confronted with jargon-filled or daunting texts. Often students are hindered by their own expectations of what they think their instructors want. They arrive with assumptions of the “medieval” and the “foundations of the modern,” particularly when it comes to gender and race. I will discuss how I address these issues, from emphasizing the material realities of the gendered medieval experiences via the use of carefully annotated texts, to the slow integration of more theoretical ideas. But, in the end, and more so than in most modern history classes, students leave with a more nuanced, feminist understanding of historical experiences and their diversity.