This course provides an intensive survey of feminist political theory in the United States since the 1970s.  We will focus our attention on questions of politics: What is the political project of feminism?  How do different feminist thinkers conceive of “the political” as an object of theoretical inquiry and practical engagement?  What does feminism contribute to the theory and practice of politics?  What issues does feminism treat as political issues and what are the implications for how we think about these issues?  What is the relationship between feminism and other political movements?  What kind of world do feminists want to build? Our course will proceed in two parts.  In part one, the first half of the semester, we will examine some of the major theoretical paradigms that emerged from feminism’s “second wave”: liberal feminism; socialist feminism; radical feminism, standpoint epistemology; phenomenology; psychoanalysis; intersectional feminism; critical race feminism; postcolonial and decolonial feminism; queer theory; and, trans feminism.   This will provide us with the theoretical foundations for part two, when we will focus on particular topics and themes, from a variety of feminist perspectives.  These topics include abortion and reproductive justice; work and the family; rape and sexual violence; pornography and prostitution; law and the state; and abolitionism.