Introduction to Gender and Sexuality Studies 4219-SH085
Why talk about “masculinities”? What is the asterisk doing next to “trans”? Who doesn't want same-sex marriage, and why? Why saving the women from the global South may be suspect? What is wrong with “identity”? The course Introduction to Gender/Sexuality Studies does not promise to answer these questions once and for all, but we will definitely engage in most current debates around these and similar issues. We’ll be reading excerpts from both classic and popular critical texts that have shaped our thinking while simultaneously discussing most contemporary cultural issues around gender and sexuality. The course will also be an opportunity to apply theories and methods developed in the fields of gender and sexuality studies to texts of popular culture. Through the analysis of selected episodes of TV series (e.g. Girls, Transparent), graphic novels (e.g. A. Bechdel Fun Home), movies, and memoirs we will examine diverse issues ranging from reproduction rights to homonormativity.
Topics:
- basic terminology
- feminism now and then
- AIDS crisis, LGBTQ
- the body and body norms
- reproduction
- family models, same-sex marriages
- sex wars, pornography
- sexual violence
- Black women and intersectionality
- race and class
- transnationality - Latinx
- transnationality and the Global South
- masculinities
- trans* issues
Type of course
Mode
Course coordinators
Term 2023L: | Term 2024L: |
Learning outcomes
KNOWLEDGE
Upon completing this course a student:
- has knowledge of basic theories and concepts from Gender/Sexuality Studies
- has knowledge about the development of Gender/Sexuality Studies
- has knowledge about the development of the emancipatory movements in the USA and the related controversies
SKILLS
Upon completing this course a student:
- is able to anlayze texts of popular culture using above mentioned theories and concepts
- is able to compare and contrast various strands of the feminist and LGBTQ movements
- notices problems related to various emancipatory movements in the USA and conflicts between them
COMPETENCES
Upon completing this course a student:
- can discuss cultural and social phenomena that are currently at the center of public debate
- can work in groups
- can plan and write a short critical essay about topics covered in the course
Assessment criteria
- attendance and class participation – 20%
- 3 short written responses to assigned readings – 15%
- a short essay (3-4 pages) written mid-semester - 30%
- final test- 35%
Bibliography
Fragments from:
Abelove, Henry. 2012. The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.
Anzaldúa, Gloria. 1987. Borderlands/La frontera. San Francisco: Spinsters/Aunt Lute.
Hall, Donald E., and Annamarie Jagose, with Andrea Bebell and Susan Potter. 2013. The Routledge Queer Studies Reader. Routledge.
Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. 2008. Epistemology of the Closet. University of California Press.
Seidman, Steven. 2010. The Social Construction of Sexuality. W.W. Norton.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: