GENDER/SEXUALITY/POPULAR CLTR

In this course we will consider the manner in which norms of gender and sexuality are reflected, reinforced, and challenged in popular culture. We use theories of knowledge production, representation, and meaning-making to support our analysis of the relationship between discourse and power; our engagement with these theoretical texts helps us track this dynamic as it emerges in popular culture. Key queer theoretical concepts provide a framework for examining how the production gender and sexuality impacts cultural production.

SEM: DOCUMENTING QUEER LIVES

This course examines visual and literary documentations of queer life by reading memoirs and screening short and feature length documentary films. We consider the power and value of this archive while we examine the politics of visibility as it is impacted by race, class, and gender. We attend to the expansiveness of what we mean by “queer” and “the archive” as we engage with theories of knowledge production, performativity, gender, and sexuality.

REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE

This course is an interdisciplinary exploration of reproductive health, rights and justice in the United States, examining history, activism, law, policy, and public discourses related to reproduction. A central framework for analysis is how gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, disability and nationality intersect to shape people’s experiences of reproductive oppression and their resistance strategies. Topics include eugenics and the birth control movement; the reproductive rights and justice movements; U.S.

COLQ: ORAL HIST & LESBIAN SUBJ

This course explores lesbian, queer and bisexual communities, cultures and activism as preparation for oral history work. While becoming familiar with the existing narratives about lesbian/queer lives, students are introduced to the method of oral history as a key documentation strategy in the production of marginalized histories. Our texts include secondary literature on 20th-century queer cultures and communities, oral history theory and methodology, and primary sources from the Sophia Smith Collection (SSC).
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