Intro to Queer Studies

Term
Course Number
GSWS 003 601
Course Code
GSWS003601
Course Key
67060
Day(s)
Tuesday
Time
5:30pm-8:30pm
Instructor
ADLER, SHOSHANA
Secondary Program
Fulfills
Cultural Diversity in the U.S. (Class of 12 and after)
Course Description
This course will introduce students to the historical and intellectual forces that led to the emergence of queer theory as a distinct field, as well as to recent and ongoing debates about gender, sexuality, embodiment, race, privacy, global power, and social norms. We will begin by tracing queer theory's conceptual heritage and prehistory in psychoanalysis, deconstruction and poststructuralism, the history of sexuality, gay and lesbian studies, woman-of-color feminism, the feminist sex wars, and the AIDS crisis. We will then study the key terms and concepts of the foundational queer work of the 1990s and early 2000s. Finally, we will turn to the new questions and issues that queer theory has addressed in roughly the past decade. Students will write several short papers.