Queer Politics: Queer Communities

What is sexuality? Does it exist in the body or in the mind? Is it a collection of actions, desires, and fantasies, or is it rather a disposition, a way of seeing oneself, an identity? This course will address such questions by introducing students to several classic texts in the history and theory of sexuality and by looking at key moments in the struggle for sexual and gender freedom. The history we trace will focus on the effects of the “invention of homosexuality” in the late-nineteenth century; the cultural moment of Stonewall and gay liberation; the “Sex Wars” of the 1980s; women of color feminism and queer of color critiques; responses to HIV/AIDS; and transgender politics. We will pay special attention to how this history played out in London and England more broadly.