Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Courses

Queer theory is an area of critical theory that emerged from LGBTQ+ activism and the field of queer and gender studies in the late 20th century and that has led a rich and complicated intellectual life since then. Scholars and activists who engage with queer theory are concerned with how gender and sexuality are socially constructed and regulated, as well as how gender- and sexuality-based norms can be subverted and resisted, across a variety of contexts---from literature to film, pop culture to law, education, and countless other settings. Across contexts, queer theorists critique heteronormativity (the idea of heterosexual identity as the “norm”) and cisnormativity (this idea of cisgender identity as the “norm”) as forms of oppression, and they study how these intersect with race, class, disability, and other axes of identity and power.

In this course, you will gain an overview of queer theory from the 1980s to the present, with a particular focus on the role of queer imagination in social change. In the spirit of queer theory’s promise and struggle as an academic field concerned with the everyday lives of LGBTQ+ people as well as the challenges of theorizing queerness in society, we will ask how queer theory can help us understand problems we face today, such as escalating anti-trans and anti-queer political strategies; the promise and difficulty of coalition-building among movements focused on queer and trans liberation, racial justice, and other sites of resistance; and the complex relationship between academic study and activist work. Students interested in the fields of queer and gender studies and/or in LGBTQ+ activism may find this course particularly useful.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning Plus (LGBTQ+) Youth in Education is a course that introduces students to the experiences and issues of American LGBTQ+ youth in public K-12 school settings. In today’s political climate, it is difficult to know how to support LGBTQ+ students—a vulnerable population. But as a teacher or parent or a youth worker, it is imperative to understand research and theory that can literally save lives. This course will give you the intellectual tools to save those lives by drawing on educational, sociological, public health, and feminist theory and research. We will use firsthand accounts of K-12 students to develop a deep understanding of their lived experiences. We will also read research and theory to help us understand the context of those experiences, such as the politicized history of public education; the influences of the current political administration; and the public health discussions of power, privilege, and oppression and their effects on one's education and health. Our time in the classroom will be spent in structured discussions of readings and videos in an intentional atmosphere of respectful sharing of ideas. Regardless of your own personal beliefs about sexual and gender identity, you will leave this course with knowledge and tools to help you advocate for the improved health and education of LGBTQ+ youth.

Reproductive Justice has three primary dimensions:

1. The right not to have a child

2. The right to have a child

3. The right to parent children in safe and healthy environments

We will focus on each principle for a unit, paying special attention to the intersection of race, class, gender, and sexuality on reproductive choices and constraints. Diverse sexual and gender identities, including LGBTQ+ experiences, will be integrated throughout. Topics include sex education, compulsory heterosexuality, sex & the law, abortion, maternal mortality, assisted reproductive technology, queer reproduction, birth, parenting choices, breastfeeding/chestfeeding, and more.

This course explores the multidimensional impact of trauma at the intersection of racial and gender inequality. Students will examine personal, intergenerational, and historical trauma, focusing on issues such as, but not limited to, gender-based violence, colonization, slavery, and systemic oppression. The course places a strong emphasis on healing through both community-based practices and social justice lenses. Using diverse materials and approaches, including creative writing, literature, music, and visual media, students will explore strategies for fostering transformative justice.

Using Sins Invalid’s Ten Principles of Disability Justice as a framework and lens, this course examines parallel and intersecting strands of Queer, Trans, Mad, and Disability Studies (“both the theory and the nitty gritty,” as Leah Lakshmi Piepszna-Samarasinha puts it) through key writings and media productions of the last quarter century. Such works span genres from what is traditionally considered theoretical or philosophical to personal, with an emphasis on how autotheoretical work makes intersectional critical theorizing both possible and practical. Addressing such conundrums as futurity, cure, and necropolitics alongside and through cripistemologies and collective joy, students in this seminar will be encouraged to ponder, dream, collaborate, and intervene in making interdependence and collective liberation more possible.

Using Sins Invalid’s Ten Principles of Disability Justice as a framework and lens, this course examines parallel and intersecting strands of Queer, Trans, Mad, and Disability Studies (“both the theory and the nitty gritty,” as Leah Lakshmi Piepszna-Samarasinha puts it) through key writings and media productions of the last quarter century. Such works span genres from what is traditionally considered theoretical or philosophical to personal, with an emphasis on how autotheoretical work makes intersectional critical theorizing both possible and practical. Addressing such conundrums as futurity, cure, and necropolitics alongside and through cripistemologies and collective joy, students in this seminar will be encouraged to ponder, dream, collaborate, and intervene in making interdependence and collective liberation more possible.