HUMANITIES GRADUATE SEMINAR:

SEX and GENDER

 

Dr Glen Elder

201 Old Mill Building

Glen.Elder@uvm.edu

Office Hours: MW 1-2:30, or by appointment

 

Class Meeting Time: 3:30 – 6:00 Monday

Location: 211 Old Mill Building

OVERVIEW

The course provides a transdisciplinary[1] introduction to critical social theories of gender and sexuality.  Readings will traverse political theory, feminism, queer theory, biology, and geography.  Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Anne Fausto-Sterling and Judith Halberstam are core authors whose work we will examine in depth.  We will also pay close attention to the art and science of writing with, about, and through social theory.

Prescribed text

• Fausto-Sterling, A., 2001:  Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality.  Basic Books. 
• Foucault, M., 1990:  The History of Sexuality: An Introduction.  Vintage Books.
• Halberstam, J., 2005:  In a Queer Time and Place: Trangender Bodies, Subcultural Lives. NYU Press.
• Nealon, J and Searls Giroux, 2003: The Theory Tool Box: Critical Concepts for the Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences.  Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.
• Salih, S. (ed.) 2004:  The Judith Butler Reader.  Blackwell Publishing.

 

Expectations

• All course materials are available online through WebCT on the UVM server (https://www.uvm.edu/~webct/).  You can log in using your UVM user name and password.
• All readings should be completed in preparation for class.  Reading material not contained in the prescribed books will be either handed out in class or made available through the UVM library website.
• There is a class discussion group designed to facilitate your reading and comprehension of course material.  You are expected to participate fully in the online and class discussions.  If you are unable to make our weekly class meeting, please notify me before the class meets so that I can make alternative arrangements for you to recover the lost class time.

 

• In class meetings:

Come to class fully prepared to engage with the readings.  There is a large volume of intriguing material to cover here.  We will also supplement our discussion of the material with class visitors, videos, and viewings of other visual art forms.

 

You will also each have an opportunity to lead discussion twice and in 2 distinct kinds of ways.

Group A

Two of you will be prepare an overview of the weeks reading and moderate the online discussion.  Your class presentation should include the following:

1.      A presentation that describes the central theme of the readings.

2.      A description of how the readings fit into the author’s overall body of work.  You will need to complete some independent background work of your own.

3.      A demonstration of the author’s thinking and argument.  This can include an analysis of a contemporary news story, the incorporation of fiction or some other art form to make your point.

4.      Your presentation should last no longer than 30 minutes.

Group B

A second group of two will focus on the structure of a selected piece of writing and the method by which theory is applied.

1.      Your task is to choose ONE of the designated pieces written by one of the four authors under consideration and be prepared to present to the class and analysis of the construction of the argument.

2.      Your presentation should include a flow diagram of the argument, as well as an analysis of the language and rhetoric employed by the writer. 

3.      Finally, you should make an assessment of the effectiveness of the writing.

4.      Your presentation should last no longer than 15 minutes.

• Online discussions

On the class website you will find a link for class discussions organized by class dates.  In addition to attending class, course effort also involves actively engaging with the readings in this forum.  Here you will find an opportunity for us to us to work through some of the basic concepts and ideas, and perhaps even preempt the direction of our discussion when we meet the following week. 

Group A will act as moderators of discussion for the coming week.  Moderating discussion involves the following:

• Ensuring that the conversation remains alive and directed.
• Intervening to diffuse conflict, should it arise.  Other class members should not necessarily “create” conflict so that the members of Group A have to intervene as “peace keepers”, however.
• Pose intriguing questions, articles, or points of view that may provoke discussion.  The following websites are potential sources The Genders OnLine Journal (www.genders.org) and the Gender Education and Awareness site (www.gender.org).
• Post announcements about events (on campus or in Burlington) pertinent to the course. 

 

• Work in Progress

It is also your responsibility to forge a linkage between the course materials and your own intellectual progress in your various graduate programs across campus.  Through the class website you can share “work in progress” with members of the class.  In the final class we will jury these papers as a group and then award a class prize to the best paper.  In order to facilitate the exchange of these papers, you will all build and maintain your own class website.

Reading Schedule

 

Monday, August 29^th

1. A basic introduction to the class.
2. Organization of Group A and Group B.

 

Monday, September 12^th

• Nealon, J and Searls Giroux, 2003: The Theory Tool Box: Critical Concepts for the Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences.  Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.
• Elder, G. Knopp, L. and Nast, H., 2003: Sexuality and Space.  In Geography in America at the Dawn of the 21^st Century.  Oxford University Press.
• Elder, 2003: Hostels, Sexuality and the Apartheid Legacy.  Ohio University Press. Chapter 1.
• Bristow, J., 1997:  Sexuality.  Routledge.  Introduction.

 

Monday, September 19^th

• Bristow, J., 1997:  Sexuality.  Routledge. Section 4: Discursive Desires.
• Foucault, M., 1990:  The History of Sexuality: An Introduction.  Vintage Books. Part 1.

 

Monday, September 26^th

• Foucault, M., 1990:  The History of Sexuality: An Introduction.  Vintage Books. Part 2 & 3.

 

Monday, October 3^rd

• Foucault, M., 1990:  The History of Sexuality: An Introduction.  Vintage Books. Parts 4 & 5.

 

Monday, October 10^th

• Salih, S. (ed.) 2004:  The Judith Butler Reader.  Blackwell Publishing.
• Introduction.
• Chapter 3:  Bodily Inscriptions, Performative Subversions (1990).
• Chapter 4: Imitation and Gender Insubordination (1990).

 

Monday, October 17^th

• Salih, S. (ed.) 2004:  The Judith Butler Reader.  Blackwell Publishing.
• Chapter 6: The Force of Fantasy: Mapplethorpe, Feminism, and Discursive Excess (1990)
• Chapter 7:  Endangered/ Endagering: Schematic Racim and White Paranoia
• Butler, J., Precarious Life.  Verso Books
• Chapter 2: Violence, Mourning and Politics.
• Chapter 3: Indefinite Detention
• Chapter 4: The Charge of Anti-Semitism: Jews, Israel and the risks of Public Critique.

 

Monday, October 24^th

• Salih, S. (ed.) 2004:  The Judith Butler Reader.  Blackwell Publishing.
• Chapter 10: Competing Universalities (2000).
• Chapter 11: Promiscuous Obedience (2000).
• Chapter 12: What is Critique? An Essay on Foucault’s Virtue (2001).
• Chapter 13: Changing the Subject: Judith Butler’s Politics of Radical Resignification (2000).

 

Monday, October 31^st

• Fausto-Sterling, A., 2001:  Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality.  Basic Books. 
• Chapter 1: Dueling Dualisms
• Chapter 2: “That Sexe Which Prevaileth”
• Chapter 3: Of Gender and Genitals: The Use and Abuse of the Modern Intersexual.

 

Monday, November 7^th

• Fausto-Sterling, A., 2001:  Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality.  Basic Books. 
• Chapter 4: Should There Be Only Two Sexes?
• Chapter 5: Sexing the Brain: How Biologists Make a Difference.
• Chapter 6: Sex Glands, Hormones, and Chemistry.

 

Monday, November 14^th

• Fausto-Sterling, A., 2001:  Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality.  Basic Books.
• Chapter 7: Do Sex Hormones Really Exist?
• Chapter 8: The Rodent’s Tale.
• Chapter 9: Gender Systems: Toward a Theory of Human Sexuality. 

 

Monday, November 21

• Halberstam, J., In a Queer Time and Place: Trangender Bodies, Subcultural Lives. NYU Press. 
• Chapter 1: Queer Temporality and Postmodern Geographies
• Chapter 2: The Brandon Archive
• Chapter 3: Unlosing Brandon: Brandon Teena, Billy Tipton, and Transgender Biography.
• Butler, J., Undoing Gender.  Routeldge. 
• Chapter 3:  Doing Justice to Someone: Sex Reassignment and Allegories of Transsexuality.

 

Monday, November 28^th

• Halberstam, J., In a Queer Time and Place: Trangender Bodies, Subcultural Lives. NYU Press.
• Chapter 4: The Transgender Look.
• Chapter 5: Technotopias: Representing Transgender Bodies in Contemporary Art.
• Chapter 6: Oh Behave! Austin Powers and the Drag Kings.
• Chapter 7: What’s That Smell? Queer Temporalities and Subcultural Lives.

 

Monday, December 5^th

• Jurying and awarding of $100 class prize to the “Best Out of Class Paper”.