Women's Action for Social Change



Women’s Studies 3214

Queer Studies

Fall 2014

Dr. Lori Chambers

Tuesday/Thursday 8:30-10am

RB 2016

343-8218

lchambe2@lakeheadu.ca

Course Description

This course provides an overview of queer theory and history and explores challenges still faced by queer communities and individuals. Students are not expected to have a developed knowledge of queer issues or theory prior to taking this course.

Required Texts

All required weekly readings are in the coursepack, available at the university bookstore, or are available for free through ejournals (indicated on the outline). Novels/memoirs for the book review are available in the bookstore or can be obtained from the library.

Evaluation

Seminar Participation: 10%

Seminar Presentation: 10%

Book Review: 30% Due:

Film Review: 30%

Portfolio/Journal: 20%

The seminar participation grade is based on attendance, willingness to speak in class and evidence of full preparation for discussions. For each class missed (without explanation in writing) one full mark will be deducted from the total of 10. Discussions require that everyone participates (speaks and listens) in a meaningful and civil way. While there will be lots of disagreements and debates, everyone is expected to participate in a way that is respectful of others in the class and of their ideas. Personal attacks, gender and racial slurs, disrespectful comments on ability or sexuality, or other such behavior will not be tolerated. Please keep in mind that this is a scholarly environment and professionalism is expected at all times. In this course we will deal with many sensitive issues and will encounter historical language no longer appropriate. Please be reminded that respect for the people we study and other students is essential to a productive discussion. Tutorial participation grades will reflect both attendance and willingness to contribute to class discussions. A full mark out of 20 will be subtracted for each absence from class for which the student does not provide explanation in writing.

All students must make formal presentations to the class. In the first two weeks of classes students will pick topics and be assigned times for such presentations. Presentations should be approximately 30 minutes in length, can involve audio-visual or other aids (although I must know in advance to ensure that equipment is available) and will consist of a precis and critique of one of the articles scheduled to be read by the class for the week; the student may also make connections between the article being reviewed and literature, film, music or other media. No written materials are to be submitted with the presentation. The purpose of this assignment is to help the student develop skills in critical analysis and in public speaking.

Students may choose one of the following books for the book review:

Alison Wearing, Confessions of a Fairy’s Daughter (Toronto: Afred A. Knopf, 2013); or

John Irving, In One Person (Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf, 2012).

Your review should be 5-7 pages in length with standard formatting – 1 inch margins, double spaced, in Times Roman 12 point font, with page numbers.

For more information on how to write an article or book review students are encouraged to read book reviews published in major history and criminology journals, including those on their chosen book. Journals can be found in the Library. These book reviews can be used in your review if they are properly referenced, e.g. are accompanied by a footnote or endnote. However, students must demonstrate their own analytical ability in the review, i.e. students are strongly discouraged from only relying on other reviews for their critique.

Content of the Review:

1. Identify the article/book – Give the author’s name, the title, and publication information right at the beginning.

2. Summarize the content – Briefly (in one short paragraph) outline the subjects of the sources, i.e. the topic/person of study, the time period covered, and the subjects examined. Do not give a detailed description of the article/book contents.

3. State the thesis and themes of the article/book – Summarize the central thesis or argument. Outline how the author proves the thesis and how they develop the major themes. Again, do not summarize the entire content of the source.

4. Evaluate/Critique – This is the most important component of the review and should form the majority of the paper. In this section, you must critically assess (“review”) the article/book. Remember, a critique is not necessarily negative. Every source has strengths and weaknesses and your purpose is to assess them.

Your critique should be based on issues such as:

• The argument – is the argument coherent? Convincing? What assumptions underlie the argument? How does the author approach the subject?

• The sources – what types of sources does the author use? What are the limitations of the sources? (Remember all sources have limitations.) Does the author address these limitations? What are the strengths of the sources?

• Content – does the writing, style, and organization detract from or benefit the article? What was the author’s objective? Is it met?

Conclusion – Conclude by summarizing your arguments. Your conclusion should not introduce new points, but re-state the points you have made in the body of the review.

The film review should follow the instructions above, but the subject of review will be the film, Milk.

The objective of the portfolio exercise is to produce a series of different short writings (5 in total). The writings should engage, discuss, explore or reflect upon ideas raised in class. Show the relevance of these ideas to the world around you in a scrap book, reflective journal, zine, web page or creative writing. The purpose of this assignment is to encourage students to continuously engage with course ideas, topics and texts and to explore their own responses to the readings with a variety of textual formats and styles. A complete assignment will contain 5 different pieces of writing, each a minimum of 250 words (1 typed, double spaced page) in length. Each piece of writing must explore a different topic/theory/idea from the course materials. This means that you must begin working on this assignment early in the term. If you like working with visual images, you may wish to produce a zine (a self-produced photocopied magazine). If you have technical skills, you may wish to create a website. If you prefer to focus on the written work, you may produce a reflective journal. You may incorporate any other materials (clippings from the newspaper or magazines, music, stories, creative writing, artwork) into the work that you wish. Such additions do not, however, replace the written work that is required in this assignment. You are encouraged to experiment and to have fun with this work. Any visual imagery must be accompagnied by an artist’s statement, explicitly connecting the image to the theme/idea you are exploring. You may critique theories, relate them to your own life, summarize arguments from the readings, or simply raise questions about the works we are exploring. There really are not any limits on the writing formats you may choose. It is important that you make reference to specific ideas from the course. This is not simply a personal journal, but a reflexive exercise which must take into consideration ideas outside the realm of the personal (although relating them to personal experience is encouraged). You will be evaluated on the overall quality of your content (comprehension and depth of engagement with the course materials) and expression (quality of writing, originality and diversity of textual formats).

Students are reminded that all papers will be marked for clarity of writing, grammar and organization as well as content. Rough drafts of all papers can be submitted for review but must be ready for such review one week before the due date of the paper. Students must submit rough drafts in hard copy, not via e-mail. For your own protection, keep a hard copy of all materials submitted for this course. Students are reminded that plagiarism will result in a zero for the assignment, and potentially a failure of the course. For a full definition of plagiarism, see the Student Code of conduct:

Students are also reminded that late papers (for all assignments) will be penalized 5% per day, including weekends, unless prior approval for an extension is obtained from the instructor. Do not submit papers by handing them in under my office door. Ensure that all assignments are either submitted directly to me, or are dated and stamped and a record of their submission retained by the departmental administrative assistant. Students must complete all course assignments in order to pass the course.

Weekly Schedule for Lectures and Readings

Week 1 - September 9 and 11

a) What is Queer Theory/Queer Studies Anyway?

In this class an overview of course objectives/guiding questions will be provided and the requirements for students will be explained. We will introduce ourselves to one another and begin the process of setting up the schedule for student presentations.

b) Origins of Queer Theory I – Foucault and Sedgwick

Readings:

• Riki Ann Wilchins, “Foucault and the Disciplinary Society”, in Queer Theory, Gender Theory: An Instant Primer (Los Angeles: Alyson Publications, 2004), 59-70.

• Eve Sedgwick, “Epistemology of the Closet”, in The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader, Henry Abelone, Michele Barale and David Halpern, eds., (London: Routledge, 1993), 45-61.

Week 2 – September 16 and 18

a) Origins of Queer Theory II – Judith Butler

Readings:

• Judith Butler, “From Parody to Politics”, in Gender Trouble:Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York: Routledge, 1990), 194-203.

• Riki Anne Wilchins, “Butler and the Problem of Identity”, in Queer Theory, Gender Theory, (Los Angeles: Alyson Publications, 2004), 123-139.

b) Origins of Queer Theory III – Leo Bersani

Readings:

• Leo Bersani, “Is the Rectum a Grave”, October Vol. 43 (1987), 197-222. Online.

• Simon Whatley, “The Spectacle of AIDS”, in The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader, Henry Abelone, Michele Barale and David Halpern, eds., (London: Routledge, 1993), 202-211.

Week 3 – September 23 and 25

a) Naming/Queering/Querying the Gendered Body

Readings:

• Ann Fausto-Sterling, “Dueling Dualisms”, in Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality (New York: Basic Books, 2000), 1-30.

• Roger Lancaster, “In the Beginning, Nature” and “The Normal Body”, in The Trouble with Nature: Sex in Science and Popular Culture (Berkley: University of California Press, 2003), 35-42.

• Linda Wayne, “Neutral Pronouns: A Modest Proposal Whose Time Has Come”, Canadian Woman Studies 24 (2/3) (Winter/Spring 2005), 85-91.

Note: Book Review is due.

b) Racing Sexuality and Sexualizing Race

Readings:

• Siobhan Somerville, “Scientific Racism and the Invention of the Homosexual Body”, Journal of the History of Sexuality 5 (2) (October 1994), 243-266. Online journal collection.

• Andrea Smith, “Queer Theory and Native Studies”, in Queer Indigenous Studies: Critical Interventions in Theory, Politics and Literature, eds. Qwo-Li Driskill, Chris Finley, Brian Joseph Gilley and Scott Lauria Morgensen (Phoenix: University of Arizona Press, 2011), 43-65.

Week 4 – September 30 and October 2

a) AIDS and Politicization

Readings:

• Deborah Gould, “Solidarity and its Fracturing”, in Moving Politics: Emotion and ACT UP’s Fight Against AIDS (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009), 328-395.

• Penelope Ironstone-Catterall, “Between Affective Histories and Public Rhetoric: AIDS, Activism and Problem of Address”, Canadian Online Journal of Queer Studies in Education 2 (11) (2006). Online.

b) Identity Politics I – Gay History

Readings:

• Jeffrey Weeks, “Inverts, Perverts and Mary-Annes: Male Prostitution and the Regulation of Homosexuality”, in Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, eds., Martin Duberman, Martha Vicinus and George Chauncey, eds., (New York: Penguin, 1990), 195-211.

• John D’Emilio, “Gay Politics and Community in San Francisco since WWII”, in Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, eds., Martin Duberman, Martha Vicinus and George Chauncey, eds., (New York: Penguin, 1990), 456-477.

Week 5 – October 7 and 9

a) Identity Politics II – Lesbian History

Readings:

• Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, “Discourses of Sexuality and Subjectivity”, in in Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, eds., Martin Duberman, Martha Vicinus and George Chauncey, eds., (New York: Penguin, 1990), 264-281.

• Adrienne Rich, Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence (Indiana: Onlywomen Press, 2010, reprint from 1980).

• Kathy Rudy, “Radical Feminism, Lesbian Separatism, and Queer Theory”, Feminist Studies 27 (1) (2001), 191-222. Online journal collection.

b) Identity Politics III – Bisexuality

Readings:

• Steven Angelis, “Introducing Bisexuality”, in A History of Bisexuality (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001), 1-22.

• Amber Ault, “Hegemonic Discourse in an Oppositional Community: Lesbian Feminists

and Bisexuality”, Critical Sociology 20 (3) (1994), 107-122. Online journal collection.

Week 6 – October 14 and 16

a) Intersexuality I – Lives and Theories

Readings:

• Cheryl Chase, “Hermaphrodites with Attitude: Mapping the Emergence of Intersex Political Activism” in Susan Stryker and Stephen Whittle, eds., The Transgender Studies Reader (New York: Routledge, 2006), 300-314.

• Nyong’o, Tavia, “The unforgivable transgression of being Caster Semenya”, Women and Performance: a journal of feminist theory 20 (1) (2010), 95-100. Online journal collection.

b) Intersexuality II - Law

• Hazel Beh and Milton Diamond, “Ethical Concerns Related to Treating Gender Nonconformity in Childhood and Adolescence: Lessons from the Family court of Australia”, Health Matrix 15 (2) (2005), 239-283. Online journal collection.

• Kate Haas, “Who Will Make Room for the Intersexed?” American Journal of Law an Medicine 30 (1) (2004), 41-68. Online journal collection.

Week 7 – October 21 and 23

a) Transgender I – Lives and Theories

Readings:

• Riki Ann Wilchins, “What Does it Cost to Tell the Truth?” in The Transgender Studies Reader, Susan Stryker and Steven Whittle, eds., (New York: Routledge, 2006), 547-551.

• Susan Stryker, “Transgender Studies: Queer Theory’s Evil Twin”, Gay and Lesbian Quarterly, 10 (2) 2004, 212-215. Online journal collection.

b) Transgender II - Law

Readings:

• Lori Chambers, “Unprincipled Exclusions: Transgender Jurisprudence, Feminist Theory and Kimberly Nixon”, Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 19 (2) (2007), 305-334. Online journal collection.

• Lara Karaian, “Pregnant Men: Repronormativity, Critical Trans Theory and the Re(conceive)ing of Sex, Gender and Pregnancy in Anti-Discrimination Law”, Social and Legal Studies 22 (2) (2013), 211-230. Online journal collection.

NOTE: Book review is due.

Week 8 – October 28 and 30

We will watch Milk together during the classes for this week.

Week 9 – November 4 and 6

a) Deconstructing ‘Normal’ I – Heterosexuality

Readings:

• Christine Overall, “Heterosexuality and Feminist Theory”, Canadian Journal of Philosophy 20 (1) (March 1990), 9-17. Online journal collection.

• Sandra Jeppeson, “Queering Heterosexuality”, The Anarchist Library 2012. Online.

b) Deconsructing ‘Normal’ II – Marriage

• Michael Warner, “Normal and Normaller”, Gay and Lesbian Quarterly 5 (2) (1999), 119-171. Online journal collection.

• Robert Leckey, “Must Equal Mean Identical? Same-sex couples and marriage”, International Journal of Law in Context 10 (1) (2014), 5-25. Online journal collection.

Week 10 – November 11 and 13

a) Deconstructing ‘Normal’ III – Youth Sexuality

Readings:

• Bruce MacDougall, “The Separation of Church and Date”, University of British Columbia Law Review 36 (2003), 10-27. Online journal collection.

• Stephen Cohen, “Liberationists, Clients, Activists: Queer Youth Organizing, 1966-2003”, Journal of Gay and Lesbian Issues in Education 2 (3) (2005), 67-86. Online journal collection.

NOTE: Film Review is due.

b) Deconstructing ‘Normal’ IV – Celebrating the ‘Solitary Vice’

Readings:

• Michael Bliss, “Pure Books on Avoided Subjects: Pre-Freudian Sexual Ideas in Canada”, Historical Papers (1970), 89-108. Online journal collection.

• Thomas Laqueur, “Solitary Sex in the Twentieth Century”, in Solitary Sex: A Cultural History of Masturbation (New York: Zone Books, 2003), 359-420.

Week 11 – November 18 and 20

a) On-going Exclusions I – Queer Disability

Readings:

• Ellen Samuels, “My Body, My Closet”, Gay and Lesbian Quarterly 9 (1-2) (2003), 233-255. Onine journal collection.

• Robert McRuer, “As Good as it Gets: Queer Theory and Critical Disability”, Gay and Lesbian Quarterly 9 (1-2) (2003), 79-105. Online journal collection.

b) On-going Exclusions II – The State and Border Crossings

Readings:

• M. Jacqui Alexander, “Imperial Desire/Sexual Utopies: White Gay Capital and Transnational Tourism”, in Pedagogies of Crossing: Meditations on Feminism (Durham: Duke University Press, 2005), 66-90.

• Susan Berger, “Production and Reproduction of Gender and Sexuality in Legal Discourses of Asylum in the United States”, Signs 34 (3) (spring 2009), 659-685. Online journal collections.

Week 12 – November 25 and 27

a) On-going Exclusions III – Queer Family Making

Readings:

• Fiona Kelly, “Producing Paternity”, Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 21 (2) (2009), 316. Online journal collection.

• Donna Bouchard, “The Three-Parent Decision: A Case Commentary on A.A. v. B.B.”, Saskatchewan Law Review 70 (2) (2007), 459-478. Online journal collection.

• Malcolm Dort, “Unheard Voices: Adoption Narratives of Same-Sex Male Couples”, Canadian Journal of Family Law 26 (2) (2010), 289-338. Online journal collection.

NOTE: Creative Journal is due.

b) Wrap-up.

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