Course Descriptions
LGBT200 Introduction to
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies.
An interdisciplinary study of the historical and social contexts
of personal, cultural and political aspects of LGBT life. Sources
from a variety of fields, such as anthropology, history, psychology,
sociology, and women's studies, focusing on writings by and about
LGBT people. Required Core.
LGBT265 Introduction to
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Literature
A study of the pervasiveness of homoeroticism in literature from
the Renaissance to the present. Emphasis on recurrent themes and motifs
and the struggle to find voice within a context of stigma, suppression,
and silence. Writers might include Shakespeare, Walt Whitman, Emily
Dickinson, Oscar Wilde, Willa Cather, James Baldwin, Andre Lorde,
Adrienne Rich. Lower Division Literature.
LGBT350 Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual, and Transgender People and Communication
Study of differences, stereotypes, and values distinguishing LGBT
people and of effective means of communicating such differences to
non-LGBT people. Emphasis on contemporary LGBT life and on the development
of didactic skills. Preparation and presentation of forums on LGBT
people; facilitation of workshops in various outreach locations (residence
halls, Greek system, classes). Upper Division Personal, Social, Political,
or Historical
LGBT 359B: Special Topics in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and
Transgender Literatures: Queer Poetics, or Gay is Very American
An intensive study of lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender/queer inscriptions
in American poetry, this course will examine the queerness of nineteenth-century
poets Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson and will then turn to the poetic
productions and cultural reproductions of poets such as Elizabeth
Bishop, H.D., Gertrude Stein, Judy Grahn, Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde,
and Minnie Bruce Pratt, as well as Hart Crane, Allen Ginsberg, Langston
Hughes, James Baldwin, Essex Hemphill, Frank O’Hara, and Paul
Monette. While we will probe ways in which LGBT or queer expressions
are inflected by issues of race, gender, class, and high/low culture,
we will especially scrutinize ways in which the performances and receptions
of poets identified (by themselves or others) as LGBT or queer may
perpetuate, challenge, and modify cultural mythologies about sexualities
and their relevance to literary endeavors. Written assignments will
be a short paper and a longer, more ambitious essay (10-15 pp.) exploring
in depth some aspect raised by our course of study, as well as a reading
journal (maintaining this journal will count as one of your exams).
Collaborative writing endeavors are welcomed. Our meetings will often
depend upon group work for leading discussions in the individual sessions,
and each class member will participate in a group presentation.
LGBT359C
Special Topics in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Literatures:
Queer Films and Videos
This course charts the development of Queer Cinema from the late
1940s to the present day. Analyzing the work of directors including
Kenneth Anger, Sadie Benning, John Waters, Todd Haynes, Cheryl Dunye,
Rose Troche, Gregg Araki, John Cameron Mitchell, Marlon Riggs, Jennie
Livingston, Isaac Julien, John Greyson, and Pedro Almodóvar,
among others, this course will examine prevalent themes, conventions,
aesthetics, narrative techniques, and cultural contribution of Queer
filmmakers telling Queer stories through film and video. Some of the
topics we will grapple with include positioning Race within Queer
Cinema, multi-lingual and multi-national Queer Cinemas, Sex in Queer
Film, and filming Queer bodies. Course Requirements: viewing films
outside of class, short response papers, a larger final paper, occasional
quizzes, active class participation, and a final exam.
LGBT386 Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual, and Transgender Community Organization Internship
Supervised internship experience with a community organization that
expressly serves lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. Students
will be expected to relate course material to experience in an analysis
of an organization's activities. Capstone Course
LGBT448C Special Topics
in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies: Sex and the City
This class will adopt an interdisciplinary approach to the study
of gender, race, sexuality, and geography. The class will include
an expansive understanding of marginalized sexualities to include
those outside of dominant racialized concepts of heterosexuality.
Possible units include Progressive-era city reforms, sub-cultural
studies of the Chicago School, the history of pre-Stonewall sexual
minority communities, “slumming” and sex tourism, the
Moynihan Report and “culture of poverty” debates, race-,
gender-, and sexuality-based social movements, theories of the public
versus private sphere, accessibility and the built environment, theories
of race, gender, and sexual migration, public sex, gentrification,
street safety and the politics of violence, new transnational human
rights and development models, and the language of space in counter-publics
and cultural production. (This course will fulfill the requirement
for upper-division course focused on the personal, social, political,
and historical aspects of LGBT people) . Upper Division Personal,
Social, Political, or Historical
LGBT448E Special Topics
in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies: Asian American
Sexualities
Grounded in interdisciplinary approaches, this course investigates
Asian American Sexualities from multiple conceptual and methodological
angles. Paying close attention to historical, cultural, political,
and social constructions of sexual knowledge and identities, the central
purpose of this course is to broadly examine the multiple meanings
of sexuality to Asian Americans, a diverse group defined by limitless
differences. Approved Elective.
LGBT448F Special Topics
in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies: LGBT Families
Upper Division Personal, Social, Political, or Historical
LGBT448L Special Topics
in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies: Law and Identities
Approved Elective
LGBT 459A: Special Topics in Sexuality and Literature: Trans
Literature
For the purposes of this course, the term “trans literature”
will describe literary and cinematic representations of a broad range
of gender variance and ambiguity, from gender queerness and transitivity
to hormonally and surgically defined transsexualism. Our study of
novels, memoirs, autobiographies, and film will be supplemented by
theoretical interventions by Judith Halberstam, Jay Prosser, Sandy
Stone, Susan Stryker, and others who have recently brought trans issues
to the forefront of LGBT and queer studies. Throughout, we will be
interested in questions of embodiment; the role of medical and legal
authorities in the construction of trans identities and of trans subjects
challenging those constructions; issues of safety, risk, visibility,
and passing; debates about whether the “proper” ending
of trans stories is a sense of being “at home” in a male
or female body or of being “in-between” genders. We will
also give careful consideration to the ethics of producing and consuming
trans stories. Work for the course will include response papers, a
group oral presentation, a 12-15 page essay, and a final exam.
LGBT499 Independent Study
Individual Instruction course: contact department or instructor to
obtain section number.
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