69583 - Gender Studies (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

This course introduces students to the theoretical and methodological foundations of the interdisciplinary field of Gender Studies. The course maps the genealogy and main contemporary debates in feminist, LGBT and queer studies, with particular attention to the study of queer sexual cultures.

Course contents

The course aims at analyzing some of the major topics within the transnational fields of gender and queer studies, from an intersectional perspective.

The first lectures will focus on the historical, social, and cultural construction of the sex/gender system in Modern Western culture, placing it within the processes of nation building, colonization and racialization.

The second part of the course will be devoted to the history of feminisms, with a special focus on black, postcolonial and decolonial feminisms. Then, LGBTQIA+ knowledges and politics will be discussed, along with queer theories and their pivotal role in reconfiguring the very categories of gender and sexualities.

An analysis of queer and feminist posthuman perspectives will conclude the course.

Readings/Bibliography

For the oral exam it is mandatory to study one of the books or the pair of books from the first list and one of the articles/book chapters from the second list:

First List - Books:

-Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, Routledge, 1990.

-Maya De Leo, Queer. Storia culturale della comunità LGBT+, Einaudi, 2021 [for students who can read Italian].

-Michel Foucault, The Will to Knowledge [1970], Penguin 2008/Feltrinelli, 2001.

-Saidiya Hartman, Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments, W.W. Norton & Company, 2019.

-Paul B. Preciado, Dysphoria Mundi, Fandango/Anagrama/Grasset, 2023.

-Laura Tripaldi, Gender Tech, Laterza 2023 + Paul B. Preciado, Sono un mostro che vi parla, Fandango, 2021 (in this case, both books must be studied in addition to the article/book chapter from the second list) [for students who can read Italian].

Second List - Articles/Book Chapters:

-Karen Barad, Nature's Queer Performativity, in «Qui Parle: Critical Humanities and Social Sciences», 19.2, 2011, pp. 121–158.

-Donna Haraway, A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century, in Simians, Cyborgs, and Women, Routledge, 1990.

-Maria Lugones, Gender and Universality in Colonial Methodology, in «Critical Philosophy of Race», vol. 8, nos. 1-2, 2020, pp.25-47. 

-Joan W. Scott, “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis”, in «American Historical Review», 91, 1986, pp. 1053–1075.

-Sandy Stone, The “Empire” Strikes Back: a Posttranssexual Manifesto, 1987, in Susan Stryker – Stephen Whittle (eds-), The Transgender Studies Reader, Routledge, 2006, pp, 221-235.

-Wittig, The Straight Mind [1978], in The Straight Mind and Other Essays, Beacon, 1992.

Teaching methods

Active participation in classroom discussions will be strongly encouraged.

Assessment methods

The exam is oral, the syllabus is described above.

Alternatively, you can write a paper, in English, to be discussed in the classroom or at the exam (in case you choose to write the paper, it is mandatory to let me know it in advance). 

 

Students with disabilities and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students with disabilities or Specific Learning Disorders have the right to special accommodations, following an assessment by the Service for Students with Disabilities and SLD.

Please do not contact the teacher but get in touch with the Service directly to schedule an appointment. It will be the responsibility of the Service to determine the appropriate adaptations. For more information, visit the page:

https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students

Teaching tools

Further information will be provided soon

Office hours

See the website of Maya De Leo