95734 - Body, Gender and Society (1) (Lm)

Learning outcomes

The course offers an introduction to the sociology of the body and gender. At the end of the course, the student will acquire the fundamental skills on the main theoretical frameworks and methodologies that allow us to consider the body and gender as key dimensions of social action. The student will also acquire the conceptual tools that help to critically analyze multiple contemporary phenomena in the light of the social process of gendered embodiment.

Course contents

The course examines the development of sociological reflection on the body, taking gender as a key analytical lens for understanding embodiment as a social process. Authors will be discussed who have shown how the body constitutes an object of sociological inquiry that is not only legitimate but also central and necessary. From this perspective, body and society are understood as co-constitutive processes: corporeality represents an essential dimension of human experience, yet it is not a natural or immutable given; likewise, society is not conceived as an external or purely artificial entity, but as a process continuously produced and reproduced through social practices. Within this theoretical framework, embodiment is analysed as a processual phenomenon, both cultural and power-laden.

The course also introduces the category of gender, analysed in its experiential and interactional dimensions, with particular attention to its intersections both vertically (age, birth, death) and horizontally (sexuality, ethnicity, disability, illness).

A further line of concern looks at modernity and embodiment and embodiment, addressing themes such as discipline and biopolitics, capitalist and gendered extractivism, and practices of self-constitution of gendered subjectivity. To this end, ethnographic practices on and with the body will be examined, with specific reference to the epistemological, ethical, and post-positivist issues of social research, as well as to the growing interdisciplinarity of approaches.

Finally, attending students will be required to present and discuss in class selected classic texts included in the syllabus, within dedicated seminar sessions.

Readings/Bibliography

Attending students are required to prepare the following volumes:

Connell, Raewyn (2011), Questioni di genere, Bologna, Il Mulino.
Ghigi, Rossella and Sassatelli, Roberta (2018), Corpo, genere e società, Il Mulino.

Plus one volume of choice from a wide selection of texts on body and gender proposed by the lecturer at the beginning of the course.

The syllabus is valid exclusively for the Academic Year 2026/2027.

 
Attending students must attend 75% of the classes and must take the exam by the Summer 2027 session.

Non-attending students are required to prepare:

 
Connell, Raewyn W. (2011), Questioni di genere, Bologna, Il Mulino.
Ghigi, Rossella and Sassatelli, Roberta (2018), Corpo, genere e società, Il Mulino.

Plus two volumes chosen from the following ethnographic works:

Grechi, Giulia (2016), La rappresentazione incorporata. Una etnografia del corpo tra stereotipi coloniali e arte contemporanea, Milano, Mimesis.
Sassatelli, Roberta (2000), Anatomia della palestra. Cultura commerciale e disciplina del corpo, Bologna, Il Mulino.
Wacquant, Loïc (2004), Corpo e anima. Note di un apprendista pugile, Milano, Raffaello Cortina.

The syllabus is valid exclusively for the Academic Year 2026/2027.

Teaching methods

The course will be organized through lectures with the help of Powerpoint. During each lesson topics for discussion will be proposed to students and active participation will be encouraged. The course also entails the organization of discussion seminars in which students will present selected material from the programme. Active participation in the seminars in a necessary condition for being considered attending students.

Assessment methods

Oral exam on the readings as indicated, for both attending and non attending students.

The exam is aimed at ascertaining the achievement of some fundamental educational objectives: knowledge of the exam texts and ability to contextualize; understanding of fundamental concepts and ability to articulate a critical interpretation; expository clarity and terminological precision; ability to establish links between the themes touched by the program. The exam will verify whether such knowledge and skills are possessed in a more or less complete, exhaustive, correct and reflective way or in a more or less incomplete, approximate, imprecise and mechanical way. The evaluation will vary from excellent (30 and L) to very good (30) to good (29-27) to fair (26-24) more than adequate (23-21) to sufficient (21-18) or insufficient.

Exams will normally be held in December, just after the end of course, January, March, May, June and September. Attending students are required to take the exams by June.

Teaching tools

Powerpoint slides

 

Students with learning disorders and\or temporary or permanent disabilities: please, contact the office responsible (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students ) as soon as possible so that they can propose acceptable adjustments. The request for adaptation must be submitted in advance (15 days before the exam date) to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of the adjustments, taking into account the teaching objectives.

Office hours

See the website of Roberta Sassatelli