About This Course

In this course, we will examine questions related to the intersection of gender and sexuality in the modern West, with a special focus on alternative (nonheteronormative) identities, practices, communities and desires. To do so, we proceed selfconsciously with a critical analysis of the modern study of sexuality, and the ways in which sexual science, as a kind of social practice, has affected the construction and regulation of gender and sexual orientation. We also consider how social structures such as capitalism and patriarchy, and social stratification—including race, class, and age—shape the sphere of sexuality, gender and intimate life. The goal of the course is to link modernity, as a particular epochal moment in history, to the development of gender and sexuality in Western societies over the past 150 years.