Summer Courses

Gender Studies Summer Courses 2023

 

Session A (June 26th – August 4th)

M111 Womxn & Film: Lesbian, Butch, Trans, & Queer Media Narratives  

Instructor: Candace Hansen – TR 10:45-12:50

Course Description:  Cinema and television helps us make sense of our place in the world. Often it is through this artform we are able to come to realizations about lives and identities, and even imagine realities beyond our own. Why is it then that mainstream narratives surrounding queer women and trans people are monolithic, tragic, and lack nuance? In this course we will explore the relationship between sexuality, gender, and cinema, interrogating issues surrounding agency, authorship, and the consequences of tropes for lesbians, bisexual women, butches, trans women, trans men, non-binary individuals, and gender non-conforming people. Focusing primarily on American cultural production, we will consider the ways that race, class, and other elements of identity intersect with and influence cinematic depictions of queerness. We will look at independent as well as mainstream cinema, tv shows, documentaries, art films, and other sources to attempt to track queer narratives through the lens of gender studies, and imagine what the future of representation and film making might hold.

 

Other Session A offerings include (Gender Studies Core Courses fulfill Diversity Requirement): 

  • Gender 10: Intro to Gender Studies (GE) – Instructor: Rosie Stockton
  • Gender 101W: Writing Gender – Instructor: Jessica Fremland
  • Gender 102: Power- Instructor: Lynette Dixon

 

Session C (August 7th-September 15th)

 

M107B Studies in Gender and Sexuality. (5) Literatures of Resistance: Queer Punk As Method (Same as English M107B and LGBT Studies M107B.)

Instructor: Candace Hansen – TR 10:45am-12:50pm

Course Description: From the recent rise in trans poetry to queer books making the New York Times Best Sellers list, queer literature is having a moment. This class will consider what it means for an artistic work to be queer? This class will be centered in contemporary work made by queer writers, rooting them in queer classics, theory, and history. In the true spirit of queer praxis, literature is understood not as traditional written word texts alone.  We will look at books, as well as zines from the local Los Angeles community, and excerpts from larger works such as novellas, short stories, and poetry collections. Music, visual art, skateboarding, performance, dance, and collective experiences will also contribute to body of knowledge that shapes queer epistemologies and identities in our class considerations.

 

 

M133C History of Prostitution

Instructor: Elizabeth Dayton – TR 1:00pm-3:05pm

Course Description: From a global historical perspective, this course will spotlight historical moments and figures within “the world’s oldest profession” to investigate how ideologies of race, class, gender, sexuality, empire, and globalization influence the dominant frameworks of prostitution policy. Beginning in antiquity and ending in the present day, we will trace changing attitudes towards prostitution from the vantage point of sex workers, moralists, medical authorities, and police officials. Course Topics will include: critical analysis of historical policies and attitudes towards prostitution (tolerance, regulation, criminalization, decriminalization); prostitution and the construction of empire(s) and borders (“white slavery” panic, trafficking policies, militarized prostitution & red-light districts); impact of pandemics/disease outbreaks on the sex industry (including syphilis, AIDS, COVID-19); and contemporary sex workers’ rights movements. The diverse contexts in which we will study prostitution may include but are not limited to: ancient Greece, medieval Europe, seventeenth-century Japan, London in period of Jack the Ripper, colonial India, and twentieth-century United States.