SOCIOL 735

Current Debates in Gender and Sexuality


Please note: this is archived course information from 2017 for SOCIOL 735.

Description

This course traces contemporary sociological debates in the analysis of gender and sexuality, independently and in relation to each other. While we emphasise the “current” of the course title, we ground this contemporary conversation in the sociological literature and debates in foundational and influential sociological and critical theory texts from, for example, Foucault, Butler, and West and Zimmerman, among others. Throughout the term, we explore questions of gender/sexual fluidity and rigidity through the lenses of feminist, queer and intersectionality theories. Key themes include identity, performance, agency, power and embodiment.

While we have a set reading list, the conversations about both critical theories and material practices enacted on (or through) sexed bodies will be directly informed by the interests and projects students bring to the course. Students will choose a research project early in the term, and most assessments will facilitate steady progress and feedback on these projects.

This course will appeal to students who are keen to interrogate how gender and sexuality are co-constructed and contested in the practices of everyday life.

Student Learning Objectives

On completion of this course, students will be able to

  • Explain the key sociological literatures and debates surrounding the status of gender and sexuality as both identities and practices, as well as the relationships between gender and sexuality
  • Analyse strengths and weaknesses in the main theories of gender and sexuality, singly and in relation to each other
  • Apply these theories in a specific area of sociological inquiry that they have chosen to research
  • Conduct post-graduate level, independent research on a topic of their own choosing
  • Present their research orally and in writing

View the course syllabus

Availability 2017

Semester 2

Lecturer(s)

Coordinator(s) Dr Carisa Showden

Reading/Texts

Examples of Readings from the Course Outline

  • Judith Butler: Undoing Gender
  • Hae Yeon Choo & Myra Marx Ferree: “Practicing Intersectionality in Sociological Research”
  • Barbara Risman: “Gender as a Social Structure”
  • Raewyn Connell & James W. Messerschmidt: “Hegemonic Masculinity”
  • Sam DeBoise: “I’m Not Homophobic, I’ve Got Gay Friends!”
  • Raewyn Connell: “Transsexual Women and Feminist Thought”
  • Adam I. Green: “The Sexual Fields Framework”
  • Chaitanya Lakkimsetti: “HIV is Our Friend: Prostitution, Biopower, and the State in Postcolonial India”

Points

SOCIOL 735: 30 points

Restrictions

315.723