Law & Sexuality
This course focuses on the legal regulation of sexuality, and the social and historical norms and frameworks that affect its intersection with sex, gender, race, disability, and class. We will critically examine how the law shapes sexuality and how sexuality shapes the law. Our subject matter is mostly constitutional, covering sexuality’s intersection with privacy, freedom of expression, gender identity and expression, equal protection, reproduction, kinship, and family formation, among other subjects. We will study case law, legal articles, and other texts (including visual works) that critically engage issues of sexuality, citizenship, nationhood, religion, and the public and private spheres domestically and internationally.
Topics
- Upon completion of this course, students will be able to critically analyze and reflect upon the law’s regulation of sexuality and its intersection with other identity-based categories, such as race, ethnicity, class, nationality, religion, geography, disability, and age, among others. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to develop legal reasoning skills through analysis of case law, law review articles, and related texts. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to practice legal writing, research, and oral presentation skills through engagement with the Socratic teaching method. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to articulate scholarly and activist theories regarding the regulation of law and sexuality, and recognize how scholarship, social norms, public culture, private intimacies, and legal decisions affect the social world that we live in. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to identify and respond to key points and arguments in scholarly articles, integrating current news events regarding law, gender and sexuality.
Official catalogue course objectives and student learning outcomes
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026-2027