Sexual Cultures

4 credits · Undergraduate

This course considers how sexual identities, communities, desires, and practices are socially, historically, and culturally constructed. We will explore the tension between our sense of self and the larger social structures, cultures, and communities in which we are embedded. We will examine how people make sense of sexual feelings, behaviors, and identities within larger sociocultural contexts, looking at structural dynamics like gender norms, heteronormativity, racial hierarchies, class cultures, scientific knowledge, institutional constraints, and cultural spheres and how these impact individuals’ understanding of their own sexuality, including how collective groups challenge, expand, and transform the boundaries of sexuality.