Trans Studies of Gender and Sexuality

This course will explore how trans studies has rethought the big-picture questions of Gender and Sexuality Studies. We will begin with an introductory unit on the fraught historical relations between transfeminisms and dominant traditions of feminist theory and activism. Each subsequent unit of the course will home in on what trans scholarship has contributed to the study of one or more major categories of intersectional feminist theorizing: gender and sexuality; race; and class. Beyond an introduction to trans studies, students will learn how dominant relations of power might be understood differently by starting from trans perspectives. By reading trans theory alongside works of trans literature and film, students will develop their own trans studies of gender, sexuality, race, and class.