Queer Performance

This seminar will examine the many meanings of queer performance. We will consider queerness as it is performed in a range of aesthetic genres—theater, music, dance, performance art, digital media—as well as in everyday vernacular contexts. We will explore how the interdisciplinary academic field of queer studies has turned to performance and performativity as key modes through which gender and sexuality are expressed. The class will place a particular emphasis on queer of color, trans*-, and crip/queer approaches and cultural practices, addressing how queerness intersects with other axes of social difference, including race, class, and ability.