The Shape of Things: Embodiment and Sexuality in Contemporary Culture

3 Credits.

Our bodies and the scrutiny they are under in contemporary culture inform our lived experience. This course examines theories and experiences of embodiment, sexuality, and bodily differences in contemporary culture, focusing on the understandings, misconceptions, and marginalizations that occur within the context of the U.S and beyond.Drawing on feminist-informed gender, disability, queer and critical race studies, the course introduces phenomenological, poststructuralist, and new materialist perspectives on the body, addressing the implications of diverse embodiments for human subjectivity and social life.Students will analyze myths and misconceptions of differences that circulate throughout popular and professional cultures and influence public policies and everyday practices. Course readings and audio/visual texts will examine the scope of sexuality and embodiment in this critical moment, emphasizing the problematics of normalcy across the lifespan and among diverse populations. Through these materials, we will discuss sexuality, gender, race and other social markers such as disability and difference, situated in their historical, epistemological and political context, which allows for deeper and richer understanding of personal embodiment as a social phenomenon.