First-Year Research Seminar: Introduction to Trans Studies

(4 Credits)

What is trans studies, and what can it teach us about formations of gender and sexuality? In this advanced introduction to trans studies, we’ll think about the emergence of the field over the past 20 years, and we’ll ask what it offers to our understanding of gender, labor, race, colonialism, incarceration, policing, public space, family structures, childhood, film and literature. We’ll also think about the politicization of trans identity according to different agendas in the present moment. This course will feature readings by Trish Salah, Viviane Namaste, Susan Stryker, Jules Joanne Gleeson, Leslie Feinberg, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Nick Estes, Jules Gill-Peterson, Michelle O’Brien, Kevin Floyd, Jordy Rosenberg, Jasbir Puar, Tourmaline, Emma Heaney, Rosemary Hennessy, Lou Sullivan and C. Riley Snorton.