Thinking Sex

Undergraduate / Graduate

Few concepts seem more self-evident than sex-yet even fewer have been more intensely debated. Starting from the pre-modern period and moving to the present, the course aims to familiarize students with central debates in gender and sexuality studies, and to situate those debates in the wider context of the intellectual, activist, and artistic communities out of which they emerge. We will read widely: from foundational early writers (Wollstonecraft, Truth, Engels) to key twentieth and twenty-first century movements (radical, poststructuralist, decolonial, and intersectional feminisms; queer theory; gay and trans liberation). Major topics are likely to include intersectionality, biopower, body politics, normativity, sexual pleasure and violence, reproductive labor and politics, gender performativity and embodiment, technology, globalization, and agency. No prior coursework is required-only curiosity and a willingness to think critically about sex and gender.