Spring 2010

WGS 340 • QUEER ETHNOGRAPHIES-W

Course Description

This upper-level undergraduate course deals with the anthropological analysis of gender and sexuality. Its aim is to critically evaluate formative concepts and theories that have been subject to recent debates within Anthropology, Gender Studies, and Queer Theory. Through the reading of a variety of ethnographies, we will explore how terms like "women" and “men,” “femininity” and “masculinity,” as well as “homosexuality,” “heterosexuality,” “bisexuality,” and “transsexuality” structure people's experiences around the globe. Our focus will be the close assessment of some key texts written by such influential thinkers like Judith Butler, R. W. Connell, Michel Foucault, and Michael Warner. Moreover, the course focuses on local-level social and cultural processes that challenge a wide range of heteronormativities within a regional and global framework. The basic theme of the material for this course concerns the extent to which both realities and the ways in which they are perceived are sociocultural constructs that are subject to constant change. Given the challenging nature of the class in terms of reading, regular presentations, and written assignments,

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