Queer Europe: History, Politics & Desire

Catalog description

This course explores the construction, articulation, and politics of queer sexual desire in Europe from antiquity through the present, and assesses the methodological and archival challenges and possibilities of doing queer history. This course centers the evolving experiences of gay, lesbian, non-gender-conforming, and trans Europeans, and traces the shifting legal, medical, and psychological discourses on homosexuality and gender normativity in which they lived. The geographic borders of the course stretch beyond Europe through assessment of queer lives through the prism of European empire, decolonization, and migration. We also explore the important intersection of feminist and queer civil rights battles with those of transgender Europeans. Satisfies History major and minor requirement. Satisfies Gender and Sexuality Studies major and minor requirement. Satisfies Historical Thought requirement. Satisfies Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.