Sex and Sexuality in Modern History

Catalog description

How did sexuality come to be understood as a category of identity? What role did science and medicine play in the definition and stigmatization of sex and sexual practices? How did people in the past organize and advocate for themselves? How have these practices informed our modern understanding of sexuality and our activism today? This course will explore these questions by focusing on the history of sex and sexuality as identities and constructs that are shaped by historic, cultural, and socially contingent circumstances. We will primarily focus on these concepts as they were practiced in Europe and North America since about 1800. However, we will also consider the role that sex, sexuality, and sexual practices influenced and were influenced by global events like imperialism, war, and the growth of global capitalism. This class will use students? own interests and research interests as jumping-off points for discussion and developing research questions for investigation.