First-year Interdisciplinary Seminar: Intimate America

Catalog description

This First-year Interdisciplinary Seminar examines government's role, historically and currently, in regulating the intimate aspects of people's lives. The course will focus on three particular areas as manifested in the United States: gender and sexual identity, marriage, and reproduction. To what extent does government restrict the choices people are able to make concerning their intimate lives? What justifications does government offer for such interventions, and how have such justifications changed over time? How successful have individuals been in resisting government restrictions? In considering these questions, we will pay particular attention to topics such as birth control, eugenics, anti-miscegenation laws, LGBTQ rights, and sex education. The course draws from the fields of history, literature, sociology, legal studies, and feminist and queer theories. Texts we might engage include: Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale; Michael Bronski's Queer History of the United States, Adam Cohen's Imbeciles, and Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.