Global Queer History

Catalog description

This course surveys the history of queer sexualities in a global context. Sexuality has a history that is geographically and culturally specific. For this reason, this course aims to destabilize familiar sexual categories and identities by exploring how it was (and is) to be queer in other parts of the world. We will historicize sexual orientationm as a category anchored in Western medical and legal discourses; we will link the history of sexuality with that of capitalism, colonialism, and racism; and we will evaluate “Gay Globalization” and how it is embraced and resisted around the world. The course is not comprehensive either chronologically or geographically. Instead, it addresses some key topics in the history of queer sexualities; it provides a general historiographical background for different areas; and it introduces a toolbox for doing critical queer history around the world. Finally, we will address how contemporary social issues regarding queer sexualities around the world can be put into historical perspective, and why queer history is essential for achieving the goals of social justice.