Introduction to Sexuality Studies

Catalog description

What is sexuality? How is sexuality socially and historically constructed?  How is it fundamentally shaped by its intersection with multiple forms of identity and privilege such as race, gender, class, ability, religion, and nationality?  How are eroticism, desire, experiences of the body, and sexual practices connected to a range of social norms and institutions? This course will address these questions, introducing students to the breadth of meanings attached to sexuality, how it is coconstituted with and through various kinds of identity and experience, and how sexuality is expressed and policed.  Topics may include the history of sexuality as an object of study; science, medicine, and the creation of the idea of sexuality itself; the hetero/homo binary; gay, lesbian, queer, and trans (LGBTQ+) political and social movements; legal considerations of gender and sexual identity; and representations of sexuality in culture across various media.