Global Arc

This seminar is an in-depth exploration of Michel Foucault's work as not only theorist of power, but as theorist of knowledge as well. To this end, we will engage in close readings of selections of Foucault's work from his Archeological and his Genealogical Periods, as well as from his lecture series at the Collége de France. In the course of this survey, we will explore Foucault's account of the historical emergence of biopower as a unique form of power over "life, itself," as well as his critical explorations of the "human sciences," such as human biology, the science of sexuality, and psychiatry, along with other social sciences.

Advanced seminar; focus changes from year to year. In general the seminar uses contemporary and classic works of feminist theory to examine ideas about gender that have shaped modern culture. Topics have included feminism and liberalism, literature and ideology, and psychoanalysis and feminism.

The study of culture involves myriad approaches and methods, and attracts researchers in and outside sociology. This course aims to explore scholarship that draws, in different ways, on combined contributions from gender studies, criminology and deviance, media studies, and the growing field of cultural studies. Its goals are to increase your knowledge of issues in each of these sociological subfields; to explore theories and methods used by scholars in these areas; and to assist students in developing their own research projects. One three-hour seminar.

Science is commonly held to be the objective, empirical pursuit of natural facts about the world. In this course, we will consider an array of theoretical, methodological, and substantive challenges that feminism has posed for this account of science, and for the practice of scientific knowledge production. In the course of this survey, we shall engage a number of key questions such as: is science gendered, racialized, ableist or classist? Does the presence or absence of women (and another marginalized individuals) lead to the production of different kinds of scientific knowledge?

This introduction to disability studies draws together the work of feminists and queer theorists with that of historians and clinicians in order to contextualize the field's major theoretical claims. We will take up and critique the oft-made distinction between natural, physical impairment and socially constructed disability, situating it with regards to Michel Foucault's account of biopower, and his controversial claims in Society Must Be Defended regarding "racism against the abnormal".

Pleasure Power and Profit explores the intimate ways that sexualities and race are entwined in contemporary culture, historically, and in our own lives. Why are questions about sexuality and race some of the most controversial, compelling, yet often taboo issues of our time? Exploring films, popular culture, novels, social media, and theory, we engage themes like: race, gender and empire; fetishism, Barbie, vampires and zombies; sex work and pornography; marriage and monogamy; queer sexualities; and strategies for social empowerment such as: Black Lives Matter, the new campus feminism, and global movements against sexual and gender violence.

This course will explore the emergence and circulation of the category of transgenderism within medical, philosophical, feminist, autobiographical, political, and literary discourses. What can transpeople's accounts teach feminist and queer theory about embodiment and gender? Conversely, what sort of framings has queer theory offered trans studies and what might it continue to provide? Is transsexual to transgender as homosexual is to queer? If, as some have suggested, transgender studies has ushered in a post-queer era, what is it, exactly, in queer theory that has been surpassed?

Addresses contributions by women, LGBT people, feminists, and people of color to contemporary U.S. theatre and performance. Analyzes performance forms, contents, intents, contexts, and reception to ponder how people who straddle identity vectors influence American culture and help imagine our changing nation. Surveys significant U.S. human rights movements and the performance forms through which many were vitalized. Considers how some minority groups became central to theatre culture by the 21st century and whether or not forums like Broadway dilute the radical politics in which these struggles began.

Things work to construct our social relationships and categories, to shape our social lives and worlds. This course will consider how things have lives of their own specifically in the construction of modes and practices of gender - things like items of dress, but also public washrooms, children's toys, cereal boxes, and even trash. Making use of the emerging discourse of "thing theory," a conversation about material culture including anthropologists, philosophers, cultural theorists, archaeologists, art historians, political scientists, economists, and others, we will work to consider objects in their influence on the social world of gender.

An exploration of two aspects of the gender and science literature: the historical participation of women (and men) in scientific work and the feminist critique of scientific knowledge. The seminar will explore ways in which women have been systematically excluded from science and assess the problems with that thesis. One three-hour seminar.