Fall 2009 Course Offering

Still looking for courses to add for the Fall 2009 semester? Check out this interesting option:

Transnational Queer: Genders, Sexualities, Identities
(crosslisted with WMST and INST)

Course Description:
This course examines, critiques and interrogates notions of what is Queer as constructed in, and through, France and North America. In what ways do different societies engage with discourses on gender and sexuality? Can/should our understanding of queerness change depending on the cultural context? This course will feature guest speakers specializing in queer cultural production from fiction to cinema and performance. Topics include the body, sexual politics, citizenship, legal and aesthetic discourses. Through examination of these questions, this course aims to expose students to differing kinds of otherness and cross-cultural understandings of specific forms of identity constructions through a broad range of queer theoretical and cultural productions including fiction, cinema, and performance. All readings and discussions will be in English.

This course is the result of a collaborative project and was designed collectively by faculty from five different institutions (Bucknell University, College of the Holy Cross, Union College, Vassar College, and Williams College) and will be offered simultaneously at Bucknell University and Vassar College. This unique opportunity will enable students to engage in dialogue not only with their classmates, but also with peers at Bucknell University. This course is organized into five units framed by an introductory module and a conclusion. Within each unit, one of the participating faculty members will give an evening lecture and lead an in-class discussion the following day.

Given the structure of this course, students are expected to fully engage in all its components by participating actively in class discussions and attending evening lectures and film screenings. Readings in this course will guide class discussions as well as inform your final project.

Tentative Lecture Schedule:
9/21 -- Thibaut Schilt, College of the Holy Cross (on the work of French film director François Ozon)
10/5 -- Brian Martin, Williams College (on Homosexuality and the Military)
10/12 -- Philippe Dubois, Bucknell University (on Food and Homosexuality)
11/2 -- Vinay Swamy, Vassar College (Gay "Marriage" and the French Republic)
11/16 -- Charles Batson, Union College (Queer Quebec)

This course is possible thanks to generous grants from the Andrew Mellon Faculty conversation grant at Vassar, the Dean of Faculty's office and Bucknell University. Contact Vinay Swamy (viswamy@vassar.edu) with any further questions about the course.