Introduction to Queer Studies

This interdisciplinary course provides an overview of critical queer theories, frameworks and movements. It brings together scholarship at the intersections of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Black Studies, Feminist Studies, Indigenous Studies, Critical Disability Studies, and LGBTQ Studies to carefully analyze constructions of “queer” and “non-normative” sexualities, genders, races, cultures, and communities of people.

Two interconnected areas of concern will shape our inquiries. First, we will examine constructions of sexuality, gender, and “queerness” in relation to larger structures of power. Secondly, we will explore the potentials of “queer” movements for social justice, paying particular attention to the place of joy, pleasure and intimacy within historical and contemporary
struggles for abolition, decolonization, and collective freedom. Throughout, students will be asked to will be asked to interrogate their own relationships to course materials and within movements for social transformation.