GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN WORLD CIVILIZATIONS II

GNSE 15003-03 WINTER QUARTER 2017

MON, WED 1:30 2:50 CSGS/CSRPC 003
PROFESSOR SONALI THAKKAR
TEACHING INTERN
OFFICE HOURS: TUES 10-12
12-1
https://appoint.ly/s/sonalit/office hours

MELISSA OSBORNE
OFFICE HOURS: MON 10-11, WED
CSGS/CSRPC 009

ROSENWALD 415C
osbornem@uchicago.edu
sonalit@uchicago.edu
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Gender and sexuality are fundamental categories of human existence, as well as political and
cultural categories that shape everyday life. The mutability of these categories is just as
important as their ubiquity; while gender and sexuality shape every human beings experience,
the social, political, and ideological valences of these terms vary widely according to cultural and
historical context.
Philosophers, activists, artists of all types, and scholars from a wide range of disciplines have
addressed these issues; a substantial corpus of work speaks to themes such as love, sex,
citizenship, family, law, violence, religion, race, creativity, migration, economics and politics
through the lens of gender and sexuality. We will look closely at a wide range of textual objects
in order to open up these works to analysis and discussion.
In this coursethe second of a two-quarter sequencewe will cover four broad and
interconnected topics. We will begin by asking in what ways gender and sexuality determine who
belongs to the polity, paying particular attention to how gendered exclusions have been justified
through distinctions between private and public. The second part of the course considers how
women and sexual minorities have pursued political transformation. We will examine political
projects and manifestoes from a number of historical periods to examine the kinds of political
and rhetorical strategies that these movements draw upon. Our third unit will focus on the
relationship between sexuality, power, and governance, or what Michel Foucault calls
biopolitics. We will look at two discoursesreproductive rights and securitizationin order to
contextualize and track biopolitics at work. In our final weeks, we will ask how empire and the
legacies of colonialism intersect with and complicate the notion of a unified feminist project, and
we will pay particular attention to how contemporary transnational rights discourses, including
that of human rights, both elide and are complicated by cultural differences. Throughout the
course, we will remain attentive to the connections and tensions between various forms of
difference, particularly the relationship between gender, sexuality, and race.
READINGS

Gender/Sexuality Core, 2

The readings for this course are collected in a reader, which is available for purchase from the
Social Sciences Division Auxiliary Services Office, in SS 102. You will also need the following
books, listed here in the order in which we will read them. Please get ahold of the specified
editions so that we all the same pagination. Copies are available at the Seminary Coop Bookstore
(5751 S. Woodlawn Ave.).
Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality: An Introduction, Vol. 1 (Vintage Books, 1990)
Margaret Atwood, The Handmaids Tale (Anchor Books, 1998)
Jennifer Doyle, Campus Sex, Campus Security (Semiotext(e), 2015)
Joan Wallach Scott, The Politics of the Veil (Princeton University Press, 2007)
COURSE ASSIGNMENTS
Blog Posts (20%)
You can find our private class blog at https://genderandsexualitycorewinter2017.wordpress.com.
You will write four blog posts of 350-500 words over the course of the quarter, one per thematic
cluster. You must post about a reading in advance of our class discussion about it. Posts about
materials for a Monday class are due by Sunday at noon; posts about materials for a Wednesday
class are due by Tuesday at noon.
The blog posts are an opportunity to look closely at our reading so that you can deepen your
understanding of their claims or complexities and formulate critical responses to them. You
might choose to do one of several things in your posts:
Focus on a single text: identify its central claims, and tell us what you find compelling
or problematic about those claims.
Focus on a section or passage of a single text in order to analyze it closely. Tell us
about its nuances and what they suggest about the work as a whole. If the reading is
making an argument or outlining a theory, you might choose a passage that you find
especially difficult or interesting, or a passage that seems central to the argument. For a
literary work or primary source, consider how textual details are meaningful for
interpretation. Consider a specific scene or an aspect of the texts language and tell us
what you think it means and why its important.
Focus on a key term in a work. Tell us how you think the author defines and
understands the term and why its important to the theme or argument of a work. You
might choose to focus on a term that reappears in several works, analyzing how its use
and definition differ across works. You might also consider two terms that are defined or
developed in opposition to one another in a single work.
Juxtapose two texts and discuss their relation to one another. Consider sources of
(implicit or explicit) agreement or disagreement. Are their claims complementary and
reconcilable? If not, what are the key differences in their assumptions or conclusions?
Which do you find more convincing or useful?
Participation (20%)
Class participation is crucial to the success of this class. Meaningful participation depends on the
following:

Gender/Sexuality Core, 3

Come to class prepared with questions and observations about specific aspects of the
reading. Always bring the readings with you and be ready to direct us to a page or
passage that you think is important for discussion.
Read any new blog entries before each class and be prepared to discuss some of
the issues that they raise.
Respond generously and critically to the readings: be ready to talk about what you
think is important or relevant about them, as well things that are troubling or
questionable.
Raise new topics or issues for discussion while also being responsive to the
comments and questions that others have introduced, so that we can generate
sustained, in-depth discussion.
I know that not everyone is equally comfortable speaking in a group and that there is more than
one way of participating in a class, and so 5% of your participation grade can be based on
your comments on other peoples blog posts. You should aim to comment on at least two posts
a week. Comments do not have to be long (a couple sentences, not paragraphs). You can ask a
question, add information or offer a clarification, respectfully challenge someones argument,
weigh in with an opinion, suggest a connection between readings or between blog posts, or
amplify someones interpretation by pointing out additional evidence from the text.
Essays (2 at 30% each)
You will write 2 papers of about 6-7 pages each. I will provide essay prompts for each paper two
weeks before the due date and we will discuss guidelines and expectations for the papers in class.
Papers are due via email by 5:00pm to me and to Melissa on Friday, February 3 (Week 5)
and Monday, March 13 (Week 11).
COURSE POLICIES
Academic Honesty
Plagiarism takes various forms, and it can occur not just intentionally but also through
carelessness about the attribution of others ideas and the citation of sources. The following
resources are helpful in explaining what constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it, and in
providing guidelines for citation practices:
http://writing-program.uchicago.edu/resources/collegewriting/but_what_if_you_get_stuck.htm
http://guides.lib.uchicago.edu/c.php?g=297265&p=1984228
If you submit plagiarized material you will receive a 0 in this course.
Accessibility
The University of Chicago is committed to ensuring the full participation of all students in its
programs, and I am committed to making this class accessible. If you have a disability that
requires accommodation so that you can participate in class and complete assignments, please be
in touch with me as soon as possible. You will need to provide me with a copy of your
Accommodation Determination Letter, which you can obtain from the Student Disability
Services office. Disability Services is located at 5801 S. Ellis Avenue, and online at
disabilities.uchicago.edu. You can contact them at 773-834-4469/TTY 773-795-1186 or
disabilities@uchicago.edu.

Gender/Sexuality Core, 4

Attendance and Lateness

More than two absences in this class will reduce your participation grade by a third of a letter
(e.g. A to A-). More than three absences will lower your participation grade by a full letter (e.g. A
to B) and may affect your standing in this course. Repeated lateness may also affect your
participation grade. If you are more than twenty minutes late to class you will be counted as
absent for that session.

Electronic Devices
Phone must be turned off at all times and kept out of sight. I do not allow laptops or tablets in
class.
Late Papers and Extensions
You are allowed one 48-hour extension on an essay during the quarter, no questions asked. The
extension must be requested via email at least 48 hours in advance of the papers due date. Late
papers will be penalized by a third of a letter grade each day (i.e. B+ to B).
Attendance at Office Hours
We encourage you to come to office hours regularly but both Melissa and I expect to see you at
least once in office hours for an individual meeting. You can come in to discuss your blog posts,
your ideas for a paper, our feedback, or any other questions you might have about the course or
the readings. You can schedule an appointment with me at https://appoint.ly/s/sonalit/office
hours.
SCHEDULE
I. Gendering the Polity
In what ways has gender determined who belongs to the polity? What are the gendered
distinctions (form/ matter, active/ passive, order/ disorder, public/private) that deprive women
and other gendered minorities of a claim to membership in the polity? How do property regimes
determine who can hold property and who is property, determine who is entitled to, or excluded
from, rights? How have gendered exclusions in politics, education, and cultural production been
justified through distinctions between private and public?
Week 1
1/4
Catharine A. MacKinnon, Are Women Human? [1999], in Are Women Human? And
Other International Dialogues (Cambridge, Harvard UP, 2006), 41-43.
United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).
Week 2
1/9
Sherry B. Ortner, Is Female to Male as Nature Is to Culture? in Woman, Culture and
Society, eds. Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere (Stanford: Stanford UP,
1974), 68-87.
Sherry B. Ortner, So, Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture? in Making Gender:
The Politics and Erotics of Culture (Boston: Beacon Press, 1996), 173-180.

Gender/Sexuality Core, 5

1/11

Monique Wittig, On the Social Contract [1989], in The Straight Mind and Other
Essays (New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1992), 33-45.
Lauren Berlant and Michael Warner, Sex in Public, in Critical Inquiry 24:2 (Winter
1998), 547-566.

Week 3
1/16 No class Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
1/18

Carole Pateman, Contracting In and Wives, Slaves and Wage Slaves, in The Sexual
Contract (Stanford: Stanford UP, 1988), 1-18 and 116-153.

Week 4
1/23 Elizabeth V. Spelman, Whos Who in the Polis? in Inessential Woman: Problems of
Exclusion in Feminist Thought (Boston: Beacon Press, 1988), 37-56.
bell hooks, Introduction, in Aint I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (London:
Pluto Press, 1982), 1-13.
II. Activism and Rights in the Anglo-American World
How have women and sexual minorities in the Anglo-American world organized themselves in
the pursuit of political transformation? What kinds of aims have these movements articulated?
What are the intersections and alliances between various rights struggles? What strategies have
these movements adopted (civil disobedience, the creation of alternative public spheres, etc.)?
1/25

Mary Wollstonecraft, Introduction and Chapter Two, from A Vindication of the

Rights of Women (1772).
Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions (Seneca Falls, 1848) [excerpt]
Sojourner Truth, Aint I a Woman? (1851)

Week 5
1/30 Radicalesbians, The Woman-Identified Woman (1970)
Combahee River Collective, A Statement on Black Feminism (1978)
Audre Lord, The Masters Tools Will Never Dismantle the Masters House
(1979/1984)
Queers Read This (1990)
Cathy Cohen, Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer
Politics? in GLQ 3 (1997), 437-465.
2/1

Sandy Stone, The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto (1991/1994).

Anna Kirkland, Whats at Stake in Transgender Discrimination as Sex
Discrimination? in Signs 40:1 (2014), 83-111.

2/3

First Essay Due

III. Biopolitics

Gender/Sexuality Core, 6

In this unit, we will consider the relationship between sexuality, power and governance, or what
Michel Foucault called biopolitics, examining debates about reproduction and reproductive
rights, and about securitization and sexual violence. Please note that there will be a core-wide
film screening of No Ms Bebs in week six or seven (date/time and location tba).
Week 6
2/6
Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1. [1976], trans. Robert Hurley (New
York: Vintage, 1990).
2/8

Foucault, The History of Sexuality, cont.

Week 7
2/13 Margaret Atwood, The Handmaids Tale [1986] (New York: Anchor Books, 1998).
Renee Tajima-Pea, No Ms Bebs (USA 2015).
2/15

Atwood, The Handmaids Tale, cont.

Week 8
2/20 Jennifer Doyle, Campus Sex, Campus Security (South Pasadena: Semiotext[e], 2015).
IV. Cultural Differences, Colonial Legacies, and The Politics of Rights
Is there a common, universal political imaginary in struggles over the politics of gender and
sexuality? How do race, empire, and the legacies of colonialism intersect with and complicate
the notion of a unified feminist project? Does the emergent focus on womens rights as human
rights provide a useful framework for undoing those divisions between human beings and
gendered beings with which we began? What historical and cultural differences might such
universalist discourse elide or overlook?
2/22

Lila Abu-Lughod, Against Universals: The Dialectics of (Womens) Human Rights and
Human Capabilities, in Rethinking the Human, eds. J. Michelle Molina and Donald K.
Swearer (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2010), 69-93.
Inderpal Grewal, Womens Rights as Human Rights: The Transnational Production of
the Global Feminist Subject, in Transnational America: Feminisms, Diasporas,
Neoliberalisms (Durham: Duke UP, 2005), 121-157.

Week 9
2/27 Ousmane Sembne, Moolaad (Senegal/France/Burkina Fasso 2004)
Partha Chatterjee, Colonialism, Nationalism, and Colonialized Women: The Contest in
India, in American Ethnologist 16:4 (1989), 622-633.
3/1

Miriam Ticktin, The Gendered Human of Humanitarianism: Medicalising and

Politicising Sexual Violence, in Gender and History 23:2 (August 2011), 250-265.
Elizabeth Bernstein, Militarized Humanism Meets Carceral Feminism: The Politics of
Sex, Rights, and Freedom in Contemporary Antitrafficking Campaigns, in Signs 36:1
(Autumn 2010), 45-71.

Gender/Sexuality Core, 7

Week 10
3/6
Joan Wallach Scott, The Politics of the Veil (Princeton: Princeton UP, 2007).
3/8

Scott, The Politics of the Veil, cont.

Frantz Fanon, Algeria Unveiled, in A Dying Colonialism [1959], trans. Haakon
Chevalier (New York: Grove Press, 1965), 35-67.

3/12

Second Essay Due