CLAGS.org: IDS Concentration Courses

QUEER CUNY COURSES

FALL 2004

English 390.64 (Cross Listed as Women’s Studies 300.90)
Hunter College
Post Stonewall Lesbian, Gay and Transgender Literature and Culture (3 credits)
Monday/Thursday 9:45-11:00 a.m.
Professor Linda Camarasana

The 1969 Stonewall rebellion, often considered the inaugural event of gay and lesbian civil rights movement, arguably also heralded the emergence and greater visibility of queer culture. This class will explore the complex representation of gender and sexuality in recent fiction, essays, poetry, and autobiography by lesbian, gay, transgender, and queer writers. Although the focus of our discussion and analysis will be literature, we will consider these works in the context of the social and political struggles of the homophile movement of the 1950s, lesbian feminist and gay male culture of the 1970s, AIDS and its impact, the emergent transgender movement, and various forms of queer activism.

Prerequisite: English 220

English 794x
Brooklyn College
Literature of the Women’s Liberation Movement
Mondays 6:20p.m.-8p.m.
Prof. Tucker Pamella Farley

Thirty-five years ago an extraordinary explosion of feminist activity changed the literary landscape. This course studies literature of that epoch; poetry, fiction, theory, drama, song. The course focuses on an inclusive selection of works, and provides opportunities for students to work in areas of their choice. Special attention will be paid to the themes of the movement in their historical contexts, including emerging voices of difference. Hopefully the course will evoke the excitement and contradictions of the literature and the times. Students will do a midterm, final, and term paper; the course will meet as a seminar and part of the activity of the course will be participation online in an interactive website devoted to this course. Active face-to-face discussion, individual and group projects, and creative projects are encouraged as vital aspects of the course. Students who have registered for the course may write to the instructor during the summer at femlittheory@aol.com

History 30.3
Brooklyn College
History of Feminism
Tues/Fri. 10:50a.m.-12:05p.m.
Prof. Bonnie Anderson

The "F-word" – Does it make you angry? Do you identify with it?

Have you ever thought, "I'm not a feminist, but…."? Explore these and other questions about the history of feminism in the United States, Europe, and India. We'll examine how women's movements arise, what they demand, their impact in the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as current issues worldwide. Books will include:

Miriam Schneir, ed., Feminism: The Essential Historical Writings
Bonnie Anderson, Joyous Greetings
Radha Kumar, The History of Doing…Feminism in India
Sarah Evans, Personal Politics [civil rights and feminism]
Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards, Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future

The grade will be determined as follows:

Class participation 10%
Midterm Exam        20%
Paper (5-7 pp.)      30%
Final Exam              40%

Labor Studies 265
Queens College
Special Topics in Labor Studies:
Social and Labor Movements in Global Sex Work
Tue/Th 5-6:15pm
Professor Antonia Levy

This course is designed for social science and interdisciplinary students as an introduction to the controversial issue of sex work as "work" across the globe. The course will address the concept of work and the moral, political and economic dimensions of sex work; theories of labor and social movements; sex workers' rights movements that have emerged in different countries and their comparison with other kinds of labor and social movements.

Questions that will be considered include:
- What is "work"?
- What is "sex work", and who is doing it?
- Is sex work "work"?
- What is the purpose, structure and organization of social movements?
- What are the reasons for sex workers' discriminated legal status?
- What rights do sex workers have in comparison to other workers?
- What are the objectives of sex workers' rights movements, and how do they compare to other rights movements?

L791
Sexuality and Law (3 credits)
CUNY School of Law
Friday 12:30-3:30pm
Professor Ruthann Robson

This course explores the legal regulation of sex. After discussion of cross-cultural theoretical perspectives, including feminism, law and economics, and post-modernism, students will consider concepts such as consent, privacy, power, identity, and normalcy in the context of specific topics such as reproduction, pornography, prostitution, lesbianism, male homosexuality, transgenderism, miscegenation, rape, AIDS and minors. Course requirements include a paper of at least 25 pages on an approved topic and class participation.

The course is a graduate school (law school) level course. Although the course considers legal treatments and some cases will be used in the course materials, an understanding of theoretical approaches to sexuality would adequately compensate. We consider many more policy questions than particular legal doctrines.

Soc. 51.5
Brooklyn College
Sociology of Gender
M, W: 6:20-7:35pm
Professor Kumru Toktamis

This course is designed to develop a cross-cultural understanding of gender relations as historical practices of inequality. We shall discuss the ways in which dominant definitions of gender roles and relations emerge in different societies. The questions to be explored in this course aim to move beyond essentialism that takes sexual identity for granted. We are going to look at cultural attributions of biological differences and sexual stereotypes. A large portion of the class is devoted to historical and geographical survey of complex dynamics of gender relations, multiplicity of ideas about the roles that men, women and others perform, and values associated with these activities in various cultural settings. The dynamics of gender relations will be examined to see how gender is socially constructed and what the constraints of such constructions are on both women and men, in terms of legal positions, education, professional opportunities, family and ethnicity.

The Graduate Center . City University of New York . Room 7.115 . 365 Fifth Avenue . New York, NY 10016 . 212.817.1955 . clags@gc.cuny.edu