SOPHOMORE INQUIRY DESCRIPTION (UNST 231)
This course introduces the Gender and Sexualities cluster. This course provides a framework for thinking critically about the historical and contemporary applications of gender and sexuality—a simple endeavor in other areas, students will find navigating gender and sexuality terminologies (e.g., sexualities, sexual orientation, what constitutes ‘sex’ in particular places and times, sexual identity, gender, and gender identity) may also be a rigorous historical, political, philosophical, sociological, and anthropological study. The course will follow lines of inquiry such as: What does gender mean and how can it be used as a tool of analysis? What is the relationship between gender and the sexed body? What does it mean to say that sexuality is socially constructed? how do gender and sexuality intersect with, and indeed rely on, race, class, ability, nation, and religion? How are identity categories and normative systems of behavior socially and historically produced? How have groups resisted oppressive systems of power? How does one build alliances across differences related to social location?