WesMaps - Wesleyan University Catalog 2011-2012       Summer Session       Winter Session       Home       Archive       Search
CS92PROD
Introduction to Trans Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches

AMST 265
Spring 2012 not offered
Crosslisting: FGSS 263
Certificates: Social, Cultural and Critical Theory

This course is an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of trans studies. Although gender-variant identities have a long history in the United States, and while gender diversity has been recorded in many societies, trans and transgender are relatively new social categories. And, while many academic disciplines--including feminist studies, queer studies, anthropology, and history--have studied trans communities, subjects, and bodies, it is only very recently that the field has become institutionalized in the academy as a discipline.

This course is organized around trans studies as an emergent field of study. We will take as our entry point a formative moment in academic institutionalization: the publication of the first academic reader in trans studies, Susan Stryker and Stephen Whittle's THE TRANSGENDER STUDIES READER in 2006. Thinking critically about the categories of knowledge in this anthology (sex, gender, and science; feminist investments; queering gender; selves: identity and community; transgender masculinities; embodiment; ethics of time and space; and multiple crossings: gender, nationality, race), as well as the ways other disciplines have understood trans and other sexual minority communities, we will ask, What are the foundational objects and methods of trans studies? What are the guiding questions and debates within the field? What forms of knowledge does the category "trans" enable? What are the problems and possibilities of using "trans" cross-culturally? How are trans studies marked as different from the studies that have come before? Is institutionalization seen as necessary to knowledge production? And, finally, what are the (activist/academic) politics of the field's institutionalization?

Readings will be interdisciplinary and will include theory, memoir, film, history, activisim, legal studies, science studies, feminist and queer studies, and ethnography. Student interest, input, and participation are crucial to the course; the last weeks of the course are TBA to allow us to explore your particular interests.

Essential Capabilities: None
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS AMST
Course Format: Lecture / DiscussionGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (AMST)(FGSS)

Last Updated on MAR-29-2024
Contact wesmaps@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions. Please include a url, course title, faculty name or other page reference in your email ? Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459