GWS 470

Credit: 3 OR 4 hours.

What are the issues and politics related to transgender and transsexual identities? Students will examine and critically evaluate historical and contemporary debates that contest normative male/female binaries and traditional categorizations of sexuality. The course moves beyond these initial inquiries into gender theory to consider the effects of institutional discourses produced through stage and civil society. Taught with particular attention given to questions of race, national formations, medical, and legal discourses. Areas of inquiry may include gender theory, transnational identities, gendered and racial performances, medical and psychological diagnoses, violence, the law, and the Prison Industrial Complex. Through these topics, students will be asked to consider important questions over political and legal representation, autonomy, the rights of citizenship, and the practice of everyday life.

3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. Prerequisite: One course in Gender and Women's Studies at the 200- or 300-level, or consent of instructor.