Topic for Fall 2017: Love's a Drag--Queering Modern German Literature
From the eighteenth-century social transgressions of Tian (Karoline von Günderrode) to contemporary pop icon Conchita Wurst (Thomas Neuwirth), this course examines gender performances in German culture as transformative relation and power dynamic. We will analyze how gendered subjectivities (trans, queer, femme, and more) present and relate in visual, musical, and linguistic texts through modern German history. How do norms regulate eroticism, and what powerful fantasies contest that regulation? Taught in English. Readings and 2-unit tutorial in German available.

Topic for Winter 2018: Masculinities

Topic for Spring 2018: Introduction to LGBTQ Studies
An introductory, intersectional course on gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer identity. Topics will include the creation of contemporary LGBTQ identities, evidence for same sex attraction throughout history, gender variance within LGBTQ communities, as well as more specific examinations of pivotal moments in LGBTQ identity formation: Oscar Wilde's trial, Stonewall, the creation of the first LGBTQ civil rights organizations, the AIDS crisis, and some key works in LGBTQ literature.