Assignments & Readings | WGS 201 | 15826 | Autumn 2016 | University of Oregon

Assignments

Critical Contexts and Questions Presentation -- You will be a required to sign up for an oral presentation in small groups. For your presentation, you will read your assigned text for the week, summarize its main arguments, connect the text to a critical example, generate a critical question or two, and get class discussion started for the day. A short single-spaced half-sheet or 1-page handout copied for the whole class is encouraged. Presentations are no more than 10 minutes, may include media, and each presenter must have a substantive speaking part.

In-Class Quizzes -- There will be six or more in-class quizzes at various times during the quarter. These quizzes serve as a review of the week’s main ideas, terms, texts, and readings. These quizzes will include identifications, fill-in-the-blanks, definitions, and short answers.

Precis Papers -- Everyone must complete at least 6 of the 10 possible short analytical summary papers; papers for Week 1 and Week 5 and Week 10 are strongly recommended of all students. Each week, precis papers are due on Saturday by noon. Papers are submitted electronically via the class Canvas.

Identity Log: Over the course of the quarter, you will keep and maintain a weekly "identity log" or "iLog," recording, detailing, and thinking about your own identities and identifications, particularly those mediated by and through the course's keywords. Your "iLog" will function as a kind of identity workbook, an analytical and metacognitive journal, connecting your observations and experiences to the texts, theories, and ideas of the class. Periodically, you will be given specific prompts or experiments, and you will share your logs in class and via the class Canvas.

iLog #1: Imagining Sex(uality): What is sex? What is sexuality? For this initial iLog, consider your personal definitions of these terms. Think on the first weeks' readings and post a single image of yourself or something related to your definitions. Then describe the image in its caption. Tell us what the photo is about and reveals about your definitions of these slippery terms. Connect your comments, if possible, to the readings and our discussions so far. Then, take a look at each other's photos and iLogs and respond thoughtfully, respectfully, and analytically. Make sure to sign your iLog. Post conscientiously: these images will be public and should be appropriate to the class.

iLog #2: Imagining Gender(s): What is gender? How is it defined, constructed, performative? How does it intersect with the body, sexuality, race, class, space, nation? For this second iLog, consider your personal definitions of gender. Think on these weeks' readings and post a single image of yourself or something related to your definitions. Then describe the image in its caption. Tell us what the photo is about and reveals about your definitions of these slippery terms. Connect your comments, if possible, to the readings and our discussions so far. Then, take a look at each other's photos and iLogs and respond thoughtfully, respectfully, and analytically. Make sure to sign your iLog. Post conscientiously: these images will be public and should be appropriate to the class.

iLog #3: Queer(ing) Race: Brian in Passing says provocatively, "If I knew that, I'd know what race is" (38). For this iLog, consider our definitions of race, gender, sexuality, and embodiment. Think on the readings on race and post a single image, YouTube video, news story, or something that conceptualizes, challenges, or critiques the intersection of race and queer. Then articulate what the artifact you selected is about and reveals about your understandings of these slippery terms. Connect your comments, if possible, to the readings and our discussions so far. Then, take a look at each other's iLogs and respond thoughtfully, respectfully, and analytically. Post conscientiously: these artifacts will be public and should be appropriate to the class.

Information Sheets

The following are handouts, informational sheets, and readings that will be assigned or used over the course of the quarter. Each student will recieve a copy of each as a handout in class during the appropriate week. If you miss a sheet, feel free to print out a new copy.

Ed's Top Ten List of "Ways to Survive University"

Ed's Top Ten Rules of Writing

Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

MLA Citation and Bibliographic Format

What is Close Reading?

Readings

Course texts are available via the UO Duck Store (or through any reputable bookseller). Course readers are available only via the Duck Store or Campus Copy. The required texts for this class are:

WGS 201 Course Reader Part I
WGS 201 Course Reader Part II

Consult the course syllabus for the week's required reading. The following is a full bibliographical list of the class readings by week:

Week 1: SEX & DESIRE
Burgett, Bruce. "Sex." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Eds. Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler. New York: NYU Press, 2007. 217-221.
Lorde, Audre. "The Uses of the Erotic." The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. Eds. Henry Abelove, Michele Aina, Barale, David M. Halperin. New York: Routledge, 1993. 339-343.
Rubin, Gayle S. "Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality." The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. Eds. Henry Abelove, Michele Aina, Barale, David M. Halperin. New York: Routledge, 1993. 3-44.
Week 2: GENDER & SEXUALITY
Aultman, B. "Cisgender." Postposttranssexual: Key Concepts for a 21st Century Transgender Studies. Spec. issue of TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 1.1-2 (2014) 61-62.
Butler, Judith. "The Heterosexual Matrix in 'Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire.'" Gender Trouble. New York: Routledge, 1990. 42-44.
Foucault, Michel. "Part One: We 'Other Victorians.'" The History of Sexuality: An Introduction. Trans. Robert Hurley. New York, Vintage Books, 1978. 1-14.
---. "Part Two: The Repressive Hypothesis." The History of Sexuality: An Introduction. Trans. Robert Hurley. New York, Vintage Books, 1978. 15-50.
---. "Part Three: Scientia Sexualis." The History of Sexuality: An Introduction. Trans. Robert Hurley. New York, Vintage Books, 1978. 51-73.
Halberstam, Judith. "Gender." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Eds. Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler. New York: NYU Press, 2007. 116-120.
Rich, Adrienne. "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence." The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. Eds. Henry Abelove, Michele Aina, Barale, David M. Halperin. New York: Routledge, 1993. 227-254.
Week 3: RACE & INTERSECTIONALITY
Crenshaw, Kimberle. "Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color." Excerpt. Standford Law Review 43:1241 (July 1991): 1241-1299.
Ferguson, Robert A. "Race." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Eds. Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler. New York: NYU Press, 2007. 191-196.
Hammonds, Evelynn. "Black (W)holes and the Geometry of Black Female Sexuality." differences. 6.2+3 (1994): 126-145.
Smith, Andrea. "Queer Theory and Native Studies: The Heteronormativity of Settler Colonialism." GLQ 16.1-2 (2010): 42-68.
Week 5: QUEER
Paris is Burning. Dir. Jennie Livingston. Perf. Paris Dupree, David The Father Xtravaganza, Eileen Ford, Junior Labeija, Pepper LaBeija, Sandy Ninja, Willi Ninja, Avis Pendavis, Freddie Pendavis, Kim Pendavis, Sol Pendavis, Stevie Saint Laurent, Octavia St. Laurent, Anji Xtravaganza, Bianca Xtravaganza, Brooke Xtravaganza, Danny Xtravaganza, David Xtravaganza. Lionsgate, 2005. https://amzn.com/B007QJ89VU. Digital.
Week 5: QUEER
Berlant, Lauren and Michael Warner. "Sex in Public." Critical Inquiry. 24.2 (Winter 1998): 547-566.
"Queers Read This." Queer Resource Directory. June 1990. 3 Aug. 2013. http://www.qrd.org/qrd/misc/text/queers.read.this.
Somerville, Siobhan B. "Queer." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Eds. Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler. New York: NYU Press, 2007. 187-191.
Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. "Queer and Now." Tendencies. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1993. 1-22.
Warner, Michael. "What's Wrong with Normal?" The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life. New York: The Free Press, 1990. 41-80.
Week 6: TRANS*
Lane, Riki. "Trans as Bodily Becoming: Rethinking the Biological as Diversity, Not Dichotomy." Hypatia. 24.3 (Summer 2009): 136-157.
Roen, Katrina. "Transgender Theory and Embodiment: The Risk of Racial Marginalisation." Journal of Gender Studies 10.3 (2001): 253-263.
Stryker, Susan. "(De)Subjugated Knowledges: An Introduction to Transgender Studies." The Transgender Studies Reader Eds. Susan Stryker and Stephen Whittle. New York: Routledge, 2006. 1-18.
Thompkins, Avery. "Asterisk." Postposttranssexual: Key Concepts for a 21st Century Transgender Studies. Spec. issue of TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 1.1-2 (2014) 26-27.
Williams, Cristan. "Transgender." Postposttranssexual: Key Concepts for a 21st Century Transgender Studies. Spec. issue of TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 1.1-2 (2014) 232-234. Week 7: SPACE & TIME
Sedgwick, "Epistemology of the Closet." The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. Eds. Henry Abelove, Michele Aina, Barale, David M. Halperin. New York: Routledge, 1993. 45-61.
Edelman, Lee. "The Future is Kid Stuff." No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004. 1-32.
---. "Tearooms and Sympathy, or, The Epistemology of the Water Closet." The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. Eds. Henry Abelove, Michele Aina, Barale, David M. Halperin. New York: Routledge, 1993. 553-574.
Muñoz, Jose Estaban. "Introduction: Feeling Utopia." Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity. New York: NYU Press, 2009. 1-18.
---. "Queerness as Horizon: Utopian Hermeneutics in the Face of Gay Pragmatism." Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity. New York: NYU Press, 2009. 19-32.
Week 8: QUEER & COMMUNITY
Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria. Dirs. Victor Silverman and Susan Stryker. Pers. Ray Baxter, Elliot Blackstone, and Aleshia Brevard. Frameline, 2005. https://amzn.com/B003MRSU6O. Digital.
Gaming in Color. Dir. Philip Jones. Pers. Colleen Macklin, Naomi Clark, Joey Stern, Matt Conn. Indie Rights, 2015. https://amzn.com/B00XVK39MW. Digital.
Week 9: BODIES & DISABILITY
"AIDS Education Posters." University of Rochester Libraries. 2011. 30 Nov. 2012. http://aep.lib.rochester.edu/.
"Historical HIV/AIDS Posters." AVERT: AVERTing HIV and AIDS. 30 Nov. 2012. http://www.avert.org/aids-posters.htm.
McRuer, Robert and Abby L. Wilkerson. "Cripping the (Queer) Nation." GLQ. 9.1-2 (2003): 1-23.
Puar, Jasbir K. "Disability." Postposttranssexual: Key Concepts for a 21st Century Transgender Studies. Spec. issue of TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 1.1-2 (2014) 77-81.
Schippert, Claudia. "Can Muscles be Queer? Reconsidering the Transgressive Hyper-built Body." Journal of Gender Studies 16.2 (July 2007): 155-171.
Week 10: TECHNOLOGY
Chang, Edmond Y. "Love Is in the Air: Queer (Im)Possibility and Straightwashing in FrontierVille and World of Warcraft." QED 2.2 (2015): 6-31.
"dys4ia." Auntie Pixelante. 9 Mar. 2012. 30 Nov. 2012. http://www.auntiepixelante.com/?p=1515. (game)
Halberstam, Judith. "Automating Gender: Postmodern Feminism in the Age of the Intelligent Machine." Feminist Studies. 17.3 (Autumn 1991): 439-460.
Haraway, Donna. "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century." Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge, 1991. 149-182.
"Lim." Merritt Kopas: Gender / Space / Bodies / Play. 29 Aug. 2012. 30 Nov. 2012. http://mkopas.net/2012/08/lim/. (game)

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