Gender, Sexuality, and Performance (372-0-20)

Topic

Sound, Sexuality, & Space

Instructors

Ryan Wayne Dohoney
ryan.dohoney@northwestern.edu
Office Hours: Email instructor to arrange a meeting.

Meeting Info

RCMA 1-172: Tues, Thurs 12:30PM - 1:50PM

Overview of class

Topic: Sound, Sexuality, and Space.

This is a course in queer urban sound studies focused on Chicago. My objective is to train students to use music and aural experience as a means of analysing queer city life. This course will introduce students upon methods sound studies, ethnomusicology, affect theory, queer studies, urban studies, and the critical geography of race. In addition to reading and regular writing assignments, students will engage in ethnographic work in Chicago throughout the quarter.

Chicago will be our main field site, however we will take a comparative approach and bring in other cities in the global south and north as points of reference. Topics may include the Chicago House scene, drag culture, the South Side's configuration a racialized and eroticized space, the development of noise codes to constrain queer domestic life, the role of music as erotic force in the clubs of Boystown, musical performances in bath houses, and the opera house as a site of gay male desire and community. All of these spaces offer ways to think of the importance of sound and music in the production of queer affect and urban sociability.

Class Materials (Required)

All course materials will be provided on Canvas.

Class Attributes

Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area