Seminar for Majors (301-2-20)

Topic

True Love & Perfect Union

Instructors

Lane Fenrich
8474917560
1922 Sheridan Rd.

Meeting Info

Willard Hall B72: Wed 4:00PM - 6:50PM

Overview of class

This course considers the social and political history of marriage as an institution in the United States. It is not primarily about love or about the ways in which people make their marriages work (or not), although those themes will inevitably enter the conversation. Our major focus, though, will be the extraordinary degree to which contests over who can and cannot legally marry have overlapped, undergirded, or disguised struggles over equality on the basis of race, gender, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, and other social categories.

Class Materials (Required)

All readings will be available on the course Canvas site and will include:

George Chauncey, Why Marriage? The History Shaping Today's Debate Over Gay Equality (2004) selections

Alice Childress, Wedding Band (1962)

Rachel Hope Cleves, "What, Another Female Husband? The Pre-History of Same-Sex Marriage in America" (2015)

Nancy Cott, Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation (2000) selections

Peggy Pascoe, What Comes Naturally: Miscegenation Law and the Making of Race (2009), selections

Nancy Polikoff, "Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage: Valuing All Families Under the Law (2008) selections

Timothy Stewart-Winter and Simon Stern, "Picturing Same-Sex Marriage in the Antebellum United States: The Union of ‘Two Most Excellent Men' in Longstreet's ‘A Sage Conversation'" (2910)

Class Attributes

Department Majors Only

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: Pre-registration -- Reserved for American Studies Majors until the end of preregistration, after which time enrollment will be open to everyone.