Transnational Perspectives on Gender and Sexuality (341-0-23)
Instructors
Jennifer Anne Lupu
Meeting Info
University Library 5322: Mon, Wed 11:00AM - 12:20PM
Overview of class
Topic: Queer Worldbuilding: Sexuality and Space in Global Perspective.
Traditional ways of representing the world around us are steeped in heteronormative assumptions and practices. How might we re-imagine or represent the world around us in a queer way? This class explores what makes a queer space "queer" and why these spaces are so elusive and poorly represented within traditional maps. Drawing from literatures including queer and Black geographies, Black feminism, and phenomenology, we will examine queer mapping projects from scholars, artists, and activists around the world who have re-envisioned what a map can depict—erasing borders, marking queer communities or imagining new ones, and disrupting heteronormativity to actively re-invent queer worlds. Course participants will also regularly engage in their own creative mapping projects.
Learning Objectives
Students will: Gain an understanding of traditions in map-making; Be able to summarize feminist, queer, and non-western critiques of traditional maps; Engage with non-Western, Black, and Indigenous perspectives on space, place, and landscape; Understand key discussions and debates in literatures on queer geography, queer migration, and queer phenomenology; Discuss the relationship between colonialism, spatial control, and heteronormativity; Engage with global case studies of queer space-making; Participate in original creative re-imaginings of map-making
Teaching Method
Case studies, class participation, discussion, films/videos, lecture, online word, readings, creative assignments,
Evaluation Method
Attendance, class participation, papers, digital exercises using googlemaps and arcGIS, creative projects
Class Materials (Required)
All course materials will be provided on Canvas.
Class Attributes
Social & Behavioral Sciences Distro Area