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Topics in Gender and Sexuality Studies (490-0-27)

Topic

Embodiment/Materiality/Affect

Instructors

J Michelle Molina
847 4612620
Crowe Hall, 4-142

Meeting Info

Kresge Centennial Hall 3-410: Tues 3:00PM - 5:30PM

Overview of class

This seminar explores theoretical approaches to the problems of embodiment/materiality/affect. One aim of the course is to examine various methodological approaches to embodiment, materiality and affect, making use of sociology and philosophy (Pierre Bourdieu, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Spinoza, Massumi). The second and closely related aim is to situate bodies in time and place, that is, in history. Here we look to the particular circumstances that shaped the manner in which historical actors experienced their bodies in the Christian west (Peter Brown, Caroline Bynum, Mary Carruthers, Michel de Certeau, Michel Foucault). Ultimately, we will be examining theoretical tools while we put them to work. The goal: how to use these thinkers to write more dynamic, creative, interesting scholarship?