Seminar in Historical Analysis (405-0-26)

Topic

Histories of Sexual Difference

Instructors

Zavier Nunn

Meeting Info

Parkes Hall 224: Wed 2:00PM - 5:00PM

Overview of class

Histories of Sexual Difference

"Sex has no history. It is a natural fact, grounded in the functioning of the body, and, as such, it lies outside of history and culture." These words come not from a neoconservative mouthpiece, but from the renowned queer theorist and historian David Halperin, writing on the historicity of sexuality in 1989. As his footnotes clarify, if sex does have a history, then "that history is a matter for the evolutionary biologist, not for the historian."
Halperin's remarks predate Judith Butler's field-altering Gender Trouble (1990) and Bodies That Matter (1993), yet the post-structural turn did little to unsettle the presumed stability of sex as the ground from which gender trouble and sexual non-normativity emerge. In this sense, Halperin is symptomatic of a broader position shared—often uneasily—by queer theorists, (some gender-critical) feminists, conservatives, and political leaders alike: gender is malleable and sexuality has a history, but sex possesses an enduring, ahistorical meaning rooted in the material body and untouched by cultural, political, or economic transformation.
This graduate seminar contends with the assumption that the meaning of biological difference is transparent and self-evident. Rather than presuming the stable ontologization of sex across time, the course historicizes sexual difference itself. It takes seriously the proposition that sex is mutable—not only at the level of individual embodiment, but at the level of history. Sex, and the organizing principles through which sexual difference has been understood, have changed dramatically across time and place. The question, then, is not simply whether sex has a history, but to what end sex has been made to change.
We will read texts drawn from feminist history, intersex history, trans history, histories of the body, and legal and medical historiography. Together, these works explore not only how sexual difference has been historically constituted, but how historians and theorists have approached this problem through distinct methodologies. While grounded in historical inquiry, the course remains theory-forward in its interpretation of the past.

Registration Requirements

Graduate students only.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this graduate seminar, students will have developed a broad historical understanding of sex as a category that changes across time and place, and will be able to use historical methods to "de-naturalize" sex through both empirical research and theoretical analysis. Students will strengthen their ability to engage critically with major scholarship in the field while also building practical professional skills, including writing a scholarly book review, leading seminar discussion, and presenting their research to peers. The final paper will be an opportunity for students to pursue an original topic of their choosing, and they are encouraged to select a subject that connects to their wider research interests and fields of study.

Evaluation Method

- Readings and class participation: 30% -
- Leading discussion for one class (15-25 mins): 15%
- Book review 20%
-Final paper presentation/workshop in last class: 5%
-Final paper (15 pages): 30%

Class Notes

History Major Concentration(s): Americas, European
History Minor Concentration(s): Europe, United States, Science and Technology, Law and Crime