Gender, Sexuality, and the Law (340-0-1)

Instructors

Joanna Grisinger
847 491 3987
620 Lincoln St #201
I am an American legal historian whose research focuses on the politics of the modern administrative state. At Northwestern, I teach courses on law and society, U.S. legal history, gender and the law, and constitutional law.

Meeting Info

Parkes Hall 212: Tues, Thurs 11:00AM - 12:20PM

Overview of class

This course surveys how law has reflected and created distinctions on the basis of gender and sexuality throughout American history. We'll look at legal categories of gender and sexuality that have governed (and, often, continue to govern) the household (including marriage, divorce, and custody), the economy (including employment, property, and credit), and the political sphere (including voting, jury service, and citizenship). Throughout the course, we will examine the relationship between legal rules and social conditions, and discuss how various groups have challenged these legal categories.

Learning Objectives

• Engage with socio-legal scholarship describing the historical and contemporary structures and practices that shape the relationship between U.S. law, gender, and sexuality paying attention to the role of justice and injustice, agency, and challenging inequality.
• Analyze how gender and sexuality intersect with other identities such as race, class, and citizenship status; and describe how legal categories affect (and are affected by) social constructions of identities.
• Reflect on one's position within the structures, processes, and practices of the law.
• Examine how socio-legal theories and research can explain the factors underlying contemporary issues related to gender and sexuality as well as inform potential solutions to these societal problems.
• Develop the ability to critique theories and claims in the social and behavioral sciences through careful evaluation of an argument's major assertions, assumptions, evidential basis, and explanatory utility.
• Use qualitative research methodologies to describe, understand, and interpret state and federal cases and statutes.

Teaching Method

lecture and discussion

Class Materials (Required)

All course materials will be available on Canvas

Class Attributes

Social and Behavioral Science Foundational Discipl
U.S. Perspectives on Power, Justice, and Equity

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: Pre-Reg: Reserved for Legal Studies Majors and Minors until the end of preregistration, after which time enrollment will be open to everyone who has taken the prerequisites. Antirequisite: Student may not receive credit for both LEGAL_ST 340-0 and GSS 340-0.