Queer Theory Syllabus

Queer Theory Winter 2020 GSST 113 | T&TH 8:00AM – 9:20AM | CHASS INTS 1130 Professor: Brandon Andrew Robinson, Ph.D. E-mail: brandon.robinson@ucr.edu Office Hours: T & TH 9:30 AM – 10:30 AM and By Appt. Office Location: CHASS INTN 2017 Course Description What is queer theory? And can we even define it? And what are the political stakes of this field of study for gender and sexuality studies, specifically, and for society, more broadly? In this course, we will tackle these questions through engaging with certain core texts and some key debates within queer theory. First, we will examine how queer theory emerged out of feminist and gender studies, gay and lesbian studies, and queer activism and how queer theory differentiates and positions itself alongside these other fields of studies. We will, then, turn to queer of color critique – which emerged out of women of color feminism and an intersectional analysis – to analyze the importance of studying sexuality and queerness through their intersections with race, gender, class, and other social categories. We will also look at other interventions into queer theory such as discussions around HIV and relationality, transnationalism and the diaspora, space, bodies, disability studies, and transgender studies. A main goal of this course is to be able to utilize queer theory to analyze social inequalities and to see queer theory’s potential in challenging and resisting dominant modes of knowledge production and cultural practices. Required Texts & Readings All required readings will be posted on iLearn. Course Assignments & Grading Reading Outlines and Class Discussion Questions (25%): For each class, you will bring to class an outline of the readings for that day and a discussion question for each reading. This outline should explicitly address the author’s argument, central concepts, and other important information to understand the author’s writing. We will begin class by discussing our outlines and questions. These outlines are essential to understanding theoretical arguments in order to then discuss and critique the arguments. I will collect the outlines at the end of each class. You must do 12 outlines throughout the quarter, allowing you to miss 4 outlines or you can do the extra 4 outlines as extra credit. Please note, an outline consists of every reading for that day. An example outline and template will be posted on iLearn. In-class Writing Assignments & Quizzes (10%): There will be periodic, unannounced in-class writing assignments and quizzes throughout the entire quarter. These in-class assignments and 1 quizzes will be a way to take attendance and to make sure you are doing the readings that are required to do well in this course. These in-class writing assignments and quizzes will also allow me to make sure you are understanding the course content adequately to do well in the class. Midterm Exam (20%): This in-class exam will cover the first half of the material from this course. It will be multiple choice and short answer. The midterm exam will be on February 4th. Lockpick Pornography Paper (25%): This paper will be 4-6 pages long. It will consist of using theories and concepts from the class to critically analyze the book Lockpick Pornography. More detailed instructions will be posted on iLearn. Please follow the formatting guidelines outlined on the assignment. This paper is due March 3rd. Final Essay Exam (20%): This online final exam will cover the entire course. This exam will be essay prompts that you will have to respond to during the scheduled final exam time. The final exam is on March 16th from 3pm to 6pm. Accommodations Students with Disabilities: If you have a disability or believe you may have a disability, you can arrange for accommodations by contacting Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) at 951827-4538 (voice) or specserv@ucr.edu (email). Students needing academic accommodations must first register with SSD and provide required disability-related documentation. If you already have approved accommodation(s), you are advised to notify the faculty instructor of record for this course privately. Religious Holy Days: If, with proper notice, you miss a class, exam, or quiz in order to observe a religious holy day, you will be given an opportunity to complete the missed work within a reasonable time after the absence. Students should make such requests of the instructor during the first two weeks of any academic term or as soon as possible after a particular examination date is announced by the instructor. Academic Integrity During the course, you should maintain a high standard of individual honor and integrity in your scholastic work. Students who violate University rules on scholastic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary penalties, including the possibility of failure in the course and/or dismissal from the University. Cheating or plagiarism will not be tolerated. Scholastic dishonesty also includes, but is not limited to, providing false or misleading information to receive a postponement or an extension on an exam or other assignment, and submission of essentially the same written assignment for two courses without prior permission of the instructor. For more information, please see: conduct.ucr.edu. 2 Course Schedule Jan 7. – Introductions, Review of Syllabus, Definitions What is gender? What is sexuality? And what is queer theory? Jan. 9 – The Politics of Sexualities Rich, Adrienne. 1980. “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence.” Signs. Combahee River Collective. 1981. “A Black Feminist Statement.” This Bridge Called My Back. Jan. 14 – The Politics of Sexualities (Cont.) Rubin, Gayle. S. 1993 [1984]. “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality.” The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. Lorde, Audre. 1984 [1978]. “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power.” Sister Outsider. Jan. 16 – Queer Theory’s Foundations Foucault, Michel. 1978. Excepts/Selections from The History of Sexuality. Butler, Judith. 2004. “Introduction: Acting in Concert.” Undoing Gender. Jan. 21 – Queer Theory’s Central Concepts Warner, Michel. 1991. “Introduction: Fear of a Queer Planet.” Social Text. Cohen, Cathy. 1997. “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics?” GLQ. Jan. 23 – Queer Theory’s Central Concepts (Cont.) Duggan, Lisa. 2002. “The New Homonormativity: The Sexual Politics of Neoliberalism.” Materializing Democracy. Ferguson, Roderick. 2005. “Race-ing Homonormativity: Citizenship, Sociology, and Gay Identity.” Black Queer Studies. Jan. 28 – Quare Studies/Queer of Color Critique Muñoz, José. 1999. “Introduction: Performing Disidentifications.” Disidentifications. Johnson, E. Patrick. 2001. “‘Quare Studies,’ or (Almost) Everything I Know About Queer Studies I Learned from My Grandmother.” Text and Performance Quarterly. 3 Jan. 30 – Quare Studies/Queer of Color Critique (Cont.) Sommerville, Siobhan. 2000. “Scientific Racism and the Invention of the Homosexual Body.” Queering the Color Line. Ferguson, Roderick. 2004. “Introduction: Queer of Color Critique, Historical Materialism, and Canonical Sociology.” Aberrations in Black. Feb. 4 – Midterm Exam ***MIDTERM EXAM*** Feb. 6 – How to Survive a Plague Watching in class the documentary How to Survive a Plague. Feb. 11 – HIV and Queer Theory Crimp, Douglas. 1987. “How to Have Promiscuity in an Epidemic.” October. Bersani, Leo. 1987. “Is the Rectum a Grave?” October. Feb. 13 – Queer Theory and the Anti-Relational/Anti-Social Turn Edelman, Lee. 2004. “The Future Is Kid Stuff.” No Future. Halberstam, J. 2011. “The Queer Art of Failure.” The Queer Art of Failure Feb. 18 – Homonationalism Puar, Jasbir and Amir Rai. 2002. “Monster, Terrorist, Fag: The War on Terrorism and the Production of Docile Patriots.” Social Text. Morgensen, Scott Lauria. 2010. “Settler Homonationalism: Theorizing Settler Colonialism within Queer Modernities.” GLQ. Feb. 20 – Transnationalism, Imperialism, and Diasporas Gopinath, Gayatri. 2005. “Impossible Desires: An Introduction.” Impossible Desires. Patil, Vrushali. 2018. “The Heterosexual Matrix as Imperial Effect.” Sociological Theory. 4 Feb. 25 – Queer Space, Bodies, and Time Halberstam, J. 2005. “Queer Temporality and Postmodern Geographies.” In a Queer Time and Place. Freeman, Elizabeth. 2010. “Introduction: Queer and Not Now.” Time Binds. Feb. 27 – Queer Bodies and Disabilities McRuer, Robert. 2006. “Compulsory Able-Bodiedness and Queer/Disabled Existence.” The Disability Studies Reader. Kafer, Allison. 2013. “Time for Disability Studies and a Future for Crips.” Feminist, Queer, Crip. Mar. 3 – Lockpick Pornography Paper Due ***NO CLASS, PAPER DUE*** Mar. 5 – Trans Studies Interventions Stryker, Susan. 1994. “My Words to Victor Frankenstein Above the Village of Chamounix: Performing Transgender Rage.” GLQ. Namaste, Vivianne. 2000. “‘Tragic Misreadings’: Queer Theory’s Erasure of Transgender Subjectivity.” Invisible Lives. Mar. 10 – Trans Studies Interventions (Cont.) Valentine, David. 2012. “Sue E. Generous: Toward a Theory of Non-Transexuality.” Feminist Studies. Snorton, C. Riley and Jin Haritaworn. 2013. “Trans Necropolitics: A Transnational Reflection on Violence, Death, and the Trans of Color Afterlife.” The Transgender Studies Reader 2. Mar. 12 – The Future of Queer Theory Eng, David, J. Halberstam, and José Muñoz. 2005. “What’s Queer About Queer Studies Now?” Social Text. Warner, Michael. 2012. “Queer and Then? The End of Queer Theory?” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Muñoz, José. 2009. “Introduction: Feeling Utopia.” Cruising Utopia. Mar. 16 – Final (3 – 6pm) 5 

Queer Theory Quarter Year Course # | Days & Time of Course | Class Location Professor: Brandon Andrew Robinson, Ph.D. E-mail: brandon.robinson@ucr.edu Office Hours: Office Location: INTN 2017 Course Description What is queer theory? And can we even define it? And what are the political stakes of this field of study for gender and sexuality studies, specifically, and for society, more broadly? In this course, we will tackle these questions through engaging with certain core texts and some key debates within queer theory. First, we will examine how queer theory emerged out of feminist and gender studies, gay and lesbian studies, and queer activism and how queer theory differentiates and positions itself alongside these other fields of studies. We will, then, turn to queer of color critique – which emerged out of women of color and intersectional feminism – to analyze the importance of studying sexuality and queerness through their intersections with race, gender, class, and other social categories. We will also look at other interventions into queer theory such as discussions around HIV and relationality, transnationalism and the diaspora, space, bodies, and disability studies, and transgender studies. A main goal of this course is to be able to utilize queer theory to analyze social inequalities and to see queer theory’s potential in challenging and resisting normative modes of knowledge production and cultural practices. Required Texts & Readings All required readings will be posted on iLearn. Course Assignments & Grading Please note: There will be no extra credit in this class. There will be no late papers or makeup assignments/exams allowed unless excused through university policies (e.g., religious holiday). Reading Summaries and Class Discussion Questions (20%): Every week, students will post on iLearn a one-paragraph summary and one critical discussion question for one of the readings of the week. Each student can choose which reading for the week that they want to write a summary and question for. This summary must be posted at least two hours before the start of class that week. An example summary and template will be posted on iLearn. In-class Writing Assignments (20%): There will be periodic, unannounced in-class writing assignments throughout the entire quarter. These in-class assignments will be a way to take attendance and to make sure you are doing the readings that are required to do well in this course. 1 Midterm Exam (25%): This exam will cover the first half of the material from this course. It will be multiple choice and short answer. The midterm exam will be on Enter Date. Final Paper Topic and Annotated Bibliography (10%): This assignment will consist of writing a brief summary of your final paper topic and providing an annotated bibliography of your outside sources. More detailed instructions will be posted on iLearn. Please follow the formatting guidelines outlined on the assignment. This paper is due Enter Date. Final Paper (25%): This final paper will be 6-8 pages long. It will consist of using theories and concepts from the class to critically analyze a topic of your choice. This final paper will also require research and outside sources to further your analysis beyond the course material. More detailed instructions will be posted on iLearn. Please follow the formatting guidelines outlined on the assignment. This paper is due Enter Date. Accommodations Students with Disabilities: If you have a disability or believe you may have a disability, you can arrange for accommodations by contacting Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) at 951827-4538 (voice) or specserv@ucr.edu (email). Students needing academic accommodations must first register with SSD and provide required disability-related documentation. If you already have approved accommodation(s), you are advised to notify the faculty instructor of record for this course privately. Religious Holy Days: If, with proper notice, you miss a class, exam, or quiz in order to observe a religious holy day, you will be given an opportunity to complete the missed work within a reasonable time after the absence. Students should make such requests of the instructor during the first two weeks of any academic term or as soon as possible after a particular examination date is announced by the instructor. Academic Integrity During the course, you should maintain a high standard of individual honor and integrity in your scholastic work. Students who violate University rules on scholastic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary penalties, including the possibility of failure in the course and/or dismissal from the University. Cheating or plagiarism will not be tolerated. Scholastic dishonesty also includes, but is not limited to, providing false or misleading information to receive a postponement or an extension on an exam or other assignment, and submission of essentially the same written assignment for two courses without prior permission of the instructor. For more information, please see: conduct.ucr.edu. 2 Course Schedule Week One: The Politics of Sexualities Rich, Adrienne. 1980. “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence.” Signs. Combahee River Collective. 1981. “A Black Feminist Statement.” This Bridge Called My Back. Rubin, Gayle. S. 1993 [1984]. “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality.” The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. Lorde, Audre. 1984 [1978]. “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power.” Sister Outsider. Week Two: Queer Theory’s Foundations Foucault, Michel. 1978. Excepts/Selections from Part 2, Part 4, and Part 5. The History of Sexuality. Butler, Judith. 2004. “Introduction: Acting in Concert.” Undoing Gender. Sedgwick, Eve. 1990. Excepts/Selections from “Introduction: Axiomatic.” Epistemology of the Closet. Ross, Marlon. 2005. “Beyond the Closet as a Raceless Paradigm.” Black Queer Studies. Week Three: Queer Theory’s Central Concepts Warner, Michel. 1991. “Introduction: Fear of a Queer Planet.” Social Text. Cohen, Cathy. 1997. “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics?” GLQ. Duggan, Lisa. 2002. “The New Homonormativity: The Sexual Politics of Neoliberalism.” Materializing Democracy. Ferguson, Roderick. 2005. “Race-ing Homonormativity: Citizenship, Sociology, and Gay Identity.” Black Queer Studies. Week Four: Quare Studies/Queer of Color Critique Anzaldúa, Gloria. 2009 [1991]. “To(o) the Queer Writer – Loca, Escritor y Chicana.” The Gloria Anzaldúa Reader. Muñoz, José. 1999. “Introduction: Performing Disidentifications.” Disidentifications. Johnson, E. Patrick. 2001. “‘Quare Studies,’ or (Almost) Everything I Know About Queer Studies I Learned from My Grandmother.” Text and Performance Quarterly. 3 Sommerville, Siobhan. 2000. “Scientific Racism and the Invention of the Homosexual Body.” Queering the Color Line. Week Five: Quare Studies/Queer of Color Critique (Cont.) Ferguson, Roderick. 2004. “Introduction: Queer of Color Critique, Historical Materialism, and Canonical Sociology.” Aberrations in Black. Hames-García, Michael. 2011. “Queer Theory Revisited.” Gay Latino Studies. ***MIDTERM EXAM*** Week Six: HIV, Queer Theory, and the Anti-Relational/Anti-Social Turn Crimp, Douglas. 1987. “How to Have Promiscuity in an Epidemic.” October. Bersani, Leo. 1987. “Is the Rectum a Grave?” October. Edelman, Lee. 2004. “The Future Is Kid Stuff.” No Future. Halberstam, J. 2011. “The Queer Art of Failure.” The Queer Art of Failure Week Seven: Homonationalism, Transnationalism, & Diasporas Puar, Jasbir and Amir Rai. 2002. “Monster, Terrorist, Fag: The War on Terrorism and the Production of Docile Patriots.” Social Text. Morgensen, Scott Lauria. 2010. “Settler Homonationalism: Theorizing Settler Colonialism within Queer Modernities.” GLQ. Manalansan IV, Martin. 2003. “The Borders Between Bakla and Gay.” Global Divas. Gopinath, Gayatri. 2005. “Impossible Desires: An Introduction.” Impossible Desires. Week Eight: Queer Space, Time, Bodies, & Disabilities Halberstam, J. 2005. “Queer Temporality and Postmodern Geographies.” In a Queer Time and Place. Freeman, Elizabeth. 2010. “Introduction: Queer and Not Now.” Time Binds. McRuer, Robert. 2006. “Compulsory Able-Bodiedness and Queer/Disabled Existence.” The Disability Studies Reader. Kafer, Allison. 2013. “Time for Disability Studies and a Future for Crips.” Feminist, Queer, Crip. Week Nine: Trans Studies Interventions 4 Stryker, Susan. 1994. “My Words to Victor Frankenstein Above the Village of Chamounix: Performing Transgender Rage.” GLQ. Namaste, Vivianne. 2000. “‘Tragic Misreadings’: Queer Theory’s Erasure of Transgender Subjectivity.” Invisible Lives. Valentine, David. 2012. “Sue E. Generous: Toward a Theory of Non-Transexuality.” Feminist Studies. Snorton, C. Riley and Jin Haritaworn. 2013. “Trans Necropolitics: A Transnational Reflection on Violence, Death, and the Trans of Color Afterlife.” The Transgender Studies Reader 2. Week Ten: The Future of Queer Theory Lorde, Audre. 1984. “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House.” Sister Outsider. Eng, David, J. Halberstam, and José Muñoz. 2005. “What’s Queer About Queer Studies Now?” Social Text. Warner, Michael. 2012. “Queer and Then? The End of Queer Theory?” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Spade, Dean. 2011. “Introduction: Rights, Movements, and Critical Trans Politics.” Normal Life. Muñoz, José. 2009. “Introduction: Feeling Utopia.” Cruising Utopia. 5 

Queer Theory (in COVID times) Fall 2020 GSST 113 | W 9:00AM – 11:50AM | ONLINE Professor: Brandon Andrew Robinson, Ph.D. E-mail: brandon.robinson@ucr.edu Student Hours: W 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM (By Appt.) Office Location: Zoom Course Description We are in very queer times. A global pandemic. Renewed calls for racial justice. Climate change. And another economic recession. These times – while scary, depressing, and even deadly – can also lead us to imagine a different world, a new world, a better world. With this utopic vision in mind, this course will introduce you to what queer theory is (if we can even really define it) and what the political stakes of this field of study are for gender and sexuality studies, specifically, and for society, more broadly. To accomplish these goals, we will tackle core texts and some key debates within queer theory. First, we will examine how queer theory emerged out of feminist and gender studies, gay and lesbian studies, and queer activism and how queer theory differentiates and positions itself alongside these other fields of studies. We will, then, turn to queer of color critique – which emerged out of women of color feminism and an intersectional analysis – to analyze the importance of studying sexuality and queerness through their intersections with race, gender, class, and other social categories. We will also look at other interventions into queer theory such as discussions around imperialism, time, space, bodies, disability studies, and transgender studies. We will also delve into how queer theory can help us to understand this current moment, including this global pandemic. A main goal of this course is to be able to utilize queer theory to analyze social inequalities and to see queer theory’s potential in challenging and resisting dominant modes of knowledge production and cultural practices in order to work toward creating a more just and humane world. An Important Note About This Emergency Online Class Please remember, as teachers and students, we did not sign up for an “online educational” experience. I also did not originally plan for an online version of this course. Furthermore, the UC system is not set up to provide supported online education. Online courses require faculty training, a lot of tech support, more flexible and multi-use software than iLearn/Blackboard, and most importantly, they require that all students have access to the technology they need to be successful. Since many of these elements are not in place, what we will be doing together is probably best understood as “learning during an emergency.” We will do our very best to stay connected, to be flexible and patient, and to lovingly recognize that this 1 year is a stressful time for all of us, students and professors alike. Our number one goal will be to take care of ourselves and each other. We need to prioritize our wellbeing and health this quarter and treat each other with compassion, care, and patience. We are in this together. I am here for you and would love to know about what kind of support you need (technical, emotional, basic needs: food access, housing, healthcare, mental healthcare). Please reach out to me at brandon.robinson@ucr.edu. Required Texts & Readings All required readings will be posted on iLearn under Course Materials. Class Format Synchronous Meeting on Zoom: We will meet on Zoom starting at 10:00am each Wednesday. The synchronous part of this course should last around 60 – 90 minutes every week. This part of the course will allow us to get to know each other, as well as discuss the class materials more indepth, engage in class exercises, and allow you to ask me questions. I strongly encourage you to please attend this weekly zoom session, as it will only be around an hour of your time each week. Importantly, when attending the weekly zoom session, I ask that you please have your camera on during the session to help us all foster a space of trusting and getting to know each other better. If you cannot turn your camera on for a zoom session, please let me know. Asynchronous Lectures and Videos: I will not be lecturing during our synchronous meetings. Instead, I will record my lectures and post them on iLearn at the beginning of each week. That is, by 9am on Monday of each week, I will post the videos that you need to watch for the week. Ideally, you should watch these videos before you come to the Wednesday zoom class. I will try to make sure that the videos I post each week add up to being under an hour. Therefore, if you want to watch the videos during the first scheduled class hour (from 9:00am to 10:00am each Wednesday), you can watch all the videos right before we meet on Zoom at 10:00am. Again, these videos will be a mixture of recordings of me lecturing, as well as other videos or podcasts for you to watch and listen to in order to understand the material for the week. Student Hours (aka Office Hours): My office hours will be from 2:00pm to 4:00pm every Wednesday. These hours are set aside for you to come meet with me one-on-one. We can use this time to get to know each other better and for you to ask me questions about the course material or anything else. These hours are set aside for you, so please come meet with me. As I don’t want to sit on Zoom more than I need to, I ask that if you want to meet with me to please schedule an appointment by going here: https://calendly.com/brandonandrewrobinson/. This scheduling of a meeting will also avoid wasting your time by having you sit in a zoom “waiting room” until I am available. Of course, if you cannot schedule a time with me during my office hours, please email me, and we can also find another time to meet. I really do want to get to know you as best as I can during this online world, so I encourage you to make use of my student/office hours. Assignments: More details are below about assignments and due dates. I just want to note here that all assignments – except for the final paper – will be due at 11:59pm PST on Sundays. 2 Course Assignments & Grading Weekly Assessment Exercise (40%): Each week, you will complete an assessment on iLearn. This assessment will be multiple choice, short answer, and other formats to help me make sure that you are learning the material for the week. If you watch the weekly videos and come to the weekly Zoom meeting, this assessment should be fairly quick and easy. There will be 8 assessments all together, beginning the week of the October 14th readings, with each assessment being 5% each. Each assessment must be completed by 11:59pm PST on Sunday of that week. For instance, for the week of the October 14th readings, the assessment must be completed by 11:59pm PST on Sunday, October 18th. Letter to a Loved One (15%): This letter will be 2-3 pages long. You will write a letter to a loved one explaining to them queer theory and central class concepts. Ideally, think of a loved one who you think would not approve of this course or the ideas presented in it. The point of this letter is to persuade the person that queer theory is important. More detailed instructions will be posted on iLearn. Please follow the formatting guidelines outlined on the assignment. This assignment is due Sunday, November 1 at 11:59pm PST. Queer Photo Essay (20%): You will present 5 photos with class concepts and descriptions for this photo essay. Your photo essay will utilize queer theory to tell a story and also to evoke emotions with the images you capture. More detailed instructions will be posted on iLearn. This assignment is due Sunday, November 22 at 11:59pm PST. COVID-19 Paper (25%): This paper will be 4-6 pages long. It will consist of using theories and concepts from the class to critically analyze your experience with COVID-19 and how this pandemic has shaped your life and your understanding of gender and sexuality. More detailed instructions will be posted on iLearn. Please follow the formatting guidelines outlined on the assignment. If doing this assignment will be too traumatic for you, please do not hesitate to let me know, and we can find a different writing assignment for you to do as your final paper. This assignment is due Wednesday, December 16 at 11:00am. Accommodations Students with Disabilities: If you have a disability or believe you may have a disability, you can arrange for accommodations by contacting Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) at 951827-4538 (voice) or specserv@ucr.edu (email). Students needing academic accommodations must first register with SSD and provide required disability-related documentation. If you already have approved accommodation(s), you are advised to notify the faculty instructor of record for this course privately. Religious Holy Days: If, with proper notice, you miss a class, exam, or quiz in order to observe a religious holy day, you will be given an opportunity to complete the missed work within a reasonable time after the absence. Students should make such requests of the instructor during the first two weeks of any academic term or as soon as possible after a particular examination date is announced by the instructor. 3 Academic Integrity During the course, you should maintain a high standard of individual honor and integrity in your scholastic work. Students who violate University rules on scholastic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary penalties, including the possibility of failure in the course and/or dismissal from the University. Cheating or plagiarism will not be tolerated. Scholastic dishonesty also includes, but is not limited to, providing false or misleading information to receive a postponement or an extension on an exam or other assignment, and submission of essentially the same written assignment for two courses without prior permission of the instructor. For more information, please see: conduct.ucr.edu. Course Schedule October 7 – Introduction & Checking In How are we doing during these unprecedented queer times? What is Gender? What is Sexuality? What is Queer Theory? October 14 – Queer Theory’s Foundations Combahee River Collective. 1981. “A Black Feminist Statement.” This Bridge Called My Back. Foucault, Michel. 1978. Excepts/Selections from The History of Sexuality. Rubin, Gayle. S. 1993 [1984]. “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality.” The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. Butler, Judith. 1994. “Against Proper Objects.” differences. DUE: 1st Assessment at 11:59pm PST on Sunday, October 18 October 21 – Queer Theory’s Central Concepts Rich, Adrienne. 1980. “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence.” Signs. Cohen, Cathy. 1997. “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics?” GLQ. Duggan, Lisa. 2002. “The New Homonormativity: The Sexual Politics of Neoliberalism.” Materializing Democracy. DUE: 2nd Assessment at 11:59pm PST on Sunday, October 25 4 October 28 – Queer of Color Critique Muñoz, José. 1999. “Introduction: Performing Disidentifications.” Disidentifications. Johnson, E. Patrick. 2001. “‘Quare Studies,’ or (Almost) Everything I Know About Queer Studies I Learned from My Grandmother.” Text and Performance Quarterly. Ferguson, Roderick. 2004. “Introduction: Queer of Color Critique, Historical Materialism, and Canonical Sociology.” Aberrations in Black. DUE: 3rd Assessment at 11:59pm PST on Sunday, November 1 DUE: Letter to a Loved One at 11:59pm PST on Sunday, November 1 November 4 – The Anti-Relational/Anti-Social Turn Edelman, Lee. 2004. “The Future Is Kid Stuff.” No Future. Ahmed, Sara. 2010. “Introduction: Why Happiness? Why Now?” The Promise of Happiness. Halberstam, J. 2011. “The Queer Art of Failure.” The Queer Art of Failure. DUE: 4th Assessment at 11:59pm PST on Sunday, November 8 November 11 – Veteran’s Day ***No Class*** Event Today: GSST Book Salon Series, 12-2PM via Zoom – Please attend if you can! Professor Jane Ward (in Dialogue with Professor Angela Jones) on Dr. Ward’s new book The Tragedy of Heterosexuality. November 18 – Queer Space, Bodies, and Time Halberstam, J. 2005. “Queer Temporality and Postmodern Geographies.” In a Queer Time and Place. Muñoz, José. 2009. “Introduction: Feeling Utopia.” Cruising Utopia. McRuer, Robert. 2006. “Compulsory Able-Bodiedness and Queer/Disabled Existence.” The Disability Studies Reader. DUE: 5th Assessment at 11:59pm PST on Sunday, November 22 5 DUE: Queer Photo Essay at 11:59pm PST on Sunday, November 22 November 25 – Queer Theory & COVID-19 ***If it is too traumatic for you to read about and discuss this current pandemic, please let me know, and we can find alternative readings for you to do for this week. Crimp, Douglas. 1987. “How to Have Promiscuity in an Epidemic.” October. Anderson, Austin R. and Eric Knee. 2020. “Queer Isolation or Queering Isolation? Reflecting Upon the Ramifications of COVID-19 on the Future of Queer Leisure Spaces.” Leisure Sciences. Browne, Kath, Niharika Banerjea, and Leela Bakshi. 2020. “Survival and Liveability in #COVIDtimes: Queer Women’s Transnational Witnessing of COVID-19.” Dialogues in Human Geography. Haritaworn, Jin. 2020. “#NoGoingBack: Queer Leaps at the Intersection of Protest and COVID19.” Journal of Environmental Media. DUE: 6th Assessment at 11:59pm PST on Sunday, November 29 December 2 – Homonationalism & Imperialism Puar, Jasbir and Amir Rai. 2002. “Monster, Terrorist, Fag: The War on Terrorism and the Production of Docile Patriots.” Social Text. Morgensen, Scott Lauria. 2010. “Settler Homonationalism: Theorizing Settler Colonialism within Queer Modernities.” GLQ. Patil, Vrushali. 2018. “The Heterosexual Matrix as Imperial Effect.” Sociological Theory. DUE: 7th Assessment at 11:59pm PST on Sunday, December 6 December 9 – Trans Studies Interventions Stryker, Susan. 1994. “My Words to Victor Frankenstein Above the Village of Chamounix: Performing Transgender Rage.” GLQ. Valentine, David. 2012. “Sue E. Generous: Toward a Theory of Non-Transexuality.” Feminist Studies. Snorton, C. Riley and Jin Haritaworn. 2013. “Trans Necropolitics: A Transnational Reflection on Violence, Death, and the Trans of Color Afterlife.” The Transgender Studies Reader 2. DUE: 8th Assessment at 11:59pm PST on Sunday, December 13 DUE: COVID-19 Paper at 11:00am on Wednesday, December 16 6