GNSE 10100-10200. Problems in the Study of Gender; Problems in the Study of Sexuality.

This two-quarter interdisciplinary sequence is designed as an introduction to theories and critical practices in the study of feminism, gender, and sexuality. Both classic texts and recent conceptualizations of these contested fields are examined. Problems and cases from a variety of cultures and historical periods are considered, and the course pursues their differing implications in local, national, and global contexts. Both quarters also engage questions of aesthetics and representation, asking how stereotypes, generic conventions, and other modes of circulated fantasy have contributed to constraining and emancipating people through their gender or sexuality.

GNSE 15002-15003. Gender and Sexuality in World Civilizations I-II.

This two-quarter sequence aims to expand students’ exposure to an array of texts—theoretical, historical, religious, literary, visual—that address the fundamental place of gender and sexuality in the social, political, and cultural creations of different civilizations. This sequence meets the general education requirement in civilization studies.

GNSE 20170. The Sociology of Deviant Behavior. 100 Units.

This course examines how distinctions between "normal" and "deviant" are created, and how these labels shift historically, culturally, and politically. We analyze the construction of social problems and moral panics (e.g., smoking, "satanic" daycares, obesity) to explore how various moral entrepreneurs shape what some sociologists call a "culture of fear." Additionally, we investigate the impact on individuals of being labeled "deviant" either voluntarily or involuntarily, as a way of illustrating how both social control and social change operate in society.

Instructor(s): K. Schilt     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): SOCI 20175

GNSE 21001. Cultural Psychology. 100 Units.

There is a substantial portion of the psychological nature of human beings that is neither homogeneous nor fixed across time and space. At the heart of the discipline of cultural psychology is the tenet of psychological pluralism, which states that the study of "normal" psychology is the study of multiple psychologies and not just the study of a single or uniform fundamental psychology for all peoples of the world. Research findings in cultural psychology thus raise provocative questions about the integrity and value of alternative forms of subjectivity across cultural groups. In this course we analyze the concept of "culture" and examine ethnic and cross-cultural variations in mental functioning with special attention to the cultural psychology of emotions, self, moral judgment, categorization, and reasoning. (B*, C*; 2*, 3*)

Instructor(s): R. Shweder     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Third- or fourth-year standing. Instructor consent required.
Equivalent Course(s): CHVD 31000,PSYC 23000,PSYC 33000,ANTH 24320,ANTH 35110,HDCP 41050,GNSE 31000,AMER 33000,CHDV 21000

GNSE 21400. Advanced Theories of Sex/Gender. 100 Units.

Beginning with the extension of the democratic revolution in the breakup of the New Left, this seminar will expore the key debates (foundations, psychoanalysis, sexual difference, universalism, multiculturalism) around which gender and sexuality came to be articulated as politically significant categories in the late 1980s and the 1990s.

Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Completion of GNDR 10100-10200 and GNDR 28505 or 28605 or permission of instructor
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 21400,ARTH 31400,ENGL 21401,ENGL 30201,GNSE 31400,MAPH 36500,PLSC 21410,PLSC 31410

GNSE 21500. Darwinian Health. 100 Units.

This course will use an evolutionary, rather than clinical, approach to understanding why we get sick. In particular, we will consider how health issues such as menstruation, senescence, pregnancy sickness, menopause, and diseases can be considered adaptations rather than pathologies. We will also discuss how our rapidly changing environments can reduce the benefits of these adaptations. (A)

Instructor(s): J. Mateo     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor only.
Equivalent Course(s): CHDV 21500,HIPS 22401

GNSE 22401. Latina/o Intellectual Thought. 100 Units.

Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 22804,LACS 22804,SPAN 22801,CMLT 21401

GNSE 22704. Sex and Sexualities in Modern U.S. History. 100 Units.

This course explores the complex and often hidden history of American sexualities, from the late 19th century to the present day. We will read a wide range of primary sources—including published and unpublished documents, photographs, films, and oral histories—as well as recent scholarship on the history and politics of sex and sexual subcultures in 20th-century America in order to chart the changing social organization and cultural meaning of sexual practices and desires. Topics to be examined include: the relatively recent emergence of hetero- and homosexuality as predominant categories of sexual experience and identity; the contested boundaries drawn between same-sex sociability, friendship, and eroticism; the politics of everyday life and representations of sex and sexualities in popular culture; and the significance of gender, class, racial/ethnic, and generational differences. This course is designed to serve as the third in a series of offerings the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality has offered in conjunction with its ongoing research project, "Closeted/Out in the Quadrangles: An LGBTQ History of the University of Chicago."

Instructor(s): M. Mercado     Terms Offered: Autumn 2013

GNSE 23100. Foucault and The History of Sexuality. 100 Units.

This course centers on a close reading of the first volume of Michel Foucault’s The History of Sexuality, with some attention to his writings on the history of ancient conceptualizations of sex. How should a history of sexuality take into account scientific theories, social relations of power, and different experiences of the self? We discuss the contrasting descriptions and conceptions of sexual behavior before and after the emergence of a science of sexuality. Other writers influenced by and critical of Foucault are also discussed. (A)

Instructor(s): A. Davidson     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): One prior philosophy course is strongly recommended.
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 24800,CMLT 25001,FNDL 22001,HIPS 24300

GNSE 27202. Psychoanalysis and Feminism: Freud, Lacan, Klein, Winnicott, and Their Feminist Interlocutors. 100 Units.

What can psychoanalysis teach us about human psychological development in general and human sexual development in particular? Can the development of both men and women be captured in one general psychoanalytic framework or are two different explanatory schemes required? How has psychoanalysis evolved since Freud in the way it accounts for femininity, women’s psychological development, and the role of the mother in her child’s development? In this course, we will examine leading psychoanalytic accounts of human development, as well as feminist critiques and applications of these accounts. In the first part of the course, we will study some of Sigmund Freud’s classical texts which deal with sexual development, while discussing the relations between repressed ideas, bodily symptoms, and the talking cure, as well as the seduction hypothesis, infantile sexuality, and the Oedipal Complex. We will also consider some of Freud’s late writings about female sexuality and femininity, as well as early critiques by Karl Abraham, Karen Horney, and Helen Deutsch regarding Freud’s views on feminine development. In the second part of the course, we will discuss Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalytic account of human development, focusing on his characterization of both pre-Oedipal development and the Oedipal Complex. We will then examine three leading French feminist accounts: Simone de Beauvoir’s attempt to reconcile femininity and agency, Luce Irigaray’s critique of Freud and Lacan and her own account of feminine subjectivity, and Julia Kristeva’s use of the semiotic and her alternative account of the pre-Oedipal period. In the third part of the course, we will examine key psychoanalytic ideas from the object relations theories of Melanie Klein and Donald Winnicott, while paying close attention to their emphasis on the mother’s role in child development. We will then study Nancy Chodorow’s incorporation of object relations into feminist theory in her well-known book The Reproduction of Mothering, as well as more recent applications of Kleinian and Winnicottian ideas to feminist theory.

Instructor(s): N. Ben Moshe     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 25403

GNSE 27605. U.S. Legal History. 100 Units.

This course focuses on the connections between law and society in modern America. It explores how legal doctrines and constitutional rules have defined individual rights and social relations in both the public and private spheres. It also examines political struggles that have transformed American law. Topics to be addressed include the meaning of rights; the regulation of property, work, race, and sexual relations; civil disobedience; and legal theory as cultural history. Readings include legal cases, judicial rulings, short stories, and legal and historical scholarship.

Instructor(s): A. Stanley     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): AMER 27605,CRES 27605,HMRT 27061,LLSO 28010,HIST 27605

GNSE 27702. Gender in the Balkans through Literature and Film. 100 Units.

This introductory course examines the poetics of femininity and masculinity in some of the best works of the Balkan region. We contemplate how the experiences of masculinity and femininity are constituted and the issues of socialization related to these modes of being. Topics include the traditional family model, the challenges of modernization and urbanization, the socialist paradigm, and the post-socialist changes. Finally, we consider the relation between gender and nation, especially in the context of the dissolution of Yugoslavia. All work in English.

Instructor(s): A. Ilieva     Terms Offered: Winter

GNSE 28604. Law and Social Movements in Modern America. 100 Units.

This course traces and examines the relationship of law and social movements in the United States since 1865. We examine how lawyers and ordinary citizens have used the law to support the expansion of social, political, and economic rights in America. We also look at how the state and civic organizations have shaped and deployed law to criminalize the strategies of social reform movements and stifle dissent.

Instructor(s): J. Dailey     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 28604,HMRT 28604,LLSO 28604

GNSE 29600. Feminist Philosophy. 100 Units.

The course is an introduction to the major varieties of philosophical feminism: Liberal Feminism (Mill, Wollstonecraft, Okin, Nussbaum), Radical Feminism (MacKinnon, Andrea Dworkin), Difference Feminism (Gilligan, Held, Noddings), and Postmodern "Queer" Feminism (Rubin, Butler). After studying each of these approaches, we will focus on political and ethical problems of contemporary international feminism, asking how well each of the approaches addresses these problems. (I)

Instructor(s): M. Nussbaum     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates by permission only.
Equivalent Course(s): HMRT 31900,LAWS 47701,PLSC 51900,RETH 41000,PHIL 31900

GNSE 50101. Law-Philosophy Workshop: Life and Death. 100 Units.

This is a seminar/workshop many of whose participants are faculty from various related disciplines. It admits approximately ten students. Its aim is to study, each year, a topic that arises in both philosophy and the law and to ask how bringing the two fields together may yield mutual illumination. Most sessions are led by visiting speakers, from either outside institutions or our own faculty, who circulate their papers in advance. The session consists of a brief introduction by the speaker, followed by initial questioning by the two faculty coordinators, followed by general discussion, in which students are given priority. Several sessions involve students only, and are led by the instructors. Students write a 20-25 page seminar paper at the end of the year. The course satisfies the Law School Substantial Writing Requirement. There are approximately four meetings in each of the three quarters. Students must therefore enroll for all three quarters.

Instructor(s): M. Nussbaum     Terms Offered: Autumn, WInter, Spring
Prerequisite(s): Students are admitted by permission of the two instructors. They should submit a c.v. and a statement (reasons for interest in the course, relevant background in law and/or philosophy) to the instructors by e-mail. Usual participants include graduate students in philosophy, political science, and divinity, and law students.
Note(s): Students must enroll for all three quarters.
Equivalent Course(s): LAWS 61512,RETH 51301,HMRT 51301,PHIL 51200