Ateneo - UPO

GENDER AND SEXUALITY: CONTEMPORARY CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES

Adele Clark e Donna Haraway, Making kin. Fare parentele, non popolazioni (DeriveApprodi 2022)

Jack Halberstam, L'arte queer del fallimento (Minimum Fax 2022)

Colette Guillaumin, Sesso, razza e pratica del potere. L'idea di natura (Ombre Corte 2020)

Rosi Braidotti, Materialismo radicale. Itinerari etici per cyborg e cattive ragazze (Meltemi 2019)

* To gain a basic knowledge of the history of concepts and practices connected with feminism and sexual movements since the 1970’s, with a special focus on body politics and gender performances.
* To connect theories, everyday practices and politics around gender and sexuality with a contemporary perspective.
*To be able to present and discuss the wide-ranging positions in texts and visual materials examined in the seminar, both orally (in class discussions) and in writing (short reports and the final essay), avoiding generalizations and commonplaces.
*To develop the skill to write an argumentative essay on the topics of the seminar in compliance with the conventions of academic writing; to learn how to make bibliographical searches, first under supervision, then autonomously.

Preferable knowledge of English in order to have access to further critical literature.
Ability to write an argumentative text in Italian.

Introductory lectures; seminar discussions on texts and visual materials weekly assigned by the teacher or recommended by invited guests.

Given the nature of this seminar module, regular attendance is highly advisable (min. 80%). Maximum number of participants: 20.

Non-attending students are able to participate remotely during the course of the seminar through the following acitivities:
1) answering to questions on each assigned text
2) writing a 300-word abstract on each assigned text.

Written paper on a topic relevant to the seminar and agreed upon with the teacher (in Italian, length 10 pages, plus bibliography, using at least two academic sources). The paper must comply with the rules and conventions of academic writing, as specified in the guidelines given to the students.

Evaluation: written paper 80%; active participation 20%.

The seminar offers an introductory survey of the cultural, political and artistic debates sparked by the feminist movement and LGBTQ+ activism since the 1970’s, their persistence and transformation in the contemporary national and international context, with the help of the texts and audiovisual materials assigned by the teacher during the seminar. Guest experts may also take part in some of the meetings.

- Knowledge and comprehension skills: ability to read argumentative essays, identify key concepts and different points of view discussed therein; development of critical thinking around commonly held notions and their naturalization; ability to place the contemporary debates around body politics, gender and sexuality in their historical, political and cultural context, with a particular focus on complexity, non-neutrality, and the intersectionality of differences.

- Applied knowledge and comprehension skills: ability to compare and present, both orally and in a written essay, various positions by highlighting both differences and commonalities, while keeping analytically distinct the positions being discussed; ability to write an academic paper, adequately structured; knowledge of bibliographical tools and database search strategies.