69583 - Gender Studies (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

This course introduces students to the theoretical and methodological foundations of the interdisciplinary field of Gender Studies. The course maps the genealogy and main contemporary debates in feminist, LGBT and queer studies, with particular attention to the study of queer sexual cultures.

Course contents

The course aims to explore some of the most important stages in the development of the broad and interdisciplinary field of Gender Studies.

In the first part of the course, the processes of historical, social and cultural construction of some conceptual categories at the centre of theoretical reflection in Gender Studies will be traced from a decolonial and anti-racist, feminist perspective. These include: sex, gender, sexuality, woman, identity, body, ‘race’, citizenship, ...

In the second part, particular attention will be paid to the reconstruction of the genealogies and practices of the feminist, trans*, LGBTQIA+ and postcolonial movements that have animated this field of study since the 1970s, expanding and enriching it with new perspectives and methodologies.

In the last part of the course, the lectures will take on a seminar format, addressing themes/case studies at the heart of feminist movements and debates, present and past, also starting from the literature on the reading list (or from other texts and suggestions that will emerge during the course).

At this stage, the participants will schedule presentations (individual or group), which will be discussed collectively in class.

The course will be structured according to a mixed didactic method, consisting of both lectures and thematic seminars. In the latter, students will be expected to participate actively, giving collective presentations on topics to be discussed with the lecturer.

Presentations and participation in class will be evaluated (30% and 10% of the final grade, respectively). This mode is designed in order to improve the critical and methodological skills to investigate the processes of cultural and embodied construction of genders and sexualities, and creation/representation/subversion of gender stereotypes, as well as to recognize the hegemonic (and thus, power) dimension of cisheteronormativity.

Readings/Bibliography

The list of texts and articles is being updated, so please check the course website regularly.

Mandatory texts for attending and nonattending students:

Connel, R. (2009), Gender. In World Perspective, Polity Press (anche edizioni più recenti)

 

At students choice (one book for those who attend the course, two for those who do not):

[Chapters can be selected from the texts marked with an asterisk (*) as an alternative to articles]

 

Ahmed, S. (2017), Living a Feminist Life, Duke University Press, 2017

Butler J. (1990), Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, Routledge

*Cossutta C., Greco V., Mainardi A., Voli S. (2022) Digital Fissures: Bodies, Genders, Technologies, Brill

Davis, A. Y. (1981), Women, Race and Class, Random House

De Lauretis T. (1987), Technologies of Gender: Essays on Theory, Film, and Fiction, Indiana University Press, Bloomington

Feinberg L. (1993), Stone Butch Blues, Firebrand Books, Ithaca and New York.

Giomi, E., Magaraggia, S. (2022), Male and Female Violence in Popular Media, Bloomsbury

Halberstam, J. J. (2011), The queer art of failure, Duke University Press, 2011

hooks, b. (1981), Ain’t I a women. Black women and feminism, South End Press

Likke, N. (2010), Feminist Studies, A Guide to Intersectional Theory, Methodology and Writing, Taylor&Francis

Lorde, A. (1982), Zami: A new spelling of my name

Marcasciano, P. (2023), AntoloGaia: Queering the Seventies, A Radical Trans Memoir, Rutgers University Press

Mohanty, C. T. (2003), Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity, Duke University Press

Monro, S. (2005), Gender politics: citizenship, activism and sexual diversity, Pluto Press, London

Passerini, L. (1996) Autobiography of a Generation: Italy, 1968, Wesleyan University Press

Preciado, B. P. (2013), Testo Junkie: Sex, Drugs, and Biopolitics in the Pharmacopornographic Era, The Feminist Press at CUNY

Serano, J. (2013), Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive, Seal Press

*Stryker S., Aizura A. Z. (2014), a cura di, The Transgender Studies Reader 2, Routledge, New York

*Stryker S., Whittle S. (2006), a cura di, The Transgender Studies Reader, Routledge, New York.

Stryker, S. (2017), Transgender History: The Roots of Today's Revolution, Seal Press

 

Articles:

Casaglia, A. (2022), "Pornography at the Border: Ethnosexual Borderscapes, Gendered Violence, and Embodied Control" in GEOPOLITICS, v. 2022, 27, n. 1, p. 185-205

Collins P. H., & Bilge S. (2016) Chapter 1 “What is intersectionality” in Collins, Bilge (2016) Intersectionality. Polity Press (Any edition is fine)

Crenshaw, K. (1995), “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politic, and Violence against Women of Color”, in After Identity: A Reader in Law and Culture. Eds. Dan Danielson and Karen Engle, New York: Routledge, 1995.

Evolvi G. (2022), “The Theory of Hypermediation: Anti-Gender Christian Groups and Digital Religion”, Journal of Media and Religion, 21(2), pp. 69-88

Fausto-Sterling, A. (2019), "Gender/Sex, Sexual Orientation, and Identity Are in the Body: How Did They Get There?", The Journal of Sex Research, 56(4-5), 529–555

Ferrante, A. A. (2019), “Biopower Is The New Black: Gender Refractions And Reflections Between Panopticon And Television”, Iperstoria, 14

Finn E. (2018), “Collective Memory and the Transfeminist 1970s: Toward a Less Plausible History”, TSQ, 5(1), 1 February 2018, pp. 9-29

Mainardi, A. (2020) Gendered Identity, in Ross et al (eds.) The International Encyclopedia of Gender, Media, and Communication, John Wiley & Sons

Koyama, E. (2001), The Transfeminist Manifesto

Lugones, M. (2020), Gender and Universality in Colonial Methodology, in «Critical philosophy of race», vol. 8, nos. 1–2, 2020, pp. 25-47

Sandy Stone, S. (2006), “The “Empire” Strikes Back: a Posttranssexual Manifesto” (1987), in Susan Stryker – Stephen Whittle (eds-), The Transgender Studies Reader, Routledge, 2006, pp, 221-235

Scott, JW (1986) “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis”, in American Historical Review 5(91), pp. 1053-75

Stryker, S (1994) “My Words to Victor Frankenstein Above the Village of Chamounix: Performing Transgender Rage”, in GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 1(3),pp. 237-254.

Stryker S., Currah P. et al. (2008), “Introduction: Trans-, Trans, or Transgender?”, WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly, 36, 3-4, pp. 11-22.

Tafakori, S. (2020). Postcolonialism. in Ross et al (eds.) The International Encyclopedia of Gender, Media, and Communication. John Wiley & Sons.

TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, Special Issue ‘‘Postposttranssexual: Key Concepts for a Twenty-First-Century Transgender Studies” vol. 1, 1–2, 2014 (min. 8 chapters)

Voli, S. (2015), “Broadening the Gendered Polis. Italian Feminist and Transsexual Movements, 1979-1982”, Transgender Studies Quarterly, 3.1, Special issue: Trans/feminism, Duke University Press, p. 235-245

Voli, S. (2018), “(Trans)gender citizenship in Italy: a contradiction in terms? From the parliamentary debate about Law 164/1982 to the present”, Modern Italy, 23, p. 201-214

Voli, S. (2023), “Feminist and trans movements in Italy: on the trails of a(n) (im)possible relationship”, Contemporanea, 4, p. 684-689

Teaching methods

The course will be structured according to a mixed didactic method, consisting of both lectures and thematic seminars. In the latter, students will be expected to participate actively, giving collective presentations on topics to be discussed with the lecturer.

The lectures will also include the viewing of documentaries and films, and the analysis of historical documents and photographs.

Assessment methods

Attending students:

1) Discussion & in-class participation (10% of the final mark)

2) Presentation of one reading (individual or in-group task, depending on the number of attending students; 30% of the final mark). Each student or group will present one article/chapter, selected among the list of readings, during the scheduled sessions. The oral presentation is meant to resume the main contents, present the group’s critical re-elaboration of the reading, and launch some key questions for the classroom debate.

3) Final essay (individual task, 60% of the final mark) based on selected readings.

 

The final paper must be based on:

- Lecture notes/Material provided by the lecturer in the classroom

- Compulsory texts

- 1 text of your choice

- 1 article/chapter

Approx. 10,000 characters (excluding bibliography)

The topic of the final paper and the in-class presentation may coincide.

 

Non-attending students:

The final paper must be based on:

- Material provided by the lecturer

- Compulsory texts

- 2 texts of your choice

- 3 articles/chapters

15,000 characters (excluding bibliography)

Teaching tools

Students who require specific services and adaptations to teaching activities due to a disability or specific learning disorders (SLD), must first contact the appropriate office: https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students.

Office hours

See the website of Stefania Voli