GWS 430 GLOBAL SEXUALITIES
Department of Gender & Women's Studies
CSUN
Fall 2011
Time: T 4-6:45pm
Location: JR134
Prof. Breny Mendoza
Office: Jerome Richfield 340-L
Office phone: (818) 677-5641
E-mail: breny.mendoza@csun.edu
Office hours:
T 12:30-1:30pm
TH 10:30-1:30pm
Course Description
Global sexualities can mean many things at once, and a focus on homosexuality or queer experiences does not need to monopolize the meaning of the term.
Most people associate global sexualities with different sexual norms or gays in other countries. No matter how you define global sexualities, whether you focus on queerness or not, it is crucial that you develop: 1) a global imagination of sexuality that allows a multifaceted and plural understanding of sexuality and one that does not posit US conceptions or ideas of sexuality automatically at the top of some imaginary hierarchical system of homosexual or heterosexual norms and practices (heteronormativity nor homonormativity). 2) an understanding of the global that integrates the US in the equation of the global, that is, as a country that is part of the global community and not one standing outside or above it.
In this course we will refer to the term global sexualities in a more or less conventional way by including themes such as the counterintutitive effects of the globalization of US gay identities, the incredible diversity of conceptions and experiences of sexuality of different cultures and countries, the worldview of queer theorists and the mishappeness of queer theory (racism inside queer theory and culture; gay shame and shaming queer theory), and the use of queerness for global and glocal (the combination of the global and the local) domination purposes. Because many of these topics have been addressed mostly by queer theory and queer theory can boast now of having a “past,” since its development in the 90s, these topics will be framed within the most recent critical debates taking place in this academic field.
Required Texts:
Class Reader to be purchased at “Sunstar Copy & Print”, 9514 Reseda Blvd. #3.
On the corner of Reseda and Plummer. Ph: (818) 718-6151

Course Policies
Basic classroom ethic:

Attend all classes. Do not come late to class!
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Turn off your cell phones.
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Laptops, ipads, blackberries, and cell phones are to be utilized for coursework and activities related to coursework ONLY. Do not use these devices for entertainment during class meetings. Negative participation
(surfing, gaming, chatting, emailing) in class will reduce your participation grade by at least 1/2 letter grade - you are a distraction to others sitting nearby and to me. It is also very disrespectful.

Be respectful and un derstanding of others’ opinions. If you are feeling that your world ideas are tumbling down, stretch your imagination, put on someone else’s shoes on, take a deep breath, and love the experience of learning.
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Complete all readings and assignments before coming to class. This class will be led as a seminar. If you have not read, it is preferable that you stay home and catch up.
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You are allowed two unexcused absences. Beyond this point, your participation grade will be cut in half or more. Not having read the assignments for the day will not count as an excuse.
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Late assignments will not be accepted. Do not email me your papers, unless I ask you to post them online. Always bring a hard copy to class.
Major Classroom ethic:
Plagiarism
Academic honesty is assumed!! If you do not know what plagiarism is be sure you understand it immediately. Please, refer to Student Conduct Code in the fall
2011 Schedule of Classes. If you plagiarize, you will fail this class and the case will be handled according to the guidelines of the Student Conduct Code.
Remember:
Do not download papers and sign them as yours. Do not alter downloaded papers slightly or otherwise and make them appear as yours. Always quote properly.
Course Requirements
Class Blog
All students will post 4 blog entries. One entry will summarize the material on their day of assigned discussion leadership. This post should be designed with the intent to present the material in a way that is accessible to all students in the class. You will be graded on the accuracy and accessibility of your summary.

Each entry should be at least three paragraphs. Students will select the readings they will address from the syllabus. These summaries are due 24 hours before your presentation. Three additional entries will be responses to classmates’ blogs reflecting on the other students’ understandings of the readings and a short discussion on the possible applications of the concepts of the readings to real life situations.
Assigned Discussion Leadership
During the semester students will be assigned one day to facilitate a class discussion. You are responsible for guiding the class through the assigned reading for that day as well as fostering discussion for 30 minutes of class time.
You should integrate related information from contemporary media, such as a pertinent news story or public debate. Provide a bio sketch of the authors of the article you are assigned including a list of their major works. Students may sign up for a day on the class calendar. You may use handouts, PowerPoint, or a medium of your choice to engage the class. If you will use handouts or
PowerPoint, they must be submitted to the class via the course webpage email
24 hours before class. Late submissions will be penalized.
Term Paper
You will write a six-page, typed, double-spaced paper on a topic of your interest.
The topic of your choice should be related to the class topics. You must follow academic conventions by using proper referencing formats. Do not use Wikipedia as a source of information. Make sure you include at least three articles from peer-reviewed journals and two books. Do not forget to attach your bibliography at the end of the six pages of your paper. The paper is due on December 13,
2011. Upload your paper on Moodle.
Final Exam
You will have a final exam that will cover all the materials discussed in class, including films watched in the classroom. The exam will consist of short essay questions. The final exam will be posted on the course webpage in Moodle on
November 22, 2011. You will have all day to complete the exam.
Course Evaluation
Class attendance (10pts.)
Class blogs (25 pts.)
Discussion leadership (15 pts.)
Term Paper (25pts.)
Final Exam (25pts.)

Tentative Schedule
Week 1
8/30 General Introduction
Week 2
9/6
Critiques of Queer Theory
“Queer Theory Revisited” (2011) Michael Hames-García
Gay Latino Studies. Durham & London: Duke University Press
“Exploring Rifts in Transgender, Queer, and Feminist Theories” (2010) Patricia
Elliot in Debates in Transgender, Queer, and Feminist Theory . Surrey: Ashgate.
“Queer Theory” Postmortem” (2011) Jeff Nunokawa. in eds. Jalley, J. & Parker,
A.. After Sex . Durham & London: Duke University Press
Week 3
9/13
The Racial Politics of Queer Theory
“Introduction. Queer Liberalism and the Racialization of Intimacy” (2010) David L.
Eng. The Feeling of Kinship and Queer Liberalism and the Racialization of
Intimac y
“What’s Queer about Race?” (2011) Richard Thompson Ford in eds. Jalley, J. &
Parker, A. After Sex Durham & London: Duke University Press
“You can have my Brown Body and Eat it, Too!” Hiram Perez,
Week 4
9/20
On Gay Shame
“Gay Shame, Latina-and Latino-Style: A Critique of White Queer Performativity”
(2011) Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes. Gay Latino Studies. Durham & London:
Duke University Press
Comment. Ramón García
Gay Latino Studies (2011). Durham: Duke University Press
“Shame and White Gay Masculinity.” (2005) Judith Halberstam in A Queer Time and Place.
New York: New York University Press

Week 5
9/27
Global Queerness
“A World Without Homo-Hetero Duality: Rewriting the Traditional Chinese History of Same-Sex Eroticism
” ( 2000) in Chou Wah-shan
Tongzhi New York: The
Haworth Press.
“Japan’s Postwar Perverse Culture” (2005) in Mark McLelland.
Queer Japan from the Pacific War to the Internet Age Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
“Nocturnal Queers: Rent Boys in Istanbul.” Cenk Ösbay. Sexualities . October
2010 13 (645-663)
Week 6 Global Queerness cont’d.
10/4
“Introduction: Globalization and the French (Gay) Resistance (2007) in Denis M.
Provencher. Queer French Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing Company
“Revolution. Strawberry and Chocolate” (2000) José Quiroga. Tropics of Desire .
New York: New York University Press
“Latino Dolls” (2000) José Quiroga. Tropics of Desire . New York: New York
University Press
“Queering Anarchism in Post 2001 Buenos Aires” Sexualities 2010 13” 495
Week 7
10/11
Cross-Cultural Comparative Queer Analyses
“Double Trouble: Doing Gender in Hong Kong.” (2010). Marie-Paule Ha in eds.
Hayes, et al Comparatively Queer New York: Palgrave Macmillan
“Universal Particularities: Conceptions of Sexuality, Nationality, and Culture in
France and the United States”
“Syncretic Religion and Dissident Sexualities.” (2002) Roberto Strongman Queer
Globalizations . New York: New York University Press
Week 8

10/18
AIDS and Empire
“Imperial Moralities and Grassroots Realities” (2009) in Ida Susser AIDS, Sex, and Culture. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell
“Of Nevirapine and African Potatoes: Shifts in Public Discourse” (2009) in Ida
Susser AIDS, Sex, and Culture Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell
Week 9
10/25
Queer Migrants and the Law
“Gay Enough: Some Tension in Seeking the Grant of Asylum and Protecting
Global Sexual Diverity” (2005) Alice M. Miller in B. Epps et al. Passing Lines .
Cambridge: Harvard University Press
“Having Words for Everything. Institutionalizing Gender Migration in Spain (1998-
2008) Patriciia Soley-Beltran & Gerard Coll-Planas in Sexualities . June 2011;
(14) 3
“Shifting the Scene of the Crime: Sodomy and the American History of Sexual
Violence” Stephen Robertson
Journal of the History of Sexuality May 2010
Week 10
11/1
Global Transgender Issues (ONLINE SESSION)
“Nostalgia, Desire, Diaspora: South Asian Sexualities in Motion”, Gayatri
Gopinath in Queer Studies (2003) eds. Corber, R.J. & Valocchi, S. Malden:
Blackwell Publishing
“A Man in the House: The Boyfriends of Brazilian Travesti Prostitutes”, Don
Kulick in Queer Studies (2003) eds. Corber, R.J. & Valocchi, S. Malden:
Blackwell Publishing
“Beyond Borders. Lived Experiences of Atypically Gendered Transexual People”
(2010) Sara Davidman. in Transgender Identities eds. S. Hines & T. Sanger.
New York: Routledge
Week 11
11/8
Globalization and Homonationalism

“ The Nation and Sexual Dissidence” (2004). Jon Binnie. The Globalization of
Sexuality London: Sage Publications
“ Queer Postcolonialism”. Jon Binnie. (2004). The Globalization of Sexuality
London: Sage Publications
Week 12
11/15
The Sexuality of Terrorism
“Paranoid Empire Specters from Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib” (2009) Ann
McClintock in States of Emergency Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina
Press
“The Sexuality of Terrorism.” (2007). Jasbir K. Puar in Terrorist Assemblages ,
Durham: Duke University Press
“Abu Ghraib and US Sexual Exceptionalism.”(2007). Jasbir K. Puar in Terrorist
Assemblages . Durham: Duke University Press
Week 13
11/22
FINAL EXAM
Week 14 CONCLUSIONS
11/29 Guest: Veronique Courtois
Week 15 Queer Studies at CSUN. Meet the faculty.
12/6
Week of Exams 12/13
Term Paper due