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01:888:338:01 Transnational Sexualities
Fall 2011
Course Syllabus
Time: Tuesday/Thursday 7:15—8.35pm
Place: Ruth Adams Building 104
Instructor: Professor Aren Aizura
Office: Institute for Research on Women, 160 Ryders Lane, Douglass Campus
Office phone:
Email: aren.aizura@rutgers.edu
Office hour: Tuesdays 5:00pm — 6:00pm or by appointment
Course Sakai site:
https://sakai.rutgers.edu/portal/site/b9ede489-c5c9-40d8-9ee0-0caec10daf76
Course Description
The contemporary forces of cultural, economic, and political globalization continue to alter
and redefine conceptualizations of "sexuality" and its relationships to gender. In this class
our basic question is thus: How do we situate cultural, geographical, and historical
understandings of sexuality while remaining attentive to homophobic, oppressive, and
violent state and individual practices? In framing this question we pay particular attention to
how "oppression" is often posited through a liberal human rights framework. This class
fosters an interdisciplinary discussion through queer, feminist, and postcolonial theory,
globalization studies, literature, film, and ethnography. We will examine concepts of identity,
sexual practices and queerness in relation to formulations of the local-global, nations, the
transnational, family, homeland, diaspora, community, borders, margins, urban-rural. Queer
sexualities remain central to the discussion and material in this class in order to deconstruct
narrow heterosexual/homosexual oppositions. Methodologically, we will bring postcolonial,
transnational, queer, and feminist disciplinary approaches to bear upon one another. In order
to produce more satisfying understandings of intersections of race and sexuality, we will
navigate the prevalence of the privileging of racial and ethnic difference in ethnic studies,
postcolonial theory, and transnational studies, as well as the privileging of sexual difference
in sexuality studies, gay and lesbian studies, and queer theory. The course structure is divided
into three sections: representation and iconographies of transnational sexualities; issues
around activism, law and citizenship; and finally a survey of current dilemmas and debates
within transnational sexuality studies. Under these headings, we’ll talk about the following
topics: distinguishing between “gender” and “sexuality”; desire and exoticism; sex work and
trafficking; queer global immigration flows; HIV/AIDS organizing; "sexual rights"
discourses and legislative practices; global NGO culture; queer nationalisms; queer
transnational labor flows; tourism and travel; and queer gentrification.
01:888:338:01 Transnational Sexualities Syllabus
Instructor: Professor Aren Aizura
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Learning Goals
Departmental learning goals met by this course:
• Effectively communicate orally and in writing and engage in critical analysis of words
and the world
• Interrogate cultural stereotypes and naturalizations of hierarchies of difference
• Recognize the complexity and variety of lives and livelihoods around the globe
• Analyze power dynamics from the micro-level to the macro-level
• Undertake innovative research and knowledge production
• Devise creative strategies to promote social change
• Collaborate across differences with others in course work, co-curricular activities,
and in life
Learning goals specific to this course:
• Demonstrate an understanding of the critical meanings of key terms: gender,
sexuality, nation, citizenship, transnationality, circulation, globality etc
• Demonstrate an understanding of how concepts such as gender and sexuality
change across languages, geographical regions, nations and cultures
• Demonstrate skill in researching, planning and writing papers, incorporating
an analytical understanding of key concepts in the course
• Demonstrate the capacity to form your own opinion within debates about
transnational genders and sexualities, drawing on perspectives from inside and
outside class
Weekly required readings
Required readings are set for each week of the course. PDF copies of the set readings will be
made available on Sakai under the Resources tab. Please check Sakai in the first few weeks of
class to locate the weekly readings; they will be filed in folders for each week.
Do your readings before class. Schedule at least two hours per class meeting in your
calendar to get the reading done. If it turns out that most people aren’t doing the readings
before class, I will institute weekly quizzes as part of the final grade.
In Class Discussion and Note-Taking
This is a seminar, not a lecture class. The success of the discussion depends on all of us
being present rather than checked out. Thus I am banning all use of cell phones, droids,
iPads, laptops and other electronic equipment in class, unless you need to use them for
reasons of accessibility or disability. Please turn off your phone when you enter the
classroom; and for laptop users, turn off your wifi.
Please take written notes and bring printed, paper versions of your reading assignments each
week, xerox allowance permitting.
01:888:338:01 Transnational Sexualities Syllabus
Instructor: Professor Aren Aizura
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Class Attendance and Late Assignments
In order to succeed in this course, you need to attend classes, complete assignments on time
and keep up with the weekly readings. Part of your final grade will be based on your
attendance (see below). As an instructor, it’s my responsibility to offer interesting, fun and
challenging teaching material. In return, I expect students to attend classes on time, to
participate in group activities, to ask questions, pay attention and think critically.
Attendance Requirements: I will be taking an attendance roll for every class. If you need to
miss a lecture for medical or personal reasons, please talk to me in advance or provide me
with a medical certificate. You can miss two classes without providing a medical certificate
or other form of excuse: after two, I will begin to dock your attendance mark.
Late Assignments: Assignments turned in after their deadlines will be marked down a ½
grade for each day late (e.g., A goes to A-) unless other arrangements have been made in
advance or in instances of documented medical reason.
If you are having serious health problems or a personal emergency and fall behind, please
come and see me as soon as possible. We may be able to arrange for you to catch up on
missed work. I can also direct you to student services that may assist you if you’re having
difficulties. However, attending classes and completing assignments on time is the best way
to keep up with the course.
Course Requirements
Your grade will be based on your performance, meeting assignment deadlines, regular and
prompt attendance and class participation. The grade breakdown is as follows:
Attendance and participation
Teaching presentations
Midterm exam
Staged research essay
Attendance and participation
20%
20%
20%
40%
20%
Attendance is required. Absences will only be excused with a doctor's note or in cases of
emergency. More than two unexcused absences will lower your grade. Since this is an upper
division seminar class it is imperative that you come prepared to discuss the assigned reading
material. Participation means taking part in discussions, asking questions if you don’t
understand a concept or argument, pulling your weight in group activities. Remember, no
question is too dumb or obvious — if it seems “stupid”, probably half the class is thinking it.
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Instructor: Professor Aren Aizura
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Teaching Presentations
20%
In groups of two, you will be responsible for presenting and leading discussion on an
assigned article. For the assigned article, you will prepare a handout, minimum 3 pages,
which MUST include the following:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
a summary of the main points of the argument
the purposes of the scholarly intervention or research inquiry
an analysis of the author’s theoretical frames and methodologies
a critique of the arguments and evidence to support your critique
keyword definitions, highlighting unfamiliar terminology and concepts
links you can make to other readings or topics
questions for class discussion
Note: The readings should not be divided up individually. This is a group assignment and
the handout and presentation must reflect this. No credit will be given if the collective effort
is unclear.
Sign up for reading assignments will take place in Week One. Expect to make at least two
teaching presentations throughout semester.
Midterm take-home exam
Due Thursday October 11
20%
The midterm examination will cover materials from weekly readings and in-class discussions.
This will be a take-home exam to be typed and printed out with references and a
bibliography. The exam paper will be handed out in class on Tuesday October 4 and will be
due at 5pm sharp on Thursday October 11.
Final staged research essay
Due Tuesday December 13
40%
The final assignment is a staged research essay on a topic that you choose. Students will
write a research question (to be approved by me), submit a research bibliography, and finally
submit the essay. The final essay will be 12 pages long, plus footnotes and bibliography.
Grading will be based on a percentage for each stage: the research question, bibliography,
and final essay. We’ll discuss this more in class and you’ll receive a detailed handout with
instructions and deadlines for each stage.
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Instructor: Professor Aren Aizura
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Grading Criteria
Grading for written assignments from A through F will be based on the following categories:
Critical and thoughtful analysis
Grasp of key term and concepts
Initiative taken in researching and reading
Written expression
Structure (i.e., essay and exam have strong introduction, body and conclusion)
Correct referencing and bibliography
Presentation: assignments typed in 12 point font, double-spaced with wide margins
Academic Integrity
Students are responsible for understanding the principles of academic integrity fully and
abiding by them in all their work at the university. Information on violations of academic
integrity, including cheating, plagiarism, fabrication, etc can be found in the Rutgers New
Brunswick course catalog:
http://catalogs.rutgers.edu/generated/nb-ug_current/pg1206.html
Note: This class deals with sexuality in an explicit and frank manner. We will be reading and
watching material featuring explicit sex scenes. If you don’t want to do so, you may want to
rethink taking the class. The subject matter will sometimes be controversial. I encourage
lively debate and expect all students to behave with respect for others’ differing opinions.
We come from a range of different backgrounds and social or political perspectives. Thus,
it’s important to think carefully before we speak in class and not make assumptions about to
whom, or for whom, we are speaking.
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Instructor: Professor Aren Aizura
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Reading Assignments
Week One
Overview
September 1
Read the syllabus! Name Game! Sign up for teaching presentations!
Week Two
Theorizing Transnationality and Sexuality
September 6 & 8
Tuesday:
Inderpal Grewal and Caren Kaplan, “Global Identities: Theorizing
Transnational Studies of Sexuality."
Jasbir Puar, “Transnational Sexualities”, in Q&A: Queer and Asian America
Nayan Shah, "Sexuality, Identity, and the Uses of History.” In Q&A: queer in
Asian America.
Thursday:
Part I: Questions of Representation, Language, Discourse
Week Three Narratives of queer diaspora
September 13 & 15
Tuesday:
Martin Manalansan, "In The Shadows Of Stonewall: Examining Gay
Transnational Politics and the Diasporic Dilemma", GLQ: A Journal of
Lesbian and Gay Studies 2: 4 (1995)
Gayatri Gopinath, Local Sites/Global Contexts: The Transnational
Trajectories of Deepa Mehta's Fire", in Queer globalizations
Thursday:
Film: Head On, dir. Ana Kokkinos (Australia, 1998)
Week Four
What’s gender identity, what’s sexuality?
September 20 & 22
Tuesday:
David Valentine, “’I Know What I Am’: Gender, Sexuality and Identity” in
Imagining Transgender: an ethnography of a category.
Peter Jackson, “Kathoey >< Gay >< Man: The Historical Emergence of
Gay Identity in Thailand”, in Sites of desire, economies of pleasure.
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Instructor: Professor Aren Aizura
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Thursday:
Eve Sedgwick, “Axiomatic” in Epistemologies of the Closet
Evelyn Blackwood, “Tombois in West Sumatra: Constructing Masculinity
and Erotic Desire,” in Female Desires
Week Five
Desire and exoticism I: Raced bodies, sexy bodies
September 27 & 29
Tuesday:
Samuel Delany, excerpts from The mad man.
Kobena Mercer, “Skin Head Sex Thing: Racial Difference and the
Homoerotic Imaginary,” in How do I look?
Thursday:
Jaap Kooljman, “Pleasures of the Orient: Cadinot’s Maghreb As Gay Male
Pornotopia”,
Thamyris 22.
Roland Barthes, excerpts from Incidents
Week Six
Desire and exoticism II: LGBTQ tourism and travel
October 4 & 6
Tuesday:
Jasbir Puar, Circuits of Queer Mobility: Tourism, Travel, and Globalization
GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies (2002) 8(1-2): 101-137.
M. Jacqui Alexander, “Imperial Desire/Sexual Utopias: White Gay Capital
and Transnational Tourism”, in Pedagogies of Crossing
Thursday:
Cindy Patton, “Migratory Vices”, in Queer Diasporas, 15—37.
Aren Aizura, “The Romance of the Amazing Scalpel: ‘Race’, Labor and
Affect in Thai Gender Reassignment Surgery Clinics”, in Queer
Bangkok
Part II: Activism, Law, Citizenship
Week Seven Queer immigration flows
October 11 & 13
Tuesday:
Eithne Luibhéid, “Sexuality, Migration, and the Shifting Line Between Legal
and Illegal Status”, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 14: 2-3
(2008), 289-315.
Pooja Gehi, “Struggles From the Margins: Anti-Immigrant Legislation and
01:888:338:01 Transnational Sexualities Syllabus
Instructor: Professor Aren Aizura
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the Impact on Low-Income Transgender People of Color”, Women’s
Rights Law Report 30 (2008), 315—346.
Dimitris Papadopoulos and Vassilis Tsianos, “The Autonomy of Migration:
The Animals of Undocumented Mobility.”
Thursday:
Unveiled. dir. Angelina Maccarone (Germany, 2005).
Week Eight Global/local/glocal queering: rights frameworks, identity politics
October 18 & 20
Class canceled Thursday October 20 but please do readings
Tuesday:
Dennis Altman, “On Global Queering.”
Responses from David Halperin, Fran Martin, Michael Tan:
http://www.australianhumanitiesreview.org/archive/Issue-July1996/altman.html
Thursday:
Eng-Beng Lim, “Glocal queering in New Asia: The politics of performing
gay in Singapore”, Theater Journal 57: 3 (2005), 383-405.
Week 9
Transnational Sexual Rights Discourse and Global “NGO-ization”
October 25 & 27
Tuesday:
Carl Stychin, “Same-Sex Sexualities and the Globalization of Human Rights
Discourse”, McGill Law Journal 39 (2004).
Choose two reports each to read from the International Gay and Lesbian
Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), online at
http://www.iglhrc.org/cgibin/iowa/content/publications/reportsandpublications/index.html
Thursday:
Joseph Massad, “Re-Orienting Gay Desire: The Gay International and the
Arab World”, in Desiring Arabs.
Shannon Woodcock, “Gay Pride as Violent Containment In Romania: A
Brave New Europe”, Sextures ejournal.
Week 10
HIV/AIDS: transnational biopolitics
November 1 & 3
Tuesday:
Cindy Patton, “Official Maps” in Globalizing AIDS
Vinh-Kim Nguyen, “Antiretroviral Globalism, Biopolitics and Therapeutic
01:888:338:01 Transnational Sexualities Syllabus
Instructor: Professor Aren Aizura
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Citizenship,” in Aihwa Ong, Global Assemblages.
Thursday:
Melinda Cooper, “On Pharmaceutical Empire: AIDS, Security, and
Exorcism”, in Life As Surplus: biotechnology and capitalism in the neoliberal era.
Part III: Current Political Dilemmas
Week 11
Multiple Homonationalisms
November 8 & 10
Tuesday:
Jasbir Puar, “Homonationalism and Biopolitics” in Terrorist Assemblages
Blog posts on http://nohomonatioanalism.blogspot.com addressing
the following events: withdrawal of Out of Place from publication; Judith
Butler’s refusal of the civil courage award at Berlin Pride in 2010; the
controversy around East End Gay Pride March in early 2011.
Thursday:
Jin Haritaworn, Tamsila Tauqir and Esra Erdem, “Gay Imperialism: Gender
and Sexuality Discourse in the “War on Terror”, Out of Place
Sara Ahmed, “Problematic Proximities: Or Why Critiques of Gay
Imperialism Matter”. Feminist Legal Studies
Week 12
Transnational sex work and trafficking
November 15 & 17
Tuesday:
Laura Agustín, “Migrants in the Mistress’s House: Other Voices in the
‘Trafficking’ Debate”, Social Politics: International Studies in Gender,
State and Society 12: 1 (2005).
Rhacel Salzar Parreñas, “Cultures of Flirtation: Sex and the Moral Boundaries
of Filipina Migrant Hostesses in Tokyo”, in Intimate labors: culture,
technologies and the politics of care (Stanford University Press, 2010).
Thursday:
Film, Les travestis pleurent aussi, dir. Sebastiano D’Ayala Valva (Italy, 2007)
Week 13
November 22 & 24
Thanksgiving Break, no classes
Week 14
Queer transnational labor flows
November 29 & December 1
Tuesday:
Bobby Benedicto, “The Haunting of Gay Manila: Global Space-Time and the
Specter of Kabaklaan,” GLQ: Lesbian and Gay Studies Quarterly 14: 2-3
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Instructor: Professor Aren Aizura
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(2008).
Martin Manalansan, “Queering the Chain of Care Paradigm”, S&F Online,
http://barnard.edu/sfonline/immigration/print_manalansan.htm
Mary Margaret Fonow and Suzanne Franzway, “Queer Activism, Feminism
and the Transnational Labor Movement”, Scholar and Feminist Online
7: 3 (2009), http://barnard.edu/sfonline/sexecon/ff_01.htm
Thursday:
Film: Paper Dolls, dir. Tomer Heymann (Israel, 2006)
Week 15
The queer postindustrial city: queer gentrification, class and
racialization
December 6 & 8
Tuesday:
Rachel Loewen Walker, “Toward a FIERCE Nomadology: Contesting
Queer Geographies on the Christopher Street Pier.”
Thursday:
Queer gentrification field trip: Christopher St Pier, NYC
Week 16
Review
Staged Research Essay due Tuesday December 13
01:888:338:01 Transnational Sexualities Syllabus
Instructor: Professor Aren Aizura