WGS 455 H5F Queer Theory
University of Toronto at Mississauga, Fall 2014
Tuesdays, 11-1 pm • Room Davis 2094D
Professor Elspeth H. Brown, Department of Historical Studies
Office: North Building 252
office hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1-2 pm; other times by appt.
“Queer,” as a term, has been associated with both non-normative sexualities and a critique of the
normal in general terms, including stable identity categories of “lesbian,” “gay,” etc. Queer theory
emerged in the early 1990s as a response, in part, to the identity politics of LGBT social movements.
During the same period of the early 1990s, “transgender” emerged as an umbrella term describing
diverse minority gender identifications and embodiments, including transsexual, cross-dresser,
passing women, MTFs, and others. Both queer theory and trans studies owe political debts to women
of color feminisms from the 1980s and 1990s, anti-racist projects that have given rise to contemporary
queer and trans* of color (QTPOC) critique. Today, in 2014, queer theory and trans studies are
increasingly in dialogue with each other, both politically and academically, inside and outside the
academy. This course is designed as an introduction to some of the key concepts in both queer theory
and trans studies to allow you, as students, to understand the histories and stakes of both sets of
commitments.
Goals: to be able to answer these questions:
•What is the history of “queer theory” as an intellectual and political formation? What was its critical
intervention in relationship to identity politics?
•What is the history of “trans” as an intellectual and political formation? What has been its critical
intervention in relationship to lesbian and gay politics, as well as queer theory?
•How might we consider the relationship between queer theory and trans studies to racial, ethnic, and
national difference?
Course Web-sites: the course has a web-site, on Blackboard, which I will be using to post
course material, assignments, grades, announcements, etc. Please check it regularly, and feel
free to use the discussion board as you wish. In addition, our course also has a page on
Wikipedia. You will need to enroll in that page to do the Wikipedia work.
Email, laptop, and phone policy: Please turn off all cell phone ringers in class; when you email
me, please put the course title in the subject line (so I know the email is about a class, and will
answer it first—I can get quite behind on email, and don’t want to miss your queries).
Office hours: Come see me! I get lonely in my office. I can often see you outside office hours if
those times above don’t work for you.
Required Reading, Viewing, and Listening
The reading is a combination of books and assigned articles and excerpts, both primary and
secondary sources. You are asked to read/view/listen to these materials in advance of each
class. Please bring the assigned readings to lecture in hard-copy, or at least on a screen
bigger than your phone. The one assigned book by Max Valeria will be available at the
University of Toronto Mississauga Bookstore in late September, or you can get it elsewhere. The
assigned articles and excerpts are available on-line through the Blackboard web-site, indicated by
week. These readings can be downloaded as PDFs. You must bring the electronically-assigned
material to class in either print or electronic versions.
Assignments: (I will hand out full directions in class)
•Participation and Readiness for Class: It’s really important that you come to class prepared,
ready to participate, and to actually participate in meaningful ways once there. A class is a
collaborative venture, and students have to kick in too. I’m not talking about simple attendance
here. I’m talking about: 1) coming to class having read, watched, or listened to the assigned
material; 2) bringing the assigned material to class, electronically or in hard copy, on a device
larger than your phone; 3) being ready to discuss the material in meaningful ways. Sometimes, to
gauge how prepared you are, I may ask for short writing assignments in class, which I will use to
help gauge this aspect of the course. I have a participation rubric, which I will share with you on
Blackboard.
•Essay for Wikipedia: the main writing assignment for this course is to write an article for
Wikipedia. You will be writing material relating to one of the authors, concepts, or events covered
in our course. Depending on your choice of topic, you could be writing an original article, or
adding to an existing “stub”—a short article that does not provide encyclopedic coverage. Overall,
I am looking for 6-8 pages of writing on this assignment. Learning to edit on Wikipedia is not easy
(at first), and so there are related assignments spread throughout the term.
•500 word critique papers: Throughout the semester, you will be responsible for writing 5 different
short critiques of assigned secondary literature, on different weeks, spread throughout the term. These
need to be submitted electronically by 9 am the day of class in which we are discussing the reading.
You may choose from the readings that have the following notation: [CP]. Further directions, and a
marking rubric, will be distributed in class. [total amount of writing: 8 pages]
Keyword ID in class writing: We’re covering some complex terms in this course, some of which are
covered by multiple authors. Examples include “queer,” “performativity,” “queer of color critique,” etc.
Throughout your reading, I want you to take careful notes on how authors are defining these terms. Of
course, we’ll be discussing them in class as well. Twice during the term, you will do an in-class,
closed-book, 25 minute writing exercise where I will ask you to identify and explain the significance of
three terms, working with a list of possible terms. This assignment is designed to keep you on top of
the reading, and to take responsibility for grappling with and understanding some of the course’s more
complex concepts, with reference to the authors who have defined them.
Marks Break Down:
Participation: 15%
Keyword ID in class writing: 20% (10%each)
Critique Papers: 25% total
Wikipedia Assignment + Writing: 40% total
How to Turn in Assignments: please turn everything via Blackboard.
Absences policy: Attending class is critically important. That said, every student can miss one class
without telling me why (this is to cut down on the excuses and the awkwardness that accompanies
them). After that, however, your mark will suffer. Students who miss 2 classes will not be able to
receive a mark higher than a B+; students who miss 3 classes will not be able to receive a mark higher
than a C; students who miss 4 classes will not be able to receive a mark higher than a D; students who
miss 5 classes or more will fail.
Other Details/the "fine print":
1. Late policy, absences, etc: Late work will be marked down 3 points per day late, or 1/3
letter grade, including Sat. and Sun. Work turned in more than seven days (including Sat. and
Sun.) after the due date will not be accepted. Deadline extensions will be made only when
students present me with compelling reasons for their inability to meet the deadline before the
deadline passes, with satisfactory documentation (eg., death in the immediate family;
hospitalization, etc.) If this is your situation, be sure to declare your absence on ROSI
(https://www.rosi.utoronto.ca/main.html) in order to receive academic accommodation for any
course work such as missed tests, late assignments, and final examinations. Also please notify
me and provide documentation electronically, via email with PDFs. I will also ask you to provide
medical documentation in the form of a University of Toronto medical certificate. (About this,
please note: The University of Toronto respects your privacy. The information on the medical
form is collected pursuant to section 2(14) of the University of Toronto Act, 1971 for the purpose
of administering accommodations for academic purposes based on medical grounds. The
department will maintain a record of all medical certificates received. At all times your information
will be protected in accordance with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.)
2. In-class writing make-ups: there will be none unless the student can provide evidence
of a true emergency, with satisfactory documentation (see above). Under no circumstances will I
schedule a make-up for a student who fails to contact me within 24 hours of a missed test.
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3. Citing sources: Please use the Chicago Manual of Style, 16 edition. For a brief guide,
please see here: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html as well as the
handout in Blackboard. I will mark off for failure to cite sources properly and citation format will
also be the subject of the quizzes.
4. Papers: writing is a critically important skill, and central to what we do in Historical
Studies. I pay close attention to grammar, punctuation, style, and citation formats. If you need
help with your writing, I am more than happy to work with you, and I also urge you to take
advantage of the resources at UTM writing. For further tips on writing, as well as a list of
resources on writing at U of T, see http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/home and
http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/asc.
5. Plagiarism is, basically, the act of using the ideas or words of another person as one's
own original work, and is therefore a gross form of cheating. The way to avoid plagiarism is, in
part, to learn how and when to cite your sources. Please consult and familiarize yourselves with
policies concerning plagiarism at U of T. There are other rules of academic conduct all students
must familiarize themselves with, such as not handing in a paper for a class when you've already
submitted the same paper to another class for credit. For further information, see
http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/using-sources/how-not-to-plagiarize.
6. Accessibility Needs: Students with diverse learning needs are welcome in this course.
If you require accommodations relating to learning styles, or have any accessibility concerns
about the course, the classroom or course materials, please let me know and also contact the
UTM AccessAbility Resource Centre, located in the South Building, room 2047. Their website is
http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/accessability/, and you can email them at access.utm@utoronto.ca or
call them at 905 569 4699. They can also help answer questions if you think you may have some
concerns, but aren’t sure. Do avail yourself of their services.
7. Academic Skills Centre: if you would like to get some individual help with writing or
studying, please contact them at: http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/asc. They provide individual
appointments, and they also have study and writing tips.
8. Grading scheme: A+=87-100; A=84-86; A-=80-83; B+=77-79; B=74-76; B-= 70-73;
C+=67-69; C=64-66; C-=60-63; D+=57-59; D=54-56; D-=50-53; F=49 or below.
WK 1 Tues. Sept. 9: Course Introduction
[please come to class having read these 2 short pieces]
•Heather Love, “Queer,” Transgender Studies Quarterly vol. 1, nos. 1-2 (May, 2014), 172-176.
•Avery Tompkins, “Asterisk,” Transgender Studies Quarterly vol. 1, nos. 1-2 (May, 2014), 26-27.
Wikipedia Project: introduction to Wikipedia.
WK 2 Tues. Sept. 16: Sexuality and Power: Normalizing Discourses
[time of critical intervention: late 1970s]
•Michel Foucault, History of Sexuality vol 1, “The Repressive Hypothesis,” pp. 17-49. [CP]
•Nikki Sullivan, “Queer: A Question of Being or Doing?” in Nikki Sullivan, A Critical Introduction to
Queer Theory (New York: NYU Press, 2003), 37-56.
Questions to consider when reading: What does Foucault mean by ‘the repressive hypothesis”?
What is his critique of it? What does he mean by “discourse” and “power”? Foucault describes
power functioning in four different operations in relationship to sexuality in the second chapter you
are reading—what are they, how do they function?
Due this week: complete the one-hour student training for Wikipedia here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:STUDENT. Create a user account. Create a “sandbox” for
yourself to start playing around in (a user sandbox is a personal wiki page(s) where you can
experiment, practice editing, plan out articles, or begin drafting articles before moving them into
the article "mainspace” on Wikipedia—where live articles are read and edited).
Req: for Critique Paper #1, write on Foucault.
WK 3 Tues. Sept. 23: Sexuality and Power: Women of Color Feminisms
[time of critical intervention: late 1970s-early 1990s]
•Audre Lorde, “The Erotic as Power” [1978], republished in Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider (New
York: Ten Speed Press, 2007), 53-58. Learn more about Audre Lorde through Wikipedia
or other on-line sources here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audre_Lorde
•Anita Valerio, “"It's in My Blood, My Face — My Mother’s Voice, The Way I Sweat,” from Cherrie
Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua, eds., This Bridge Called My Back: Writing by Radical
Women of Color (Kitchen Table Women of Color Press, 1983), 41-45. [NB: Anita Valerio
later transitioned, and you will be reading his autobiography in WK 6.]
•Cherrie L. Moraga, “Bringing the Strains Together,” from Loving in the War Years (South End
Press, 1983), 123-126.
•Gloria Alzaldua, “To(o) Queer the Writer—Loca, escritoria y chicana,” from Betsy Warland, Ed.,
Inversions: Writings by Queer Dykes and Lesbians (1994), 263-276.
In class: Wikipedia Editing Basics, via campus ambassador if possible.
WK 4 Tues. Sept. 30: Gender as “Performativity”
[time of critical intervention: early 1990s]
•Judith Butler, “Imitation and Gender Insubordination,” first published in 1991; this reprinted from
Abelove et al., The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader (NY: Routledge, 1993), 307-320. [CP]
• Nikki Sullivan, “Performance, Performativitiy, Parody, and Politics” in Nikki Sullivan, A Critical
Introduction to Queer Theory (New York: NYU Press, 2003), 81-98.
In class screening: Paris is Burning (excerpts), dir. Jennie Livingstone (1991)
Optional: Judith Butler, “Gender is Burning: Questions of Appropriation and Subversion” and
“Critically Queer,” in Bodies that Matter (NY: Routledge, 1993), 58-80 and 169-185).
Questions to consider when reading: How does Butler distinguish between “performance” and
“performativity”? What is the relationship between gender and repetition, in her view? What role does
drag play in her argument, and what does she mean by ‘drag’? How is subversion of gender possible,
in Butler’s view?
Assignments Due: 1) To get the hang of using citations on Wikipedia, add some new information to a
Wikipedia article of your choice—backed up with a citation to one of the readings from the course
thus far. 2) select your article, sub-article, or stub(s) for your final Wikipedia writing assignment and
begin researching secondary sources.
Critique Paper #2: write on either Butler (this week) or one of the articles on trans studies (next
week).
WK 5 Tues. Oct. 7 Foundational Interventions in Trans Studies
[time of critical intervention: early 1990s + later historicization]
• Stone, “The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto,” originally published in 1987;
reprinted in Susan Stryker and Stephen Whittle, eds., The Transgender Studies Reader
(NY: Routledge, 2006), 221-235. [CP]
• Susan Stryker, “Transgender Studies: Queer Theory’s Evil Twin,” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian
and Gay Studies, Volume 10, Number 2, 2004, pp. 212-215. [CP]
• David Valentine, “Imagining Transgender,” in Imagining Transgender: An Ethnography of a
Category (Durham, NC: Duke UP, 2007). [CP]
Wikipedia work: Continue compiling a bibliography on your topic. Develop an outline for the
structure of your article.
Crit Paper #2. If you did not write on Butler last week, you must choose a reading from this week.
WK 6 Tues. Oct. 14 Transition: a First Person Account
Max Valerio, The Testosterone Files: My Hormonal and Social Transformation from Female to
Male (Seal Press, 2006).
Wikipedia work: begin writing. Consider beginning with a 3-4 paragraph lead summary that lays
out the structure of your article, while working in the sandbox, and then move it over to the live
site.
In Class Writing Assignment: 25 minutes of writing on pre-assigned key words. You will be asked to
identify and explain the significance of three of the following terms, drawing from your reading thus far:
queer; performativity; trans/trans*; the “repressive hypothesis” (and its critique); power (via both
Foucault and Lorde).
WK 7 Tues. Oct. 21 Queer and Trans of Color Critique
•Cathy J. Cohen, “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer
Politics?” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, Volume 3, 1997, pp. 437-465. [CP]
•Roderick Ferguson, “Introduction” to Aberrations in Black: Towards a Queer of Color Critique
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006), 1-29. [CP] For 2015: lose this
reading.
in class screening: The Aggressives (Daniel Peddle, dir., 2005, 73 min)
Wikipedia work: continue writing.
Crit Paper #3: choose the Cohen article from this week OR an article from next week (WK 8).
WK 8 Tues. Oct. 28: Neoliberalism and Homonormativity
•David Harvey, “Introduction” in A Brief History of Neoliberalism (London: Oxford UP, 2005), 1-31
(pages 1-4 required; pages 5-31 optional).
•Lisa Duggan, “The New Homonormativity: The Sexual Politics of Neoliberalism” in Russ
Castronovo and Dana D. Nelson, eds., Materializing Democracy: Toward a Revitalized
Cultural Politics Duke UP 2002, pp. 188-207. [CP]
•Jasbir K. Puar, “Mapping U.S. Homonormativities,” Gender, Place and Culture vol. 13, no. 1 pp.
67-88 (February 2006) (read up to page 73 section break; skim remainder). [CP]
•Dean Spade, “What’s Wrong With Rights?” in Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical
Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law (NY: South End Press, 2011), 79-100. [CP]
Assignment (all): Go the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) website for their “Americans for
Marriage Equality” campaign, here: http://americansformarriageequality.org/videos#1
Watch three of the videos.
Crit Paper #3: Write a 500 word essay that uses the critiques of Duggan, Puar, and Spade to
analyze 1-3 of the videos. Your paper must work with at least two of the authors and at
least one of the videos. Make sure your paper includes a specific reading of the video as
part of your analysis, focusing on how the appeal is made (camera angle, background,
soundtrack, dialogue, gesture, pacing, casting, etc).
WK 9 Tues. Nov 4: Special Class: Artists’ Talks by Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst
This week, our class will not meet at the regular time. Instead, I expect you to attend the visiting
lecture by Drucker and Ernst at UTM on Wednesday, 5 pm, in CC1880. Please see me in office
hours if you cannot make this lecture for some reason. The title of their talk is: “Gender in
Wonderland: Zachary Drucker and Rhys Erst on the Art and Play of Gender in ‘Relationship’ and
’She Gone Rogue'”.
Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst have come to international attention for the intimate and diaristic
recording of their relationship as a transgender couple transitioning in opposite directions (Ernst
becoming male from female, and Drucker female from male). In Drucker’s words, “Our bodies are
a microcosm of the greater external world as it shifts to a more polymorphous spectrum of
sexuality. We are all collectively morphing and transforming together, and this is just one story of
an opposite-oriented transgender couple living in Los Angeles, the land of industrialized fantasy.”
The artists were recently featured in the Whitney Biennial, New York, 2014. Sponsored by the
Jackman Humanities Institute Program for the Arts, 2014-15.
See their websites: Zachary Drucker http://zackarydrucker.com/about/; Rhys Ernst
http://rhysernst.com/
WK 10 Tues. Nov 11: Queer Diasporas
•Martin Manalansan IV, “In the Shadows of Stonewall: Examining Gay Transnational Politics and
the Diasporic Dilemma,” in GLQ: Gay and Lesbian Quarterly (1995) vol. 2, 425-438 [CP].
•Fatima El-Tayeb, “’Gays who cannot properly be gay’: Queer Muslims in the neoliberal European
City,” European Journal of Women’s Studies vol. 19 no. 1 (2012), 79-95. [CP].
Crit Paper #4: due this week on Manalansan, El-Tayeb, or the Drucker/Rhys event.
Friday Nov. 14: Wikipedia work: finish the draft of your whole piece, and move it to the main
Wikipedia site, if you have not done so (eg, out of the sandbox). Also, submit a word version of
what you have written to Prof. Brown on BB. Monitor the article and review any comments on the
talk pages. Address comments and suggestions from the wiki community. Even though you have
a whole draft at this point, you’re not ‘done’ with the assignment as you’ll continue to work on it.
WK 11 Tues. Nov 18: Transsexuality in a Global Frame
• Aren Z. Aizura “The Romance of the Amazing Scalpel: ‘Race’, Labour and Affect in Thai Gender
Reassignment Clinics.” In Peter A. Jackson (ed), Queer Bangkok. Hong Kong: Hong
Kong University Press, 2011. [CP].
•Farrah Jafari, “Transsexuality Under Surveillance in Iran: Clerical Control of Khomeini’s Fatwas,”
Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, vol. 10, no. 2 (2014), 31-51. [CP].
In Class Writing Assignment: 25 minutes of writing on pre-assigned key words. You will be asked to
identify and explain the significance of three of the following terms, drawing from your reading since
WK 6: queer of color critique (Cohen and Ferguson); neoliberalism (Harvey and Duggan);
homonormativity and homonationalism (Duggan and Puar); gay (Manalansan + El-Taye ); affect
(Aizura).
Crit Paper #5: due this week on either Aizura or Jafari.
Wikipedia work: address Wikipedia comments and suggested edits.
WK 12 Tues. Nov 25 Queer Feelings
•Ann Cvetkovich, “Introduction,” and “The Everyday Life of Queer Trauma” in An Archive of
Feelings: Trauma, Sexuality, and Lesbian Public Cultures (Duke, 2003), 1-12 required;
12-48 optional. [CP].
•Sara Ahmed, “Queer Feelings,” in The Cultural Politics of Emotion (2004), 144-168. [CP]. Focus
on the ‘discomfort and norms’ section.
Optional Crit Paper: due on either Cvetkovich or Ahmed.