HIS1544: The History of Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in the United States, 1945-Present
Prof. Elspeth Brown
University of Toronto • Winter, 2015
office Munk 259S
email:Elspeth.brown@utoronto.ca
class meets: Th, 1-3
Lash Miller 123
This course pursues two themes. The first explores recent histories and theories of sex,
gender, and sexuality in the United States after WWII. We will read theoretical work that helps us
understand these three key analytic categories, as well as their historical formation in relationship
to number of topics including racial formation; transnational capital; social movements;
reproduction; LGBTQ histories; changing sex; pornography; post-industrial economies, and others.
The second theme we will pursue concerns pedagogy. How might we teach these topics to
undergraduate students during a period of ongoing crisis in higher education? This course will be
in dialogue with the interdisciplinary conversation underway regarding attention, learning, and
digital history via HASTAC and other sites. Students will have options concerning their
assignments in order to engage with both course thematics.
Assignments and grading weights:
Seven Short Response papers: each week, the majority of students will submit a short
response paper to the class discussion list (on Blackboard). The papers/emails should be about
500 words in length, and should have two parts: one where you lay out the argument in a précis of
the work, and another where you reflect on how the book’s contributions, limitations, or
provocations, with an emphasis on the book or articles’ argument(s) and evidence. You are
encouraged to tie your paper to other materials we’ve covered in class, as well as other work you
are doing outside of class. Try for precise, clear language. Feel free to quote selectively, using
parenthetical citations.
Please post the response papers to the class discussion list no later than 10 am on
Thursday morning, so that all of us can read them before class (please do post them earlier if you
can). Also, it would be great if you can read the comments of your peers, and respond to them as
well—either in the content of your small piece, or via a separate post. Please do seven of these
response papers, with one per week; you can choose which weeks you want to do, depending on
your work schedule. You are welcome to incorporate or respond to other postings, en route to
making your own claims or observations about the material. I won’t be marking these weekly
(though I will be reading them). Instead, I will monitor the discussion and then provide feedback
twice during the term: once in mid-semester, and once at the end. Aspects of the discussion on
line will be incorporated into our seminar discussion.
Discussion Questions: students will sign up for two weeks in which they are responsible
for generating a total of four-five discussion questions. These questions must be well crafted
to prompt students to engage central themes, debates or methods in the scholarship for that week.
It is recommended the questions, as a whole, cover the range of questions we’ll want to bring to
the scholarship, including questions about analytic framework; argument; evidence; historiography;
and historical themes. I would also like you to consider how you might teach the topic to
undergraduates, and pose questions relating to main themes, primary sources, secondary sources,
and/or assignments. Students who write questions will also take responsibility to facilitate quality
discussion that week. Your discussion will be co-directed by the two of you, and so you will need
to meet with your partner in advance of the seminar in order to decide on the questions together,
and how to get meaningful conversation going. Please print out the questions and bring sufficient
copies to seminar. You are welcome to shape your questions in relationship to the issues
unfolding on Blackboard.
Final project: The format you take is up to you. But can you choose one of the following. If
you have other ideas, I am open to them; just let me know. I am also open to you working on
archival materials that are not from/about the US so long as the work for this seminar is original
and relates to the topics/themes covered in this course.
•Conference paper (8-10 pp) that analyzes and historicizes a bounded set of primary
sources. This means you need to find an archive to work with early in the term. We’ll be taking a
tour of the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives (where I am a volunteer and on the board) but you
are welcome to find other archives (and I am using this term broadly). This choice also requires
that you research on H-Net or other sites to find a call for papers (CFP) that you think you could
submit your paper to. Write a paper abstract to conform to that call (whether it’s a real one, or an
old one, is up to you). Submit the abstract and the call to me, together, on March 5th, and the final
paper will be due on April 2, one week after the end of classes. Alternatively, submit it earlier to a
real conference. I am happy to look at a draft of your paper, but if you want me to do so can you
please get it to me two weeks prior.
•Wikipedia article (10 pp): As an encyclopedia, Wikipedia requires summary writing
drawn from secondary sources, rather than an argument drawn from primary sources. If you
choose this assignment, 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. I have experience as a Wikipedia editor, as well as working with students who are
writing for Wikipedia, and can guide you through the steps if you have not done this before. It’s
pretty cool to see your work up on Wikipedia, and there are a ton of topics that are not properly
covered there (I have a list going, if you are interested). To conceptualize the work involved, think
of this almost as a historiographic essay.
•traditional research paper 15-20 pp. This option is available for students who are
interested in developing a longer piece of writing that might be appropriate for journal publication.
This assignment should be based on primary sources and use secondary sources to historicize
and contextualize.
•podcast of ½ hr duration. This option requires you to research and work with primary
sources, as if you were in fact researching an article or any other research-intensive writing
assignment. However, the format will be an audio program of one-half hour length. I am open to
what the feel of this piece is like. You could choose a more narrative style with musical interludes
(a la This American Life) or you could choose a more documentary style. The place to start with
this is your topic. Some projects are going to lend themselves to this format, especially projects
working with oral history recordings or those dealing with music, noise, or sound as historical
artifacts. You could also choose to interview people for your project, in a sort of ‘history of the
present’ mode. You will have to teach yourself how to make a podcast, but that won’t be too hard
(though it may be labor intensive). Come talk with me and we can figure out an approach if this
topic interests you.
Archival Tours: I will be making arrangements for the class to take a tour of the Canadian
Lesbian and Gay Archives early in the term. If people are interested in taking a tour of U of T’s
porn collection (“The Sexual Representation Collection,” curated by Nick Matte), I can also arrange
that. These will take place outside of seminar time, however.
Participation: is required for the course. Please come to each class meeting having done
all the reading.
Grading weights: response papers, 25%; discussion questions, 20%; final paper/project
35%; participation, 20%.
Books to read: [All Duke books are available as e-books through the library]
Catherine Sue Ramirez, The Woman in the Zoot Suit: Gender, Nationalism, and the Cultural
Politics of Memory (Duke UP 2009)
Marc Stein, Rethinking the Gay and Lesbian Movement (Routledge 2012)
Susan Stryker, Transgender History (Seal Press, 2008)
Regina Kunzel, Criminal Intimacy: Prison and the Uneven History of Modern
American Sexuality (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008)
Victoria Hesford, Feeling Women’s Liberation (Duke UP, 2013)
Jennifer Brier, Infectious Ideas: U.S. Political Responses to the AIDS Crisis (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 2009.
Whitney Strub, Perversion for Profit: the Politics of Pornography and the Rise of the New Right
(New York: Columbia University Press, 2011).
Christina Hanhardt for Safe Space: Gay Neighborhood History and the Politics of
Violence. Duke University Press (2013).
WK 1: January 8, 2015
Introduction to the course
No class today, unfortunately, due to family funeral in the UK.
WK 2: January 15, 2015
Queer Archives
I am asking you to think about archives from the beginning, since you will probably be identifying
and working with archives of your own for your final writing project, unless you’ve chosen the
Wikipedia assignment. The Radical History Review has two issues on the topic of “Queer
Archives”—the first of them is out (issue 120) and the second one (issue 122) will be out later in
the term. You might want to review the TOC for your interest, though I have chosen a few here for
us to read together.
•Abram J. Lewis, “I Am 64 and Paul McCartney Doesn't Care”: The Haunting of the Transgender
Archive and the Challenges of Queer History,” Radical History Review 2014(120): 13-34. [Abram
is a PhD student at the University of Minnesota]
•K.J. Rawson, ““Rhetorical History 2.0: Toward a Digital Transgender Archive.” Enculturation.
Web. June, 2013. Web. [KJ is a collaborator on a five yr SSHRC grant I am PI for on queer and
trans* oral history and archives] Please view on line at:
http://www.enculturation.net/toward_digital_transgender_archive
•Marc Stein, “Canonizing Homophile Sexual Respectability: Archives, History, and Memory,”
Radical History Review 2014(120), 53-73. [We are reading Marc’s overview in 2 weeks]
•Martin F. Manalansan IV, “The “Stuff” of Archives: Mess, Migration, and Queer Lives” Radical
History Review 2014 (120): 94-107.
Recommended: if you are not familiar with the work of Ann Cvetkovich or Diana Taylor, you might
want to become so, as their work shapes a lot of current work in this area. See for example:
•Ann Cvetkovich, An Archive of Feelings (Duke, 2003) or a shorter piece, such as
“Drawing the Archive in Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home,” Women’s Studies Quarterly 36, no.1-2
(Spring/Summer 2008): 111-128.
•Diana Taylor, “Acts of Transfer,” from The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing
Cultural Memory in the Americas (Duke, 2004), pp. 1-33, especially her distinction between
archive and repertoire, which she begins to discuss on page 16.
Assignment Due: if you are doing a response paper for this week, please submit it electronically
to Blackboard by 10 am. Since you have several articles, you are welcome to focus more
specifically on one that captures your attention, but please work with other articles as well, at
least minimally.
WK 3: January 22, 2015
Wartime LA: Gender and Mexican-American Identity
Catherine Sue Ramirez, The Woman in the Zoot Suit: Gender, Nationalism, and the Cultural
Politics of Memory (Duke UP 2009)
Assignment Due: 1) please let Elspeth know what your final writing/making piece will be. I will then
provide you with custom deadlines for your project as necessary. 2) if you are doing a response
paper for this week, please submit it electronically to Blackboard by 10 am.
WK 4: January 29, 2015
LGBT History: a Synthesis
Marc Stein, Rethinking the Gay and Lesbian Movement (Routledge 2012)
Assignment Due for Wikipedians only: complete the one-hour student training for Wikipedia here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:STUDENT. Create a user account and enroll in our course
on Wikipedia. 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). Explore to see what is or is not already on Wikipedia in your interest areas.
WK 5: February 5, 2015
Narrating Trans* History
Susan Stryker, Transgender History (Seal Press, 2008)
Assignment Due for All Students: 1) please submit to me a two-page proposal for your final
paper/project including a brief discussion of any archives, texts, object, and secondary literature. If
you are doing a conference paper or research paper, please offer a research question that your
work will answer. If you are doing Wikipedia, please specify the specific articles or stubs you will
be working on and indicate research agenda. If you are doing a Podcast, please indicate general
themes, approaches, and research, as well as production questions you might be considering.
2) if you are doing a response paper for this week, please submit it electronically to Blackboard by
10 am.
WK 6: February 12, 2015
Situational Sex
Regina Kunzel, Criminal Intimacy: Prison and the Uneven History of Modern
American Sexuality (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008)
Assignment Due for Wikipedians: 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. Also, develop an outline for the structure of your article, based on what
you see and have learned about on Wikipedia.
Assignment Due: if you are doing a response paper for this week, please submit it electronically
to Blackboard by 10 am.
WK 7: February 19, 2015
Reading Week (no class)
WK 8: February 26, 2015
Queering Oral History
•Nan Boyd, “Who is the Subject? Queer Theory Meets Oral History,” Journal of the History of
Sexuality vol 17, no. 2 (2008): 177-189.
•Nan Boyd, “Elizabeth Kennedy’s Oral History Intervention,” Feminist Formations, Volume 24,
Number 3, Winter 2012, pp. 84-91.
• Jason Ruiz, “Pleasure and Pain in Black Queer Oral History and Performance: E. Patrick
Johnson and Jason Ruiz in Conversation,” QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking vol. 1
no. 2 (2014): 160-180.
Assignment Due: if you are doing a response paper for this week, please submit it electronically to
Blackboard by 10 am.
WK 9: March 5, 2015
Social Movements and Feeling as an Analytic Category
Victoria Hesford, Feeling Women’s Liberation (Duke UP, 2013)
Assignment Due: 1) For those of you doing conference papers, your CFP and abstract is due
today. Recommended for others: Wikipedians, 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. Podcasters: begin your script if you have not done so.
Research paper folks: develop an outline based on research and analysis thus far. 2) if you are
doing a response paper for this week, please submit it electronically to Blackboard by 10 am.
WK 10: March 12, 2015
Urban Politics and the History of “Safe Space”
Christina Hanhardt for Safe Space: Gay Neighborhood History and the Politics of
Violence. Duke University Press (2013).
Assignment Due: if you are doing a response paper for this week, please submit it electronically to
Blackboard by 10 am.
WK 11: March 19, 2015
Pornography and Politics
Whitney Strub, Perversion for Profit: the Politics of Pornography and the Rise of the New Right
(New York: Columbia University Press, 2011).
Assignment Due: 1) Drafts due for all projects via Blackboard at 1 pm. You will still have 2 weeks
to work on them and I will give you feedback asap if you want it. 2) if you are doing a response
paper for this week, please submit it electronically to Blackboard by 10 am.
WK 12: March 26, 2015
Politics and AIDS
Jennifer Brier, Infectious Ideas: U.S. Political Responses to the AIDS Crisis (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 2009
Assignment Due: if you are doing a response paper for this week, please submit it electronically to
Blackboard by 10 am.
April 2 at 1 pm: Assignment Due: Final Project/Paper due for all. Pls submit via Blackboard,
including Wikipedians.