This advanced seminar introduces students to recent interventions in feminist/queer of color and transnational disability studies. In doing so, we will explore how (dis)ability is mediated by gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity, class, nation, and citizenship. We will analyze how ableism intersects with other modalities of power and oppression such as colonialism, imperialism, racism, sexism, heteronormativity, classism, capitalist exploitation, neoliberalism, carceral logics, etc. We will grapple with the debilitating effects of global inequality, racism, war, imperialism, institutional neglect, etc., moving beyond a neoliberal and purely medical understanding of disability, and broadening the contours of what constitutes a critical disability studies approach. Finally, we will learn about disability studies as a methodology that enriches our understanding of power and subjectivity, and problematizes dominant conceptions of normativity, embodiment, agency, temporality, progress, productivity, freedom, utopia, and solidarity. While this course does not require prior knowledge in disability studies, it presumes familiarity with major debates, concepts and epistemologies in Feminist and Gender Studies. This course is therefore only open to juniors and seniors, minors and majors in Feminist and Gender Studies or by consent of instructor (COI).

Gender, Body, Sound is an upper-level seminar focused on developing a critical stance toward the study of gender and sexuality by taking ethnomusicology’s and feminism’s insights into account. We will explore the power dynamics that play into the social construction of performance and the body across various socio-cultural settings, and the myriad ways human beings, including ourselves, have fashioned social and musical distinctions based on gender and sexuality over time. Through the lens of music and performance, we will critically engage with a wide variety of approaches, tactics, and discourses from musicians and artivists around the world working to further LGBTQIA+ rights, and examine the politics of gendered and sexual identities across a number of transnational contexts. Our investigation will explore how gender and sexuality can be musical - how musical bodies are constructed, maintained, defied, and challenged through performative realms - in ways that allow us to envision possibilities for the field and our world beyond heteronormative domains. 1 unit - Carrizo

Queer and Trans Theory