Introductory description

This optional module aims to introduce students to, or enhance their existing knowledge of, queer theory and praxis. Queer has emerged as a form of activism, a sexual identity, a deconstructive theory and methodological approach. This module enables us to evaluate critically the benefits and limitations of queer as a scholarly resource. In order to do this the module brings a queer analysis to key sociological concerns.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

The module addresses the question ‘what can queer tell us about …?’ by exploring different
substantive areas pertaining to different staff and student expertise in any given year. Indicative syllabus is:

1. Queer history and activism

2. Queer theory, queer praxis

3. Queer methods and methodologies

4. Queering time and space

5. Embodiments, identities and performativities

6. Research and reading week

7. Queering health and dis/ability

8. Queering race and nation

9. Queering kinship

10. Queering education

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• By the end of the module students should have an understanding of: 1. The history of queer as a scholarly and political approach, including its (contested) relationship to sociology
• 2. What might be meant by queer method and how, when and why such methods might be deployed in sociological contexts
• 3. The challenges, rewards and potential problems of queer approaches in relation to a range of sociological themes and empirical concerns.

Indicative reading list

Ahmed, S. (2006) Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others. Durham, Duke University
Press.

Berlant, L and Edelman. L (2013) Sex, or the Un-bearable ‘Theory Q’ Duke University Press
Brim, M and Ghaziani, A (2016) Introduction: Queer Methods, WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly,
44 (3 and 4): 14-26.

Browne, K and Nash, CJ (2010) (eds) Queer Methods and Methodologies: Intersecting Queer
Theories and Social Science Research, New York: Routledge, pp 1-23.

Butler, J (1990) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, London: Routledge.

Butler, J (1993) Bodies that Matter: on the Discursive Limits of Sex, London: Routledge.

Butler, J (1993) Critically Queer, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 1(1): 17-32.

Davy, Z (2011) Recognizing Transsexuals: Personal, Political and Medico-legal Embodiment, Aldershot: Ashgate.

de Lauretis, Teresa. “Queer Theory: Lesbian and Gay Sexualities. An Introduction.” differences 3.2 (1991): iii–xviii.

Dinshaw , C. Edelman, L., Ferguson, R., Freccero, C., Freeman, E., Halberstam, J. Jagose, A.,
Nealon, C.C., Nguyen, T. H (2007) Theorizing Queer Temporalities: A Roundtable Discussion , GLQ:

.Duggan, L (2002) The new homonormativity: The sexual politics of neoliberalism. In: Castronovo, R, Nelson, DD (eds) Materializing Democracy: Toward a Revitalized Cultural Politics, Durham
NC: Duke University Press, pp. 175–194. A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 13(2-3)177-195

Eng, D. L with Halberstam, J and Muñoz, J. E. (2005) What’s Queer about Queer Studies now? Social Text 84-85, 23(3-4): 1-17.

Eng, D (2010) The feeling of kinship queer liberalism and the racialization of intimacy, Durham: Duke.

Ferguson, R (2004) Aberrations in Black: towards a queer of color critique, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Freeman, E. (2010) Time Binds: Queer Temporalities, Queer Histories. Durham: Duke University Press, 2010

Giffney, N. (2009) Introduction: the ‘q’ word, in N. Giffney and M. O’Rourke (eds), The Ashgate Research Companion to Queer Theory, Farnham: Ashgate, pp.1-13.

Halberstam, J (1998) Female Masculinity, Durham: Duke University Press.

Halberstam, J (2005) In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives, London: New York University Press.

Halberstam, J. (2011) The queer art of failure, Durham: Duke University Press.

Halberstam, J. (2012) Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal. Beacon Press.

Jagose, A (1997) Queer Theory: an Introduction, London, Routledge.

Jagose, A (2012) Orgasmology. Duke University Press.

Jagose, A (2015) The Trouble with Antinormativity, differences, 26(1): 26-47.

Lambert, C (2017) Queering Identity: being and becoming queer in the art work of Cassils, in N Monk, M Lindgren, S McDonald, and S Pasfield-Neofitou (eds) Reconstructing Identity: a transdisciplinary approach, London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp 131-156.

Lambert, C (2018) The Live Art of Sociology, Abingdon: Routledge.

Love, H (2006) Queer Messes, WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly, 44 (3/4): 345-349.

Love, H (2007) Feeling backward: loss and the politics of queer history, Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press.

Love, H (2015) Doing Being Deviant: Deviance Studies, Description, and the Queer Ordinary, differences 26(1): 74-95.

Mizielińska, J, Gabb, J, Stasińska, A. (2017) Editorial introduction to Special Issue: Queer Kinship and Relationships, Sexualities, 0(0):1-8.

Muñoz, J. E. 1999. Disidentifications: Queers of color and the performance of politics. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Muñoz, J. E. (2010) Cruising utopia: The then and there of queer futurity. NYU Press. Nelson, M (2015) The Argonauts, London: Melville House

Puar, J. (2007) Terrorist assemblages: Homonationalism in queer times. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Rao, R (2011) 'Queer in the Time of Terror.' In: Narrain, Arvind and Gupta, Alok, (eds.), Law Like Love: Queer Perspectives on Law. New Delhi: Yoda Press, pp. 43-66.

Roseneil, S. (2000) ‘Queer Frameworks and Queer Tendencies: Towards an Understanding of Postmodern Transformations of Sexuality’, Sociological Research Online 5(3): www.socresonline.org.uk/5/3/roseneil.html

Spurlin, W (2001) “Broadening Postcolonial Studies/Decolonizing Queer Studies”, in: John Carter Howley (ed.) Postcolonial, Queer: Theoretical Intersections (Albany: State University of New
York Press) 185-206.

Valocchi, S (2005) Not Yet Queer Enough: the lessons of Queer Theory for the Sociology of Gender and Sexuality, Gender and Society 19(6):750-770.

Wiegman R and Wilson E (2015) Queer Theory without Antinormativity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Subject specific skills

• a systematic understanding of key aspects of their field of study, including acquisition of coherent and detailed knowledge, at least some of which is at, or informed by, the forefront of defined aspects of a discipline

• an ability to deploy accurately established techniques of analysis and enquiry within a discipline

• conceptual understanding that enables the student:

• to devise and sustain arguments, and/or to solve problems, using ideas and
  techniques, some of which are at the forefront of a discipline

• to describe and comment upon particular aspects of current research, or
  equivalent advanced scholarship, in the discipline

• an appreciation of the uncertainty, ambiguity and limits of knowledge

• the ability to manage their own learning, and to make use of scholarly reviews and primary sources (for example, refereed research articles and/or original materials appropriate to the discipline).
  Typically, holders of the qualification will be able to:

• apply the methods and techniques that they have learned to review, consolidate, extend and apply their knowledge and understanding, and to initiate and carry out projects

• critically evaluate arguments, assumptions, abstract concepts and data (that may be incomplete), to make judgements, and to frame appropriate questions to achieve a solution - or identify a range of solutions - to a problem
  -communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialist and non-specialist audiences.

Transferable skills

The qualities and transferable skills necessary for employment requiring:

• • the exercise of initiative and personal responsibility
• • decision-making in complex and unpredictable contexts
• • the learning ability needed to undertake appropriate further training of a
    professional or equivalent nature.