Shannon Winnubst Office Hours:
UH 286N; ext. 3915 Tuesdays 3-5
Also by appointment
Twitter: @swinnubst
WGSS 4405
Race and Sexualities
Autumn 2014
How might one think about an apparently simple imperative—the law
of the color line—emerging from and working through social chaos and complexity?
--Jared Sexton,
Amalgamation Schemes
This course explores the complex dynamics of race and sexuality as they intertwine and obfuscate one another in the contemporary U.S. Placing the concepts of “race” and “sexuality” in the historical frameworks of colonialism, slavery, and 19th-early 20th century science, we will explore a wide range of questions: Is race “real” even if it is not biological? Is sexuality biological, perhaps genetic? How have both race and sexuality been historically and socially written into our bodies? What are the critical differences here? How is race always already sexualized? And how is sexuality always already racialized? Is “queer” sexuality somehow resistant to racist iterations of race? We will draw on feminist, anti-racist and queer theorists and literature to help us investigate how race and sexuality intersect in all of our lives.
Required Texts:
Kiese Laymon: Long Division: A Novel (Agate Bolden: 2013)
Charles Mills: The Racial Contract (Cornell: 1999)
Course Requirements:
Class Participation 20%
Full participation on the part of each member of the course is necessary to have a successful quarter-long discussion. This means I expect each of us to arrive at each class meeting fully prepared to enter our ongoing discussion. To be fully prepared means one has completed the reading, taken some time to reflect on it, and formulated some questions, themes, dynamics to discuss in class. The course will involve regular in-class exercises as well as small and large group discussions. Students that have more than two unexcused absences will have their participation score lowered by a grade for each additional unexcused absence.
Attendance at Events & Reflections 5%
You are required to attend at least two of the events related to this course; see schedule below. If there is another event you wish to attend, you must receive my approval beforehand. Write up a 2 page reflection, which means a thoughtful and critical response, not just a report. Reflections due within one week of event.
Essay on Section I 20%
3-5 pages on scientific accounts of race and sexuality; I will distribute essay question on September 17th; due September 22nd in 286 UH, my box.
Essay on Section II 25%
4-6 pages on legal construction of race and sexuality as mutually constituting categories; I will distribute essay question on October 22nd; due November 3rd.
Take-Home Final Exam or Essay 30%
A cumulative exam on the major concepts and critiques encountered in the course OR a final essay (7-10 pages) on a central theme of the course. If you choose to write the essay, you must get approval of the topic from me by November 21st; you can either write a 1 page proposal with brief bibliography or schedule an appointment. Exam will be distributed on final day of class. Both are due at time scheduled by University for this course: December 12th, 12 pm.
Grading:
Overall grades will be based on the quality of your written assignments and the constructive nature of your class participation. The essays will be graded according to (a) the clarity of your argument, (b) your use of evidence to support your argument, (c) the relevance and insight of your question(s), and (d) the accuracy of grammar, syntax and spelling. All assignments are due at the time/day noted on the schedule. Late papers will be penalized 5 points (half a letter-grade) per day, including weekend days. Papers are not accepted via email.
Grading Scale:
A+ = 98-100 A = 94-97 A- = 90-93
B+ = 87-89 B = 84-86 B- = 80-83
C+ = 77-79 C = 74-76 C- = 70-73
D+ = 67-69 D = 64-66
E = 63 and below
Academic Integrity:
It is the responsibility of the Committee on Academic Misconduct to investigate or establish procedures for the investigation of all reported cases of student academic misconduct. The term "academic misconduct" includes all forms of student academic misconduct wherever committed; illustrated by, but not limited to, cases of plagiarism and dishonest practices in connection with examinations and essays. Instructors shall report all instances of alleged academic misconduct to the committee (Faculty Rule 3335-5-487). For additional information, see the Code of Student Conduct at studentaffairs.osu.edu/resource_csc.asp
Course Access & Accommodation:
We all learn and process information in different ways and I would like to make this course as accessible as possible. If there is something I can do to facilitate your learning in this class, please communicate this to me. I will do my best to address your needs. If you have documentation from the Office for Disability Services (150 Pomerene Hall, 1760 Neil Avenue; telephone 292-3307, TDD 292-0901; http://www.ods.ohio-state.edu/.) for specific accommodations, please let me know in advance of your needs. With or without documentation, we can also meet in person or communicate via email about how to improve your access to the course.
Schedule of Readings & Assignments
August
27 - What is up with race and sexuality in the contemporary US?!
[And what can an academic inquiry give us?]
28 - Michael Brown/Ferguson Teach-In
WGSS Faculty and Graduate Students
MLK Lounge, Hale Black Cultural Center
12-2
29 - Kiese Laymon, Long Division: 7-120
September
3 - Long Division: 123-270
5 - Foucault, “Nietzsche, Genealogy, History” (excerpts)
Omi & Winant, “Racial Formation”
Section I: Genealogies of Race and Sexuality: Scientific Racism and Sexology
10 - Gould, “American Polygeny & Craniometry before Darwin:
Blacks and Indians as Separate, Inferior Species”
11 - “Bad Romance, or Heterosexuality”
Lecture by Sandra Macpherson, Wexner Theater, 4:30
Remembering 9/11 and Honoring Civil Rights Struggles
DISCO Reception, 1130 Thompson Library, 3:30
12 - Sommerville, “Scientific Racism and the Invention of the
Homosexual Body”
12/13 - Black Girls: The Silent Crisis
Symposium, AAAS Extension Center
16 - An Evening with Laverne Cox
OSU Fawcett Center, 7 pm
17 - McWhorter, “Scientific Racism and the Threat of Predation”
Essay prompts distributed
Section II: The Social, Political and Legal Construction of Race and Sexuality
19 - Charles Mills, The Racial Contract: 1-40
22 - Essay #1 DUE, my box in 286 University Hall, 5 pm
24 - The Racial Contract: 41-61
26 - class canceled
29 - “Making Sense of Intersex: Reflective Scrutiny, Remorse, and Repair”
Lecture by Ellen Feder, 100 Mendenhall, 4:30
October
1 - The Racial Contract: 62-91
3 - Lopez, “The Legal Construction of Race”
8 - Alexander, “The New Jim Crow”
10 - Rubin, “Thinking Sex”
14 - Title TBD
Lecture by Treva Lindsay, 12 noon, 311 Denney
15 - Sedgwick, “Queer and Now”
17 - Jun, “Black Orientalism”
22 - Shah, “Intimate Ties and State Legitimacy”
Essay #2 prompts distrubted
24 - class canceled
29 - Reddy, “Time for Rights?”
Section III: Race & Sexuality: A Psycho-Social Analysis
31 - Freud, Civilization & Its Discontents, XXX
hooks, “Representations of Whiteness in the Black Imagination”
November
3 - Essay #2 DUE in my box in 286 UH, 5 pm
5 - Sullivan, “Dumping on White Trash”
6 - Screening of ANITA: Speaking Truth to Power, with Q&A with Director
Freida Mock and Anita Hill
Mershon Auditorium, 7 pm
7 - Panel, “Responding to Gendered Violence in Society, Law and on College
Campuses”
Anita Hill, Martha Chamallas, Katie Hanna, Gisell Jeter
Saxbe Auditorium, 11
7 - Dyer, “The Matter of Whiteness”
12 - Ferguson, “Race-ing Homonormativity”
14 - class canceled
19 - hooks, “Reflections on Race and Sex”
Zack, “The American Sexualization of Race”
21 - Sullivan, “The Dis-ease of Color Blindness”
deadline for approval of final essay topic
THANKSGIVING BREAK
December
3 - Cohen, “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens”
5 - Muñoz, “Disidentifications”
Final Exam or Essay DUE December 12th, 12 pm, my box in University Hall