Women’s & Gender Studies

This course examines gender and sexuality in a Scottish context. As binary understandings of gender and sexuality are increasingly shown to be outdated and outmoded, developments in our understanding of gender and sexuality are making headlines and becoming a regular part of our daily discourse in both our social and working lives. This course enables students to apply their knowledge of identity politics to a dynamic range of relevant texts. The texts examine the decline of traditional, industrialist, "hard man" masculinities in Scotland. Through an exploration of dynamic, contemporary and highly acclaimed texts, this course examines broken masculinities, resistant femininities, and resurgent Scottish LGBT+ fictions. A select range of relevant secondary sources accompany this exploration of primary literature, introducing students to iconic theorists, as well as relevant contemporary critics examining Scottish literature from a gendered perspective.

The Celtic literatures contain a variety of strong and memorable female and male characters, some positively portrayed and others negatively. The idealized gender characteristics which may underpin these portrayals is explored in the lectures. In the case of the ultimate model of masculinity, the male hero, the myth of heroic prowess coupled with the underlying threat of unpredictability and violence is examined. In addition, the blurred lines of gender identity in poetry is a particular focus. Saints' Lives of the Middle Ages, often an expected source of gender role reversal and fluidity, is also covered. A range of representative texts are read in translation, and discussed and analyzed in lectures.

This course provides theoretical and methodological tools to approach, analyze, and question research from a gender perspective. It examines basic concepts of gender studies.

This course examines key issues and debates in western feminist art movements between the 1960s and 1980s. The inclusion of case studies on the works of women artists, including Mona Hatoum, Nikki S. Lee, Yin Xiuzhen, Shen Yuan, and Megumi Akiyoshi. It also covers new artistic contents, and alternative cultural formats and theoretical paradigms to the on-going construction of a feminist history of art within the increasingly interconnected, yet unevenly developed globalizing contemporary society.

Queer histories situate the emergence of queer identities and subcultures in turn of the century European urban centers. Yet these were shaped by a more global context, in which imperialism and Orientalism were central. To understand this, the course first reads texts which explore the intersections of histories of imperialism and histories of gender and sexuality. It then focuses on Orientalism and racism in queer representations. In a third part, it turns to studies which highlight the importance of travel and encounters for queer experiences. A fourth part addresses the question of silences and absences in the archive, and scholarly approaches to tackling these. Finally, the course turns to primary sources and analyzes them, drawing on the ideas developed throughout the course.

This course uses Berlin as a case study to analyze the origins of hate discourses and the so-called "gender ideology" by integrating key concepts of queer theory and gender studies into the discussions to explore the cultural politics of emotions and affect. Questions posed include why has Berlin become one of the foremost LGBTQIA+ capitals in the world? What social and political challenges does the Berlin queer community face, such as the emergence of a new wave of far-right movements? Students examine the evolution of a contemporary, multicultural, and artistic queer Berlin. Topics include the 1920s, the rise of fascism and Nazi atrocities, the division of Germany, and its different approaches to sexual liberation movements. The course considers the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the Reunification of Germany and the 1990s to understand today's vast and diverse queer scene. It explores recent theoretical advancements in critical queer and gender studies, complemented by workshops and cultural excursions, covering topics such as body politics, queer diaspora and migration, and critical solidarity.

This course aims for students to understand the articulation between capitalism, colonialism and patriarchy based on the processes of women's struggles and resistance against racism in Chile. This approach implies challenging the European thinking on the categories of work and woman with the goal of decentering the Western idea of "humanity". The previous task requires having an epistemological vigilance at the time of researching women, particularly those belonging to stigmatized groups, such as sexual diversity, migrants, and the Mapuche people.

What is sexual and gender diversity? How does the experience of our own genderedness and sexuality define members of sexual and gender minorities as people, and shape our opinions about those people who do not share our experiences or who do not express their sexuality in the same ways as we do? This course looks at these sorts of questions and does so while teaching about (and in many cases meeting and talking with) people whose gender or sexuality places them on the fringes of mainstream society. People who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or asexual; transgender people and individuals who cross dress, or play with bondage, domination, use pornography, and/or are involved in commercial sex activities. In lectures and tutorials we will examine questions such as: To what extent are sexual and gender diversity biologically ‘hard-wired’ rather than learned? What is ‘normal’ in human sexuality and gender? How, in an increasingly interconnected world, are our ideas about sexual and gender diversity changing? What are the intersectionality that we can discover in the whole course of learning and how do we use these learnings to help make a better world? 

This course develops knowledge of equality and diversity with a special focus on intersectionality. The course contains central theories and perspectives on diversity and equality. The course addresses how equality and diversity work is organized, developed, and run in different types of service organizations. These efforts reflect issues around individual situations and needs, which makes it doubly important to be able to understand and think critically about gender, ethnicity, sexuality, age, and functional impairment. The course gives space for both the critical analysis of organizational equality and diversity issues, as well as the application of theoretical tools to understand these.