Sex Methods for Ethnic Studies Graduate Syllabus

Kent Monkman, Artist and Model (2016) Sex Methods for Ethnic Studies Graduate Course University of California San Diego Prof. Roy Pérez (he/him/his) [email protected] Course Description: In this interdisciplinary course, we’ll learn about methods for the study of sex, sexuality, and sexual representation, and collaborate on the development of sex methods for ethnic studies. We’ll examine sexual representation in cultural production, qualitative approaches to sex research, the limitations and possibilities of locating sex in institutional archives, the complexities of doing sex research in the academy, and the importance of sex and sexuality studies and critical race analysis in this political moment of violent antiBlack, anti-trans, and anti-queer panic. Topics and intersections will include pleasure, desire, reproduction, pornography, incarceration, sex work, kink, bdsm, dis/ability, race, and other dynamics relevant to the practice and study of sex. The course will be a collaborative and experimental venture, allowing us to approach sex studies according to our collective interests. Assignments will include weekly free-writing, one 10-12 page conference paper and presentation, and a collaborative Sex Methods Workbook project. Content Advisory: The material in this class is designed to provoke meaningful conversations about issues of sex, racial difference, gender, and other sociopolitical dilemmas. At times, we may read or view material, like pornography and performance art, that is explicit, including profanity and nudity. These artistic strategies are important for understanding the work, and we should engage them frankly and analytically, with respect for the emotional reactions we might have. The nature of this class means that we must be mindful of each other’s boundaries, both physical and interpersonal. In doing so I ask that you keep an open mind and help foster an intellectually rigorous and respectful level of conversation with these socially complex themes. I will provide content notices whenever possible, and I am open to discussing alternative assignments for you if you are concerned about the content of a text. Additionally, many of the topics we’ll discuss in this class directly affect the lives of students present—including issues of sexual violence, citizenship, disability, sexual practices, race, and culture—and I ask that you be sensitive to this and to each other’s differences. Assigned Books (Amazon list available here, all links for free access to the books and other readings posted on Canvas), in order of date assigned: Carmen Maria Machado, Her Body and Other Parties: Stories Samuel Delany, Times Square Red, Times Square Blue Eric A. Stanley and Nat Smith, Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex Gayle Rubin, Deviations: A Gayle Rubin Reader Ariane Cruz, The Color of Kink: Black Women, BDSM, and Pornography Juana María Rodríguez, Puta Life: Seeing Latinas, Working Sex Nguyen Tan Hoang, from A View from the Bottom: Asian American Masculinity and Sexual Representation Caleb Luna, Revenge Body (PDF unavailable, please purchase) Robert McRuer and Anna Mollow, from Sex and Disability Mireille Miller-Young, A Taste for Brown Sugar: Black Women in Pornography L. H. Stallings, Funk The Erotic: Transaesthetics and Black Sexual Cultures Grade Distribution: 25%: Five In-Class Writing Entries (full 5% credit for each submission) 25%: Conference Paper Abstract Conference Paper Presentation Conference Paper 8-Page Transcript 25%: Sex Methods Workbook Contribution First Draft Sex Methods Workbook Contribution Second/Final? Draft 25%: Participation and Class Comportment Due 6/16 Due 5/17 Due 5/31 or 6/7 Due 6/16 Due 5/24 Due 6/16 Assignments and Guidelines: In-Class Writing Entries During each of our Zoom class meetings, we’ll have at least 30 minutes of writing time. The goal is 500 words minimum of engagement with an idea from the texts that you think will be useful for your own work. We can develop prompts together or free-write. You will transcribe/save 5 of these entries and submit them at the end of the semester. 25% Sex Methods Workbook Contribution One of our endeavors this quarter will be making a Sex Methods Handbook (tentatively named). We’ll collaborate on the contents, design, and purpose of the handbook. The handbook would address academic and non-academic readers and offer meaningful advice for sexual practices and sex research. Contributions might include essays related to your research or side-research, syllabi, art, creative writing, how-tos, or anything else to which we agree. We’ll compile the contributions and have them bound in some way, and/or digitized for distribution. 25% Conference Paper and Presentation Your conference paper for this class has two purposes: 1) to give you practice with the structural form of conference presentation, 2) to bring the material from the course to bear on your own research and make the class useful for you. You will first submit an abstract in module 6 by 11:59pm on Canvas. You will then present the paper during one of the two final days of the quarter (no longer than 20 minutes), and submit an 8-page version of the paper to me by June 16. 25% Final Grade Rubric: 95-100 A+ 85-89 B+ 90-94 A 80-84 B 75-79 C+ 70-74 C 60-69 D 0-59 F Important Due Dates in Order: Conference Paper Abstract Sex Methods Workbook Contribution First Draft Conference Paper Presentation Conference Paper 8-Page Transcript Five In-Class Writing Entries Sex Methods Workbook Contribution Second/Final? Draft Due 5/17 Due 5/24 Due 5/31 or 6/7 Due 6/16 Due 6/16 Due 6/16 Class Schedule: Module 0: Possibilities for Sex Methods 4/5 Class Introductions Discussion of Community Practices “Sex” and “Methods,” Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies Module 1: Sex at the End of the World 4/12 Carmen Maria Machado, Her Body and Other Parties: Stories “Queer Methods” special issue of Women’s Studies Quarterly (read Introduction and one article of your choice) Module 2: Sex/Work in Public 4/19 “Sex Work,” Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies Samuel Delany, “Times Square Blue” Jose Esteban Munoz, “The Future Is in the Present: Sexual Avant-Gardes and the Performance of Utopia” Eric A. Stanley and Nat Smith, from Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex Module 3: Kink Methods 4/26 “Consent” and “BDSM,” Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies Gayle Rubin, “Thinking Sex” and “The Catacombs” Ariane Cruz, from The Color of Kink: Black Women, BDSM, and Pornography Module 4: Latina Pleasure/Work 5/3 “Porn,” Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies Juana María Rodríguez, Puta Life: Seeing Latinas, Working Sex Module 5: Visualizing Queer Asian/American Sex 5/10 “Anal,” “Abjection,” and “Decolonization,” Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies Nguyen Tan Hoang, from A View from the Bottom: Asian American Masculinity and Sexual Representation Module 6: Fat & Crip Sex (Conference paper abstracts due by 11:59pm on Canvas). 5/17 "Fat" and “Disability,” Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies Caleb Luna, Revenge Body Caleb Luna, "Jockstraps and Crop Tops Fat Queer Femmes Dressing for the Night" Caleb Luna and Mary Senyonga “‘If I’m shinin’, everybody gonna shine’: Centering Black Fat Women and Femmes Within Body and Fat Positivity" Robert McRuer and Anna Mollow, from Sex and Disability Robert McRuer, “Disabling Sex: Notes for a Crip Theory of Sexuality” Module 7: Black & Trans Erotic Sensorium (Workbook Contributions Drafts Due) 5/24 “The Erotic,” Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies Mireille Miller-Young, from A Taste for Brown Sugar: Black Women in Pornography L. H. Stallings, from Funk The Erotic: Transaesthetics and Black Sexual Cultures Micha Cardenas, “Trans Desire” Presentations 5/31 & 6/7 Presentations Final Assignments Due on Canvas by June 16: 8-page manuscript of conference paper. 5 free-write entries (transcribed to digital, but don’t revise too much). Final version of Workbook contribution. A Note On Reading “Theory” This is a handout I created for undergraduates encountering theory for the first time. I’m including it here because they are useful reminders for all of us to be more humane to ourselves in our learning process. I’m also supplying it so that you can adapt it for your own syllabi if you wish. Theory is an effort by scholars to make sense of phenomena for which we don’t yet have sufficient language. For this reason, reading theory can feel difficult, and the writing can seem unnecessarily complicated. However, the underlying premise of this class is that theory is worthwhile, so it is helpful to think about why and how we read theory. Below are some tips: o Be easy on yourself. You might feel lost sometimes, and things might not make sense until class discussion (and still might not after). Grasping theory is an iterative process, which means ideas get stated over and over in different ways. Ideas evolve within an essay and from one essay to the next. For example, Judith Butler re-wrote many of her ideas from Gender Trouble in a later book, Bodies the Matter, because she felt many readers had misunderstood her thesis. She became a better writer and had new tools at her disposal, having established a conversation with the first book. o Theory is a poetic practice and an imaginative endeavor. Theory is an imaginative endeavor. Style and language matter to theorists in ways that they might not to a scholar whose goal is to transmit data or information. Sometimes this gets in the way of clarity; or rather, in theoretical writing, clarity isn’t always immediate and may require effort. Moreover, some theory is translated (sometimes poorly), or is poorly written and yet important, or very well-written but the ideas are unremarkable. Gaining clarity is something we do with the writer as best we can. o Reading closely and actively is more important than reading completely. When time and energy are tight, you can get more out of working closely with five pages than you might pushing through 50. Make the most with what you are able to read in the amount of time you have. o Reading actively includes the following: marking passages that are extra confusing or extra clear; writing notes in margins or in a notebook; establishing a practice of jumping around the reading including to the footnotes and back to passages you’ve already read; capturing questions as they cross your mind (these are great for discussion because such questions are closer to the text—less abstract and general), and finally, writing (in complete sentences) about the reading is enormously helpful and useful for later assignments. o Theory is a cumulative process. This means that language we have now didn’t exist when the authors were writing, and many of these authors gave us the language we have now. It also means that theory is a conversation, not a singular thesis: ideas move and change as writers take up each other’s work and mold ideas. o Find and follow pleasure where you can. Some ideas will blow your mind, so track down those conversations and read more about those ideas. You won't connect with all theory, but pay attention to your gut when you do connect. You'll write better about stuff you like.