LGBT Studies


COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course is the introduction to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies minor. The LGBT Studies program is designed to allow students to explore sexuality and sexual minorities from a variety of perspectives. The course will provide students with an introduction to a broad array of LGBT issues including theory, research methods, public policy and the law, family types, crime, popular culture, and LGBT identities and communities. It will be a core to the LGBT minor.

The history of LGBT Studies extends to the beginnings of the LGBT movements of the last third of the previous century. As the movement for lesbian and gay rights gained strength after 1969, the knowledge that had flourished underground for centuries emerged to produce an increase in research on same-sex issues. This originally rather disparate work gradually coalesced into lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender studies. The field embraces work in genetics and cultural studies, in literature and anthropology, in the health sciences, history, and the visual arts. It ranges from archival research to the elaboration of queer theory, from the analysis of constitutional law to questions of public health, from the study of popular culture to investigations into the development of sexual identity. Students are often exposed to these studies at the upper division levels of the curriculum in disparate departments. An introductory course will make these upper division courses more accessible and meaningful, as well as serve as the basic core to the minor in LGBT studies.

OBJECTIVE

The course objectives will allow the student:

  1. To gain a theoretical understanding of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues, and develop an appreciation for queer language, theatre arts, and community cultures.
  2. To learn the methods by which a skilled person reasons to acquire new and accurate understandings of these issues and topics.
  3. To identify the major lacunae in the study of queer issues, including the vast unexplored terrains of bisexual, transsexual and transgender identities.
  4. To be able to express yourself in terms of theories and facts in a well reasoned manner when confronted by current issues.

For information please e-mail dnadon@kent.edu