ANT 315 - Queer Enthnographies

This course will look at the growing body of queer ethnographies about non-normative genders and sexualities in Western and non-Western countries. Beginning with classic monographs on same-sex sexuality such as Esther Newton’s Mother Camp: Female Impersonators in America (1972), we will move onto examine contemporary ethnographies of nonnormative sexualities in United States and around the world, including C.J. Pascoe’s Dude, You’re a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School (2011) and Margot Weiss’ Techniques of Pleasure: BDSM and the Circuits of Sexuality (2011). By interrogating ethnography’s generative but contentious relationship with LGBT Studies and feminist, queer, post-structuralist, and postcolonial theories, we will assess how applicable Western queer theory is to the non-Western world.

Satisfies a requirement in the Gender & Sexuality Studies major and minor (Society & Politics Track).