LGQ 150 | INTRODUCTION TO LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER, QUEER STUDIES [SSMW] | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course will focus on defining this emerging field while giving students some perspective on the history and diversity of LGBTQ communities. It will also help prepare students for study in the various fields covered by the electives required for the minor. The course will be taught by faculty from a variety of disciplines and thus undoubtedly shift emphases somewhat with every offering. Topics will include: introduction to and definition of LGBTQ Studies as a field; historical roots of LGBTQ communities in the US and elsewhere; theoretical models of sexuality and gender; contemporary issues in LGBTQ politics and culture.
LGQ 213 | INTRODUCTION TO LGBT PSYCHOLOGY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
The purpose of this course is to introduce you to psychological and social issues relevant to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals and communities. You will be exposed to a variety of key psychological concepts including: heterosexism/homophobia, identity development, "coming out," relationships, families, youth, religion/spirituality, reparative/conversion therapy, diversity, and advocacy. Learning goals for this course include increasing one's understanding of the LGBT community and some of the unique experiences and issues that are experienced by many, but not all, members of the LGBT community. Identify and analyze pertinent psychological concepts relevant to LGBT communities. In addition, this course will provide you with learning experiences that you can use to evaluate your own limitations and strengths in terms of cultural sensitivity in regards to working with LGBT communities, thus improving your competence in working effectively with the LGBT community if you choose to at a later point in life. Cross-listed with PSY 213.
LGQ 236 | GAY MEN'S HEALTH MATTERS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to health issues relevant to gay men. We will explore effects of minority status, heterosexism and homophobia on gay men's health, including but not limited to STD/HIV/AIDS, substance use and mental health. Students will review epidemiological data, theoretical frameworks, and community-based health promotion approaches in order to gain a broad perspective on risk and resilience factors, health indicators, and strategies for self-care applicable to gay men's health.
LGQ 250 | LGQ FRENCH HISTORY: OLD REGIME TO THE PRESENT | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course studies male and female same-sex affection in France roughly from the Enlightenment through the early twenty-first century. It examines the representations of homosexuality over more than two centuries taking into account a variety of often contradictory images that have been current in French society, representations that range, among males, from the diabolical criminal of the nineteenth century Romantics to today's trend-setting (and all too domesticated) gay male, and, among females, from elegant salon figures to contemporary feminist militants. Special attention is focused on the history of homosexuality since WWII because the French gay and lesbian community's progress since that time is impressive and particularly rich in its implications for the American civil rights struggle. Additional readings from French writers on homosexual themes compliment most of the readings from the textbooks.
LGQ 262 | INTRODUCTION TO TRANSGENDER STUDIES | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course is an introduction to the growing body of scholarship in transgender studies, a field built from three decades of thinking gleaned from the disciplines of gender studies, queer theory, sociology, law, feminist science studies, literary studies, history, trans art, trans activism, and LGBTQ studies. We will investigate the historical, political, social, and cultural contexts that have enabled the category transgender, explore readings in transgender history, queer theory, and the history of sexuality, analyze the ways transgender subjects have narrated their own lives and experience, and link these themes to trans lives today. Students will be introduced to discussions and debates key to the development of gender studies, queer studies, and transgender studies, will center intersectional approaches to field, and will read a short contemporary memoir-manifesto that speaks to course themes.
LGQ 277 | LGBTQ+ HISTORY IN THE UNITED STATES, WORLD WAR II TO THE PRESENT | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course is a historical survey of LGBTQ+ -identified people's lives in the United States from World War II (1941) to the Present. We will focus in particular on the way in which LGBTQ+ identities have developed within cultural, social, and political contexts, such as World War II, the civil rights movements of the 1950s-1970s (including the Stonewall Uprising), consumer culture and mass media, the AIDS crisis, the rise of the Religious Right, the advent of gay academic scholarship and queer/transgender identities, the political diversification of the LGBTQ+ community, gay/lesbian marriage, and the growth of LGBTQ+ internet/social media communities and practices. We will examine both the larger national narrative of LGBTQ+ history and focus on the experience of particular groups, such as gay/lesbian activists in 1970s Chicago and transgender/gay ballroom performers. The term 'LGBTQ+' in the title of the course acknowledges how the words 'gay' and 'lesbian' themselves are historically specific, and that LGBTQ+ lives are multiple, complex, and ever-shifting. Although our emphasis here is on sexual and gendered aspects of identity, we will always view subjects as intersectional and multiply-identified according to, for example, class, race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, citizenship, indigenous status, and ability. In tracing the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights and expression and the social impact of LGBTQ+ people on American political institutions, culture and citizenry, we will draw on key historical documents, oral testimonies, academic criticism and theory, journalism, advertising, and popular culture.
LGQ 280 | LGBTQ LITERATURE FROM THE ANCIENT WORLD TO THE RENAISSANCE | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course looks at constructions of queer desire in texts of the Western tradition from ancient Judea, Greece, and Rome through the European Middle Ages and into the English Renaissance. We will also learn to perform "queer readings" on texts that may not at first glance seem all that queer. The course will range across many linguistic and cultural traditions. We will read non-English texts in translation, but we may consult the originals in class and certainly knowledge of an ancient tongue or modern Romance language will be useful (but not required-don't worry!). As the title implies, the course will proceed historically, but we will be returning throughout to some basic questions: In what sorts of contexts do we find queer resistance to heteronormative assumptions? Do some literary genres seem more hospitable than others to representations of queer desire? How do representations of sexuality relate to larger notions of gender and social class? How do the constructions of queer desire we find here differ from modern lesbian and gay identities? This is a great opportunity to think about queer identity while reading and discussing some amazing texts.
LGQ 282 | INTRODUCTION TO LGBTQ LITERATURE | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course is an introduction to LGBTQ literature. It can count as an elective for the LGBTQ Studies minor at DePaul and is approved in the Arts and Literature domain of the Liberal Studies Program. We will use the word "queer" as it has been deployed in recent academic and activist discourse to talk about people whose sexual and/or gender identity does not conform to mainstream definitions. Most of the texts we will read this quarter are interested in various forms of same-sex desire, female-female and male-male, but at the same time we will consider the ways in which sexual identity always implicates gender identity. We will be interested in a number of closely inter-related questions: How can we define "queer literature" and is there a tradition, or history, of queer letters? What are its main characteristics and shared themes? Does a writer who identifies as queer automatically produce a queer text? Can a straight woman or man write a queer book? How do our primary concerns (sexual/gender identity) intersect with other modes of personal identity such as race and social class?.
LGQ 297 | SPECIAL TOPICS IN LGBTQ STUDIES | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
See course schedule for current offerings.
LGQ 319 | QUEER PIONEERS: CULTURE, GENDER, AND POLITICAL ACTIVISM | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course examines some of the historical roots and contemporary realities of lesbian and gay politics in the United States through the biographies of pioneering individuals whose lives and work shaped an ongoing struggle for civil rights and social justice. Conventional wisdom holds that the modern lesbian and gay movement was born in 1969 with the Stonewall riots in New York City, although recent scholarship traces the movement's roots to the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. More than thirty years after what began at Stonewall as an angry and disorganized appeal for basic human dignity, lesbians and gays have today begun to enter the mainstream of U.S. politics. Within this context, the biographies of individuals who, as activists and artists, rose to challenge the conventions of culture, gender, and political exclusion will be studied in-depth to both illuminate the politics of social movement and suggest how these diverse individuals and experiences may influence present and future efforts for cultural and political change. This course fulfills an elective in the WMS, AMS, or PSC majors, an elective in the LGQ minor.
LGQ 332 | LGBTQ POLITICS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course will explore the historical roots and contemporary realities of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) politics, nationally and internationally. Such issues as hate crimes, marriage, AIDS, and ballot initiatives over non-discrimination law and policy have entered the political mainstream since the 1970s. This course examines the LGBTQ movement, its political and social strategies, conflicts and issues, and the political roles played by its members as participants in political culture.
LGQ 338 | SEXUAL JUSTICE: LESBIANS, GAYS AND THE LAW | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course examines the historical and contemporary relationships between lesbians, gays, and the law in the U.S., focusing on the intersections of power, sexuality, and identity with issues of sexuality-based discrimination. It focuses on case law, along with social science and legal literature, seeking out a diversity of voices and experiences. Primary emphasis will be on cases that have come before the U.S. Supreme Court since the mid-1950's, with particular attention paid to how groups and individuals have reached out to the court system for redress of injustice and how these groups and individuals have exercised or failed to exercise power within the legal process. The U.S. legal system has reflected a complex set of social and institutional arrangements with regard to sexuality. This course explores the evolution and current construction of these arrangements, how power is allocated and adjudicated, and how law may be used to resist and dismantle pervasive discrimination. Cross-listed with WGS 338.
LGQ 362 | ADVANCED TRANSGENDER STUDIES | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course is an advanced study of the growing body of scholarship in transgender studies, a field built from three decades of thinking gleaned from the disciplines of gender studies, queer theory, sociology, law, feminist science studies, literary studies, history, trans art, trans activism, and LGBTQ studies. We will deepen our investigation into the historical, political, social, and cultural contexts that have enabled the category transgender, analyze readings in transgender history, queer theory, and the history of sexuality, expand our understanding of the ways transgender subjects have narrated their own lives and experience, and link these themes to trans lives today. Students will delve into discussions and debates key to the development of gender studies, queer studies, and transgender studies, and will center intersectional approaches to the field.
LGQ 388 | QUEER THEORY: AN INTRODUCTION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course will look at some of the central texts of queer theory, tracing its ambivalent relationship to the "normal" ideals of mainstream culture. We will begin by discussing current issues of normativity as it relates to gay and lesbian assimilation. We will then look at theories of embodiment, sexual identity, and power, consider the relationship of gender to sexuality, and finally, look at surgical sex reassignment and debates around the politics of intersex and transgender identity. Requirements: class presentation, several short response papers, longer final paper. The authors we will be reading include Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Eve Sedgwick, Audre Lorde, Sigmund Freud, Anne Fausto-Sterling, and Michael Warner. Topics will include historicizing queerness, butch/femme, the politics of camp, and the transgender and intersex movements. Cross-listed with WGS 388.
LGQ 397 | SPECIAL TOPICS IN LGBTQ STUDIES | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
See course schedule for current offerings.
LGQ 399 | INDEPENDENT STUDY | 1-8 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Variable credit.