This course takes students through parts of Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East to showcase how gender and sexuality have been understood in different locations in the modern era. It showcases how a focus on gender or sexuality provides new perspectives on the history of nationalism, colonialism, slavery, capitalism, science, medicine, law, ‘race’ and childhood, among other themes. By exploring the history of key concepts such as consent, the course considers how the past informs and haunts present day movements for sexual rights and gender justice. It provides a novel introduction to historical methods and archives by considering the challenges posed by the pursuit minoritized subjects.
Students will learn to read primary and secondary sources closely, to think critically about how intimate matters shape global phenomena, and to devise strategies for writing histories of and from the margins.
