Short Course Offering: The Politics of Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Southern African Contexts (BC3001)
Call Number: 08334
Instructor: Yvette Christiansë, [email protected]
Oct. 22nd - Nov. 7th
Wednesdays, 4 PM to 6:00 PM
Fridays 11 AM to 1:00 PM
Week 1: 22nd & 24th October
Week 2: 28th and 31st October
Week 3: Reading Break
Week 4: 5th and 7th November
Course Overview--The Politics of Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Southern African Contexts
This special, intensive module offers mid-senior level and graduate students with an interest in African Studies a unique chance to learn about the absolutely contemporary politics of gender and sexualities in specific African contexts of the twenty-first century.
Run by Visiting Professor Jane Bennett of the African Gender Institute at University of Cape Town, this is an intensive engagement with how post-flag democracy cultures have taken up the question of gender and sexualities, race-based identity-politics, narratives of “the body,” medical and religious discourses on “women,” and discourses of “e-masculinization” and militarism. The course also considers the sexual and gendered operations of colonial praxis.
This special course draws on film, photography, blogs written within Southern African contexts, you-tube videos, and other e-based material. The module is designed for in-depth, participative discussion, over a two-week period in which there will be five sessions of three and a half hours each (with a half-hour break in each one).
Given the time frame of this intensive course, readings will be very closely linked to the theoretical questions explored by each session and limited in number.
The assessment for the module will be based on three areas of work: (a) in-seminar preparation and participation (b) on-line response to questions posed both before and after each seminar (c) a 4,000-5,500 word paper to be submitted on-line to Professor Bennett, 4 weeks after the end of the module. The topic for the paper will be discussed in detail with Professor Bennett during one (at least) in-person session with her during the module, and on-line as much as is necessary, after the module ends.
The current schedule is as follows:
Wednesdays, 4 PM to 6:00 PM
Fridays 11 AM to 1:00 PM
Week 1: 22nd & 24th October
Week 2: 28th and 31st October
Week 3: Reading Break
Week 4: 5th and 7th November
