GGS 523SEM - New Directions in Queer Theory

The conversation taking place over the past few decades under the name of queer theory has been the site of some of the most provocative innovations in the world of theory at large. This graduate seminar will ask what makes theory queer theory, extending beyond concerns with sex, bodies, and identity to probe the limits of queerness as an approach to knowledge and interpretation. We will cover both canonical works that form queer theory’s foundations and recent scholarship taking queer inquiry in new directions. Course readings will highlight the heterogeneity of queer theory as a body of scholarship, and the flexibility of its methodological tools. Emerging areas to be covered may include theorizations of history and historical time; affect studies: new materialisms and ecology; empire and state violence; and disability theory.

Credits: 3