General Course Information

Queer Media — Spring 2020 — MSCR3700:01 (CRN#38035)
Class: MR 11:45am-1:25pm (Ryder Hall 452)
Course Prerequisites: C grade or above in ENGW1111 or ENG1102
Course Attributes: NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Writing Intensive, UG Col of Arts, Media & Design

N.B. This syllabus functions very much like a living document and the course website will reflect updates on assignments or changes to the timeline. The original version of the timeline provides a general plan for the course and deviations may be necessary. Thus, check the website regularly.

Course Description

The primary aim of this course is to examine queer representation within media, ranging from film and television to social networks and video games, and accomplishes this by interrogating queerness in two ways:

On the one hand, “queer” is often deployed as a slang term meant to broadly encapsulate a diverse range of gender identities and sexual orientations. This course contextualizes the limitations of academic and popular perspectives about sexual orientation that precede queer studies/theory (within, for example, interdisciplinary fields like film/literature studies and gender or lesbian/gay studies), which frequently foreclosed the examination of representation beyond the gender/sexual identities of White gay men and lesbian women. The course shifts from the limitations of these historical perspectives to address more nuanced conceptualizations for gender/sexual identities and representations emerging within contemporary theories about queerness, which account for explicit socio-cultural and transnational perspectives beyond the heterosexual/homosexual binary (e.g. asexuality, bisexuality, demisexuality, and polyamory), beyond Whiteness (e.g. queers of color critique, and diasporic, post-colonial, or transnational perspectives), and beyond gender/sex binaries (especially theories about transgender and transexual identities).

On the other hand, queer also means “strange” and, in this context, numerous queer theorists have aimed to “spread strangeness” across such a diverse range of concepts and identities that it would be almost impossible to summarize them all here. However, this course explores contemporary queer theories to trace several of the pathways where this form of strangeness has spread. In particular, course readings, screenings, and discussions will aid students in the exploration of a wide range of topics: from the shadows of closets and the “Down-Low” to the spectacle of drag balls; from the peripheries of New Queer Cinema or experimental films to the mainstreaming of LGBT markets; from the prevalence of homonormativity to the production and politics of trans/gender visibility; from spectacles of race in the work of audiovisual artists to visions of hybrid and intersectional identities; from aesthetics of artists living with HIV/AIDS to theories about viral and contagious technologies; from anti/social intimacies on dating apps to singleness as critique of the totalitarian stature of coupledom; and, from the strangeness of children portrayed in media throughout the 20th century to queer aesthetics of failure in the video games children play.

Regarding the “Core Writing Intensive in Major” designation: This course is designed for students to develop and demonstrate critical thinking through writing. In this class, “critical thinking” is defined as identifying, analyzing, and evaluating arguments and truth claims; and formulating and presenting convincing reasons in support of conclusions. “Writing” refers to skills in developing clear, well-organized, and grammatically correct English prose. The emphasis throughout the research and writing process will be on ensuring that each student’s project achieves her/his rhetorical ends. All students must clearly articulate their rhetorical strategies in writing and revise their strategies based on feedback.

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

  • Define key terms, concepts, and theories fundamental to the study of LGBT and queer media; and, demonstrate the ability to employ these terms, concepts, and theories within class discussion, presentations, and academic writing about media.
  • Describe the historical developments of “queerness,” as a representational and theoretical category, and account for how its conceptualization shifts based upon nuanced intersections between gender, class, race, ethnicity, nationality, sex, and sexual orientation.
  • Conduct research and provide critical analysis about queerness in media based upon a range of epistemological and theoretical frameworks (e.g. LGBTQ studies, queer theories, trans* theories, etc.).
  • Plan, write, and present an original argument about queer media, which should pursue a research question, proceed in an orderly fashion, engage smartly with several theoretical concepts and perspectives, and rely on precise and relevant analysis of a media object.
  • Develop and refine skills contributing to advanced studies of media and, more broadly, knowledge and understanding about the complexities of gender and sexual identities that are necessary for complex and critical engagements with our mediated world.

Required Texts

  • Course readings, available online.
  • Course screenings, in and outside of class.

N.B. This course will contain materials some students may find offensive (e.g. controversial readings and/or media clips with foul language, nudity, sexual scenes, violence, suicide, etc.). Review the syllabus carefully to determine your commitment to the course and all required readings/screenings.

Printable Syllabus (original version without web updates)