Listed in: Sexuality, Women's and Gender Studies, as SWAG-328
Sahar Sadjadi (Section 01)
This seminar explores the role of science in the understanding and making of human sexuality. The notion of “sexuality”--its emergence and its recent history--has an intimate relation to biology, medicine and psychology. In this course we explore the historical emergence of the scientific model of sexuality and the challenges to this model posed from other worldviews and social forces, mainly religion, social sciences, and political movements. We examine how sex has intersected with race and nationality in the medical model (for instance, in the notion of degeneration), and we look closely at the conceptualization of feminine and masculine sexual difference. We briefly address studies of animal models for human sexuality, and we examine in more depth case histories of “perversion,” venereal disease, orgasm and sex hormones. We also compare contemporary biological explanations of sexuality with the nineteenth-century ones, for instance, the notion of the “gay gene” as compared to the hereditary model of “sexual inversion.” Course readings include historical and contemporary sexological and biological texts (Darwin, Freud, Kinsey, etc.), their critiques, and contemporary literature in science studies, including feminist and queer studies of science. This seminar requires active participation, reading an array of diverse and interdisciplinary texts and preparing research-based papers and presentations.
Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Sadjadi.
If Overenrolled: Priority given to SWAGS majors.
Cost: $$125.00 ?
Section 01
Tu 02:30 PM - 05:00 PM CONV 302
| ISBN | Title | Publisher | Author(s) | Comment | Book Store | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brain Storm: The Flaws in the Science of Sex Differences | Harvard University Press 2011 | Rebecca M. Jordan-Young | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| The Case of the Female Orgasm: Bias in the Science of Evolution | Harvard University Press 2005 | Elisabeth Lloyd | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex | Penguin Book 2004 | Charles Darwin | Amherst Books | TBD |
These books are available locally at Amherst Books.