Why do people want to know about a baby’s sex? How are children socialized into gender/sex binaries? How are gender roles created? How is gender/sex related to sexuality? What is it that we are attracted to in another person? Body frames? Masculinity/femininity? Having a penis or a vagina/vulva? How does gender/sex depend on other categories such as race/ethnicity, nationality, class, religion, and ability? How do interlocking systems of oppression (e.g. sexism, racism, classism, xenophobia, ableism) influence people’s lives? In this class, you will learn feminist theory and its empirical applications to scholarship in psychology by situating lived experiences of women, and sexual minorities in context. You will develop media literacy by examining examples of pop culture, gain fluency in identifying the role of heteropatriarchal and racist institutions in social inequity and learn to think and write critically about gender/sex in its social, cultural, historical and political context.
This course will follow a lecture and discussion format. Please note that you will meet together as a large group on Wednesdays for the lecture (max 45 people), and again as a smaller group (max 22 people) for extended discussion time with the instructor on Mondays (section 1) or on Thursdays (section 2). Adding this automatically signs you up for the Monday discussion section.
Learning Outcomes:
-Explain the historical origins of intersectionality theory, and its relevance in contemporary psychological research.
-Identify interlocking systems of oppression (i.e. racism, sexism, classism, heteropatriarchy, transphobia, xenophobia, ableism) and analyze how they construct different realities for individuals who occupy positions of marginality and privilege variously.
-Generate research questions to be answered through psychological empirical research using an intersectional lens.
-Develop a muscle for self-reflexivity (both in everyday interactions, and in academic writing), and an ability to evaluate your social positionality and identities in its situated context.
Delivery Method: Remotely accessible
Course Level: 2000-level
Credits: 4
M 3:40PM - 5:30PM & W 4:10PM - 6:00PM (Full-term)
Maximum Enrollment: 22
Course Frequency: Once a year
Categories: All courses , Psychology , Remotely Accessible
Tags: feminist theory , gender , gender and class , intersectionality , psychology , race and gender , SCT , sex , sexuality