2016 Weekly Reading Response Assignments

Weekly Reading Response

Posts. You will write five Weekly Reading Responses total. Write three paragraphs summarizing the arguments of any one of the readings for the week in depth. The aim of this assignment is to help you hone your skills putting academic readings into your own words.

First & second paragraph: What is the author’s main arguement? What field is the author in and how does it frame her/his/their work in certain ways (note: do a Google search if the article does not say)? What evidence do they use to base their claim? What other key ideas does the author put forth?

Third paragraph: What is the most interesting contribution of this piece to your understanding of queer America? What remains unclear and/or what is inspiring? What questions are you left with?

Comments. You will comment on three of your colleagues’ WRRs over five weeks of the semester, or fifteen total comments. These comments only need one be one paragraph in length and answer the following questions:

What did you learn from this post? What questions are you left with? How does the WRR affect your understandings of queer America?

Of note. You will sign up in advance to make sure that an even number of your cover various readings and various dates. Each reading should be covered by at least one person and we will work that out in advance of each class.

Queer America WWR Assignment Schedule

2/1    Getting Grounded in LGBTQ Geographies & Queer Theories

• Victoria – Somerville, Siobhan B. 2006. “Scientific Racism.” In Queer Studies: A LGBTQ Anthology, eds. Beemyn and Eliason, 241-255. New York: NYU Press.
• Morgan – Gieseking, Jen Jack. 2013. “A Queer Geographer’s Life as an Introduction to Queer Theory, Space, and Time.” In Queer Geographies: Beirut, Tijuana, Copenhagen, eds. Lau, Arsanios, Zúñiga-González, Kryger, 14–21. Roskilde, Denmark: Museet for Samtidskunst.

2/8    Here Comes / Goes the Gayborhood

• Samantha – Hanhardt, Christina. 2013. “Butterflies, Whistles, and Fists: Safe Streets Patrols and Militant Gay Liberalism in the 1970s.” In Safe Space: Gay Neighborhood History and the Politics of Violence, 81-116. Durham: Duke University Press.
• Emma – Ghaziani, Amin. 2010. “There Goes the Gayborhood?” Contexts 9 (4): 64–66.
• Bret – Shurin, Aaron. 2010. “Map 10. Monarchs and Queens: Butterfly Habitats and Queer Public Spaces.” In Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas, ed. Rebecca Solnit, 45-50. Berkeley: University of Cali Press.
• Victoria – Gieseking, Jen Jack. 2016 (forthcoming). “Crossing Over into Territories of the Body: Urban Territories, Borders, and Lesbian-Queer Bodies in New York City.” Area.

2/15  Urban/Rural

• Victoria – Chauncey, George. 1996. “Privacy Could Only Be Had in Public.” In Stud: Architectures of Masculinity, ed. Joel Sanders, 224–67. Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press.
• Nick – Moore, Mignon R. 2006. “Lipstick or Timberlands? Meanings of Gender Presentation in Black Lesbian Communities.” Signs 32 (1): 113–139.
• Nick – Knopp, Lawrence, and Michael Brown. 2003. “Queer Diffusions.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 21 (4): 409–24.
• Samantha – Gray, Mary L. 2007. “From Websites to Wal-Mart: Youth, Identity Work, and the Queering of Boundary Publics in Small Town, USA.” American Studies 48, no. 2: 5–15.

2/29  LGBTQ Places: Bars and Beaches, Cruising and the Streets

• Paola – Nestle, Joan. 1997. “Restrictions and Reclamation: Lesbian Bars and Beaches on the 1950s.” In Queers in Space, eds. Ingram, Bouthillette, Retter, 61–68. Seattle: Bay Press.
• Nick – Delany, Samuel R. 2001. “…Three, Two, One, Contact: Times Square Red.” In Times Square Red, Times Square Blue, 111-147. New York: NYU Press.
• Morgan – Duggan, Áine. 2011. “‘Nobody Should Ever Feel the Way That I Felt’: A Portrait of Jay Toole and Queer Homelessness.” S&F Online 10 (1-2).
• Morgan – FIERCE, Paper Tiger Television, and The Neutral Zone. 2007. Fenced Out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMrohHHdXd4&feature=youtube_gdata.

3/7    Queering Gender in Place

• Victoria – Rich, Adrienne. 1980. Selections from “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence.” Signs 5 (4): 631–60.
• Samantha – Sedgwick, Eve. 1999 [1998]. “Axiomatic” in The Cultural Studies Reader, ed. During, 320-339. New York: Routledge.
• Morgan – Stryker, Susan. 2008. “Transgender History, Homonormativity, and Disciplinarity.” Radical History Review, 100: 144–57.
• Brittney – Nelson, Maggie. 2015. Selections: The Argonauts. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Graywolf, 1-39.

3/21  In Our Own Words & Stories

• Paola – Lorde, Audre. 2002. “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House.” In This Bridge Called My Back, eds. Moraga and Anzaldúa, 106-110. Berkeley, CA: Third Woman Press.
• Paola – Bechdel, Alison. 2007. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. New York: Mariner Books.

3/28  Seeing Queer Life on Film [no class – Prof. Gieseking is away]

• Brittney – Rees, Dee. 2011. Pariah. Drama. Focus Features.
• Bret – Davis, Kate. 2003. Southern Comfort. Documentary. Docurama.

Along with the above two films, watch with at least any one of the following:

• Morgan – Livingston, Jennie. 1991. Paris Is Burning. Documentary. Miramax Films.
• Samantha – Poirer, Paris. 1993. Last Call at Maud’s. Documentary, History. Stone Water.
• France, David. 2013. How to Survive a Plague. Documentary, History, News.
• Victoria – Hubbard, Jim. 2012. United in Anger: A History of ACT UP. Documentary. United in Anger.
• Emma – Friedman, Jeffrey, Aldo Fabrizi, and Robert Epstein. 2001. The Celluloid Closet. Sony.

4/4    Homonationalism, at Home and Abroad

• Emma – D’Emilio, John. 1983. “Capitalism and Gay Identity.” In Powers of Desire: The Politics of Sexuality, eds. Snitow, Stansell, Thompson, 100–113. New York: Monthly Review Press.
• Bret – Morgensen, Scott Lauria. 2010. “Settler Homonationalism: Theorizing Settler Colonialism within Queer Modernities.” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 16 (1-2): 105–31.
• Victoria – Spade, Dean. 2015. “Administrating Gender.” In Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics and the Limits of Law, 73–93. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
• Nick – Billies, Michelle. 2016 (forthcoming). “Low Income LGBTGNC (Gender Nonconforming) Struggles Over Shelters as Public Space.” ACME: International Critical Geographies.

4/11  Queer Life Online and On the Map

• Nick – Brown, Michael, & Larry Knopp. 2008. “Queering the Map: Productive Tensions of Colliding Epistemologies.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 98 (1): 40–58.
• Paola – McGlotten, Shaka. 2016 (forthcoming). “Black Data.” In No Tea, No Shade: New Queer of Color Critique, ed. E.P. Johnson. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
• Samantha – Gieseking, Jen Jack. 2016 (forthcoming). “Size Matters to Lesbians Too: Queer Feminist Interventions into the Scale of Big Data.” Professional Geographer.

4/18  Bodies Objectified, Bodies Consumed

• Brittney – Baker, Dan. 1997. “A History in Ads.” In Homo Economics: Capitalism, Community, and Lesbian and Gay Life, eds. Gluckman and Reed, 11–20. New York: Routledge.
• Paola – Manalansan IV, Martin F. 2005. “Race, Violence, and Neoliberal Spatial Politics in the Global City.” Social Text 23 (3/4): 141–155.
• Emma & Bret – Schulman, Sarah. 2012. “Introduction” and “Part I: Understanding the Past.” In The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination, 1-52. Berkeley, CA: U of Cali Press.

4/25  Bodies of Desire, Bodies Desired

• Brittney – Berlant, Lauren and Michael Warner. 1999 [1998]. “Sex in Public.” In The Cultural Studies Reader, ed. During, 354-367. New York: Routledge.
• Emma – Coyote, Ivan E. 2010. Selections from Missed Her. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press.
• Brittney – Bornstein, Kate. 2013. Selections from A Queer and Pleasant Danger. New York: Beacon.