Syllabus

Queer America

Professor Jen Jack Gieseking                                                                      American Studies 409
Trinity College :: Spring 2016                                                                 Room S204 :: M 1.15-3.55
Office Hrs Loc :: twitter.com/jgieseking                               Office Hours :: W 11:30-2:30 & by appt

How do lgbtq spaces, histories, and cultures afford a different reading of America is and could be? Drawing on interdisciplinary work in lgbtq studies, Queer America explores key spaces and scales of American historical geography for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people with a focus on the late 20th and early 21st centuries. From bars and community centers, neighborhoods and cruising grounds, to cities and rural Walmarts, websites and social media, students will employ feminist and queer theory to broaden their understandings of lgbtq spaces in the production of the nation-state. The application of classic and cutting-edge work in geographies of lgbtq culture will challenge the seemingly normal histories and geographies of American life in this research seminar. This course pays special attention to the intersectionality of sexualities with race, gender, class, disability, age, and generation. Students will draw upon primary and secondary sources to draft an original research paper on a topic they develop over the course of the semester.

REQUIRED TEXTS

  • Bronski, Michael. 2012. A Queer History of the United States. Boston: Beacon Press.
  • Kaufman, Moises, Tectonic Theater Project, Leigh Fondakowski, Greg Pierotti, and Andy Paris. The Laramie Project & The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later. NY: Vintage, 2014.
  • Kushner, Tony. 2013. Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes (Revised and Complete Edition). NY: Theatre Communications Group.
  • All other readings will be provided in the course packet or as handouts.

STATEMENT ON ACADEMIC INTEGRITY & ACADEMIC ACCOMODATIONS

Students of Trinity College are held to the Student Integrity Contract, which can be found in full in the Student Handbook. Your work will be graded according to the rubric designed by your instructor. Cheating and plagiarizing will be dealt with according to university guidelines. Respect and responsibility are core to your life as a Trinity student—enjoy applying, developing, and honing them in our time in this course. If you have a documented disability and have been approved for academic accommodations, or would like to be approved for accommodations, speak directly to me during hours over the first two weeks of the semester and/or contact Lori Clapis, Disability Coordinator, at Lori.Clapis@trincoll.edu.

 

TENTATIVE COURSE SCHEDULE

1/23  An Introduction to the Course

  • Burgett, Bruce. 2007. “Sex.” In Keywords for American Cultural Studies, eds. Burgett and Hendler, 217-221. New York: NYU Press.
  • Halberstam, Judith Jack. 2007. “Gender.” In Keywords, 116-120.
  • Somerville, Siobhan B. 2007. “Queer.” In Keywords, 187-191.
  • Hayden, Dolores. 1997. “Urban Landscape History.” In The People, Place, and Space Reader, eds. Gieseking, Mangold, Katz, Low, Saegert, 82-86. New York: Routledge.
  • Ruddick, Sue. “Constructing Difference in Public Spaces.” In The PPS Reader, 7-11.

 

1/30  Getting Grounded in LGBTQ Geographies & Queer Theories

  • Bronski, Michael. 2012. “The Persecuting Society” and “Sexually Ambiguous Revolutions” from A Queer History of the United States. Boston: Beacon Press, 1-39.
  • Gieseking, Jen Jack. “LGBTQ Spaces and Places.” In LGBTQ America: A Theme Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer History, edited by Megan Springate. Washington, D.C.: National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 2016.
  • Somerville, Siobhan B. 2006. “Scientific Racism.” In Queer Studies: A LGBTQ Anthology, eds. Beemyn and Eliason, 241-255. New York: NYU Press.
  • Friedman, Jeffrey, Aldo Fabrizi, and Robert Epstein. 2001. The Celluloid Closet. Sony.

 

2/6    Urban/Rural

  • Kaufman, Moises, Tectonic Theater Project, Leigh Fondakowski, Greg Pierotti, and Andy Paris. 2014. The Laramie Project & The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later. NY: Vintage.
  • Moore, Mignon R. 2006. “Lipstick or Timberlands? Meanings of Gender Presentation in Black Lesbian Communities.” Signs 32 (1): 113–139.
  • Brown, Gavin. 2012. “Homonormativity: A Metropolitan Concept That Denigrates ‘Ordinary’ Gay Lives.” Journal of Homosexuality 59 (7): 1065–72.
  • Davis, Kate. 2003. Southern Comfort. Documentary. Docurama.

 

2/10  Field Trip to NYC

 

2/13  Here Comes / Goes the Gayborhood

  • Schulman, Sarah. 2012. “Introduction” & “Part I: Understanding the Past.” In The Gentrification of the Mind, 1-52. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
  • Gieseking, Jack. 2018 (forthcoming). “Who are the People in Your LGBTQ Neighborhood?: Greenwich Village and Gay Manhattan.” A Queer New York: the Gentrification of Lesbians, Dykes, and Queers, 1983-2008.
  • 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.
  • Bryant, Linda Goode, and Laura Poitras. 2007. Flag Wars. Zeitgeist Films.

 

2/20 – No class / Trinity Days

 

2/27  LGBTQ Places: Bars and Beaches, Cruising and the Streets

  • Bronski, Michael. 2012. “A Dangerous Purity” and “Life on the Stage / Life in the City” from A Queer History of the United States. Boston: Beacon Press, 83-128.
  • Nestle, Joan. 1997. “Restrictions and Reclamation: Lesbian Bars and Beaches on the 1950s.” In Queers in Space: Communities, Public Places, Sites of Resistance, eds. Ingram, Bouthillette, Retter, 61–68. Seattle: Bay Press.
  • 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).
  • Poirer, Paris. 1993. Last Call at Maud’s. Documentary, History. Stone Water.

 

3/6    #Orlando

 

3/20  In Our Own Words & Stories

  • Lorde, Audre. 1997. “The Uses of Anger.” WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly 25 (1/2): 278–85.
  • Cohen, Cathy J. “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics?” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 3, no. 4 (January 1, 1997): 437–65.
  • Bechdel, Alison. 2008. Selections from The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
  • Nelson, Maggie. 2015. Selections from The Argonauts. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Graywolf Press, 1-39.
  • Berliner, Alain. Ma Vie En Rose. Drama. Canal+, 1997.

 

3/27  Activisms

  • Bronski, Michael. 2012. “Visible Communities / Invisible Lives” and “Revolt / Backlash / Resistance” from A Queer History of the United States. Boston: Beacon Press, 176-235.
  • Wolfe, Maxine. “Invisible Women in Invisible Places: The Production of Social Space in Lesbian Bars.” In Queers in Space: Communities, Public Places, Sites of Resistance, edited by A. Bouthillette and Y. Retter, 301–24. Seattle, WA: Bay Press, 1997.
  • d’Addario, John. 2011. “AIDS, Art and Activism: Remembering Gran Fury.” Hyperallergic. December 1. http://hyperallergic.com/42085/aids-art-activism-gran-fury/.
  • Hubbard, Jim. 2012. United in Anger: A History of ACT UP. Documentary. United in Anger.

 

4/3    Homonationalism, at Home and Abroad

  • 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.
  • Billies, Michelle. 2016. “Low Income LGBTGNC (Gender Nonconforming) Struggles Over Shelters as Public Space.” ACME: International Critical Geographies 14 (4): 989-1007.
  • Rees, Dee. 2011. Pariah. Drama. Focus Features.
  • Baker, Sean. 2015. Tangerine. Magnolia Home Entertainment.

 

4/10  Queer Life Online and On the Map

  • McGlotten, Shaka. 2016. “Black Data.” In No Tea, No Shade: New Writings in Black Queer Studies, ed. E.P. Johnson, 262-286. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
  • Gieseking, Jen Jack. 2017 (forthcoming). “Size Matters to Lesbians Too: Queer Feminist Interventions into the Scale of Big Data.” Professional Geographer.
  • Keeling, Kara. 2014. “Queer OS.” Cinema Journal 53 (2): 152–57.
  • 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.
  • Soloway, Jill. 2014. Selected episodes of Transparent. Comedy, Drama.

 

4/17  Bodies Objectified, Bodies Consumed

  • Baker, Dan. 1997. “A History in Ads: The Growth of the Gay and Lesbian Market.” In Homo Economics: Capitalism, Community, and Lesbian and Gay Life, eds. Gluckman and Reed, 11–20. New York: Routledge.
  • Manalansan IV, Martin F. 2005. “Race, Violence, and Neoliberal Spatial Politics in the Global City.” Social Text 23 (3/4): 141–155.
  • Sant, Gus Van. Milk. Biography, Drama, History. Axon Films, 2009.

 

4/24  Bodies of Desire, Bodies Desired

  • Coyote, Ivan E. 2010. To All of the Kick Ass, Beautiful Fierce Femmes out There… Speak Up! Center Women Present: JCC Stamford, CT.
  • Bornstein, Kate. 2013. Chapters 1, 11, 13, and 14 from A Queer and Pleasant Danger: The True Story of a Nice Jewish Boy Who Joins the Church of Scientology, and Leaves Twelve Years Later to Become the Lovely Lady She Is Today. New York: Beacon Press.
  • Carow, Heiner. Coming Out. First Run Features, 2001.
  • Wachowski, Andy, and Lana Wachowski. Bound. Crime, Drama, Thriller, 1996.

 

5/2    Presentations :: In-Class

 

5/10 Papers :: Due @ 12pm