(un)Learning Gender

Description

In this course, we will investigate how gender is defined, interpreted, and distinguished all around us. We will explore the origins of gender in American culture: what it is, what it isn't, and how it got that way. We will survey the manners in which gender has been represented in mainstream American culture and come to realize that the notion of gender as a binary, two-option system is both outdated and insufficient.  We will visit historical and contemporary movements for gender justice through film, text, and discussion.

Course discussions may center on representation and self-presentation, silence and voice, feminist theory, transgender/gender non conforming history, visibility, empowerment, ally-ship, and anti-oppression work. Together we will engage in un-learning the binary and work to define and shift the behaviors that have created a climate of systematic gender injustice.