Module Catalogue 2024/25

Pre Requisite Comment

N/A

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

This module aims to survey diversities of sexuality and gender expression throughout history, as well as the manifold discourses and regulatory systems that have sought to restrain this diversity. In particular, it challenges students to explore the multiple experiences and contexts that have shaped the emergence of both modern and pre-modern identity labels. Did the gender binary as we understand it exist in the Byzantium of late antiquity, or pre-colonial Igboland? Is our understanding of what it means to be ‘gay’ or ‘transgender’ specific to the era of Western modernity? Was Kabaka Mwanga of Buganda, denounced as a ‘sodomite’ by Christian missionaries, ‘homosexual’ in the same way as Alan Turing? And why have modern governments, religious movements and police systems found sexual otherness so threatening?

Aims:
-       To familiarise students with the range of different expressions of non-normative gender and sexuality across the Ancient, Medieval, and Modern eras.
-       To identify the various means through which hegemonic cultures have sought to marginalize, repress and erase forms of sexual otherness they deem threatening.
-       To provide an awareness of complex debates concerning identity labels

Outline Of Syllabus

Topics may include:

Sexuality in Classical Athens
Intersexuality in Classical and Hellenistic Greece
Transvestism in Classical Athens
The one sex/two sex model in Antiquity
Non-binary divinity in the Ancient Near East
Transgender saints and court eunuchs in Byzantium
Liwat, Khanatha and Sihaq from Classical Islam to the Gunpowder Empires
‘Female husbands’ and diverse sexuality in pre-colonial Africa

Making Sex and the one-sex body
Non-normative physical sex in early modern England and France
Nymphomaniacs and passionless women: making and breaking feminine norms
Just good friends? Sex between women in early modern culture
Sex for one? The eighteenth-century anti-masturbation campaign
Pornography and perversity in early modern culture

The emergence of modern sexology from Havelock Ellis to Alfred Kinsey
Hermaphroditism in nineteenth century medical discourse

European colonialism: between sexual repression and sexual exploitation
Psychiatry discourse and aversion therapy

Homosexual identities in twentieth century Britain
Lesbian interactions with feminism in 20th century Britain
Transgender history in 20th century Britain
Bisexuality in twentieth century Britain
Modern Muslim experiences of diversity in sexuality and gender identity
The backlash: Homophobic and transphobic rhetoric from Janice Raymond to Robert Mugabe
The struggle for LGBTQ+ rights from Stonewall to Kampala

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

- To be able to analyse and deconstruct the medical, religious, psychiatric and political discourses that have sought to govern and regulate non-normative sexuality and gender identity throughout history and in particular the modern era
- To understand the complex intersections between ideas about gender and ideas about sexuality throughout history
- To be able to comparatively analyse experiences of diverse sexuality and gender identity across different cultures and epochs
- To be able to chart histories of rights-based activism and situate activist movements in their cultural, political and historical contexts

Intended Skill Outcomes

- To be able to appreciate the methodological and intellectual challenges of using primary source documents to understand forms of sexuality and gender expression marginalized within the historical record
- To be able to challenge Eurocentric attitudes towards diversities of sexuality and gender expression and the histories thereof
- To develop interpersonal skills through in class discussion
- To be able to understand and engage with complex terminological debates about the historic construction of particular identity labels
- Engaging critically with secondary sources
- To be able to take an independent approach towards essay writing

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Lectures will introduce topics and provide expert orientation and exposition on a broad range of themes and issues concerning historical diversities of gender and sexuality as well as the discourses about them, to be supplemented by the module reading list.

Seminars will also consolidate the learning progress from lectures and weekly readings by enabling students to focus on connected issues and material in greater depth. Seminars will hinge upon debate regarding questions and materials circulated in advance, including primary sources, developing both students' interpersonal and group skills as well as their ability to develop appropriate methodologies for engaging with primary sources. They will also enhance students' capacity to engage with secondary sources critically.

Discussion boards will develop further discussions originating from the lecture and seminar content, and will offer the opportunity for in depth feedback from lecturers as well as feeding into the summative portfolio assessments.

Study-abroad, non-Erasmus exchange and Loyola students spending semester 1 only are required to finish their assessment while in Newcastle. Where an exam is present, an alternative form of assessment will be set and where coursework is present, an alternative deadline will be set. Details of the alternative assessment will be provided by the module leader.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The Portfolio exercise will test the students’ familiarity with a broad range of the themes and knowledge areas covered on this covered. It will also test their ability to reflect on the methodological challenges posed by various types of primary source relevant to this subject area.

The essay examines students’ ability to engage critically with historiographical and terminological debates, as well as to write and research independently. It will be preceded by a formative assessment - a 500 word essay plan - to support students as they develop their ideas.

Work submitted during the delivery of the module forms a means of determining student progress. Submitted work tests knowledge outcomes and develops skills in research, reading and writing.

Study-abroad, non-Erasmus exchange and Loyola students spending semester 1 only are required to finish their assessment while in Newcastle. Where an exam is present, an alternative form of assessment will be set and where coursework is present, an alternative deadline will be set. Details of the alternative assessment will be provided by the module leader.

General Notes

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