POL 382 - Body Politics

This course examines the politics of embodiment in relation to gender, race, class, sexuality, and ability. We consider how bodies are marked as deviant, abnormal, and/or pathological, and explore where processes of sexed, raced, gendered, and able-bodied normalization intersect and diverge. We engage conceptual and normative debates about controversial bodily practices (autonomy and alienation in prostitution and pornography; biocapital in surrogacy and organ donation; the self and genetic ancestry testing; the ethics of hunger striking and the weaponization of the body) from a range of perspectives: liberal humanist, radical and Marxist feminist, phenomenological and performative, intersectional and new materialist. Topics range from the marriage contract, domestic labor, and reproductive justice to turn-of-the-century sexology and the modern freak show, the science of homosexuality, the pleasures of trans and queer embodiment, and the biopolitics of AIDS.

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group II
Instructional Method: Conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Not offered: 2024-25