Queer Theories

ARTHI 5846

Professor David Getsy
Department of Art History,
Theory, and Criticism
School of the Art Institute of
Chicago
Fall 2017 Graduate Seminar
Tuesdays 1-4pm
Lakeview 1427

e-mail: [email protected]
office: MC710
office hours:
Tuesday 4-5pm and Wed 12-
2pm (appointment required)

Shahryar Nashat, still from Hustle in Hand, 2014

Course description
This seminar focuses on the central theoretical texts that coalesced as “queer theory” in the
humanities, and it follows lines of questioning to recent theoretical work in gender, sexuality,
and their intersections. Rather than a comprehensive overview of the vast literature in this
area, we will combine a deep reading of foundational texts (e.g., Foucault, Sedgwick, Butler,
etc.) with assessments of recent publications. Emphasis will be placed on such questions as: (1)
queer theory’s disentanglement from and critique by transgender theory, (2) the relationship of
feminism’s ongoing work to queer theory, and (3) the ways in which these theories can inform
both art-historical methodology and artistic practice. This is a reading-intensive, graduate-level
seminar with weekly writing assignments, but it assumes no prior knowledge of queer theory. It
is intended equally for students in M.A., M.F.A., M.Des., and M.Arch. programs who are invested
in grappling with and writing about queer theoretical tactics and their grounding texts.

Learning Goals
This graduate seminar aims to:
1. Provide students with a grounding in the central concepts and historiography of the
intellectual formation of queer theoretical perspectives.
2. Enhance students’ ability to engage with concepts and to articulate this engagement in
both verbal and written communication.
3. Through writing assignments, develop students’ ability to synthesize and to mobilize
theoretical models.
4. Increase students’ awareness of methodological options and importance of in-depth
research.
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Course structure
Each three-hour session will focus primarily on the discussion of texts and images. Students will
be evaluated on the basis of their preparation, attendance, and critical engagement with course
readings and concepts.
The majority of the required readings will be supplied as PDFs via the “Files” section of Canvas.
In addition, there are two required texts:
• FOUCAULT, Michel. The History of Sexuality: Vol. 1, an Introduction [1976]. New York:
Vintage Books, 1990.
• HALPERIN, David M. Saint Foucault: Towards a Gay Hagiography. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1995.
Students should be aware that there is a limited amount of texts that can be covered in the
course of the semester, and that the literature on queer theory is vast. The second half of the
semester is organized around some — but by no means all — current issues and recent writings
relating to queer theory. With regard to independent research and further reading, students
are encouraged to speak with the professor about their interests well in advance of the research
paper so that more specialized reading lists can be developed. For some sessions, readings are
suggested for further reference because they intersect directly with assigned texts or speak to
the themes of the session. These, too, are partial.
The list of required readings may be adapted throughout the semester in response to class
discussions. Any new readings will be made available to students at least five days before the
day they will be discussed.

Evaluation
All assignments must be completed on time in order to receive course credit (CR). In addition,
work on all criteria should meet the standards of the course as established by the professor.
There are no “extra credit” options. Students will be evaluated according to the following four
criteria:

1. Attendance and participation (15%)
All students are expected to attend class meetings prepared to discuss the required
readings. This is a discussion-based class, and all students should regularly and
productively contribute to class discussions. Participation is predicated on attendance,
and the student will be evaluated on both. Mere attendance without participation is
not considered adequate and does not warrant a passing grade for this criterion.
Students should regularly, respectfully, and productively contribute to in-person class
discussions. Attendance at all class meetings is essential. Regardless of the other
evaluation criteria, more than two missed classes may be grounds for a “no credit.”
2. Weekly written summaries of required readings (15%)
For each class, students must submit a hard copy of a typed summary the week’s
readings. For each reading, provide:
a. An overview of the thesis and argument of the reading (4 sentences maximum)
b. Questions for class discussion (5 for readings over 50 pages, 3 for all others).
Questions should be about the ideas or implications of the readings rather than
merely factual.
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In order to receive credit for the course, all reading summaries must be submitted. Late
summaries will not be accepted more than two weeks after their due date.
3. Leading course discussion (20%)
Each week, teams of seminar participants will lead the discussion of the required
readings. This should not be organized as a summary of the readings. Instead, it should
be framed around discussion questions posed to the group. Teams are expected to
prepare all visual materials and conduct background research necessary to lead course
discussion. Teams are encouraged to incorporate the work of artists who relate to that
weeks readings, but the primary focus of discussion should be about the theoretical
concepts rather than any such examples.
For each presentation, students will be required to prepare a Powerpoint/Keynote
document. Your image presentation must be fully-prepared and ready to go. The
professionalism of your presentations will be considered as part of the evaluation of
your work. Do not expect to just grab things off of Google Image at the last minute or in
class.
4. Research Project (50%)
The research project has three stages: (1) a draft, (2) a seminar presentation, and (3) a
final seminar paper.
Presentation. Following on the draft of the research paper, students will prepare a
seminar presentation and discussion of their topics. Details of expected time length will
be shared in class. All presentations should be fully organized and professionally
prepared. Students will be evaluated on the quality of information delivered, and all
presentations should be fully researched, well prepared, and informative. Whether
delivered extemporaneously or read from a script, all presentations should present the
central themes of the developing research paper in depth before opening the topic up
to course discussion and questions.
Draft and Final Paper. There are three options for the research paper. The third is not
available to graduate students from the Department of Art History, Theory, and
Criticism (including Dual-Degree students), Arts Administration, or New Arts Journalism.
For all three options, students must submit a draft by 31 October. Final papers are due
12 December. Drafts are considered a required assignment. See each assignment
description for required word counts.
A. Literature engagement. The paper will consist of an in-depth analysis of a major
book in in queer studies or transgender studies. Students will unpack the terms of
the book, discuss the historiographic predecessors and lineage, and put forth
interpretations of its ideas. Word count requirements: 2000 for draft, 3500-4500
for final paper.
B. Research paper. Undertake a research topic of your choice that relates to the
themes of the course. All papers should be explicit in their theoretical investments
and discuss chosen queer theoretical concepts and methods in detail. Papers that
merely recount a story of a queer artist, for instance, are not adequate, and all
papers should advance an interpretation that is their own rather than merely a
summary of the artist’s stated intentions. Students may use this assignment to
work on aspects of their Master’s thesis, providing that the work submitted is
significantly different from papers submitted to other seminars. (Submitting the
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same paper — or one that significantly overlaps — to a different seminar falls under
SAIC’s definition of “Academic Misconduct.”). Word count requirements: 2000 for
draft, 4500-5000 for final paper for students from the following programs: Art
History, Arts Administration, New Arts Journalism, Visual & Critical Studies; for those
from other programs, the final paper word count requirement is 4000 words.
C. Alternate syllabus. Students from graduate programs other than Art History, Arts
Administration, or New Arts Journalism may choose an alternative to a traditional
research paper: an annotated syllabus for an alternate seminar on theories in queer
or transgender studies. This alternate syllabus must be organized for 12-14
sessions. Students should provide an introduction to the course of 500-750 words,
and organize the trajectory of course sessions and their required readings. For each
session, the student should write a 150-250 word introduction that discusses the
theme explored that day and provide a list of required readings. In addition to the
introduction for the session, each reading assigned must be accompanied by a 2-3
sentence summary. These readings should be new, and no more than four individual
texts total can be borrowed from our required seminar readings. The goal will be to
outline an alternate approach to the field of queer studies than offered by our class.
For the draft submission, students should provide, at minimum, a draft of the course
introduction and a complete outline of session topics.

Papers should be standard, double-spaced typed pages. Word counts listed above are
exclusive of bibliography, captions, and endnotes. Paper bibliographies must contain at
least 20 items from valid sources. Acceptable sources are books, exhibition catalogues,
and articles from scholarly journals only. A good place to start (with access to online
journals and other texts) is the “Art History Research Guide” at
http://libraryguides.saic.edu/arthistory . Websites, blogs, or encyclopedias (online or
otherwise) are not acceptable sources (though they may be objects of interpretation).
Overall, your research should evidence your use of the Flaxman Library, the Ryerson
Library, and their vetted online resources (e.g., the full-text access to scholarly journals).

Accommodations for Students with Disabilities Registered with the DLRC

SAIC is committed to full compliance with all laws regarding equal opportunities for students with
disabilities. Students with known or suspected disabilities, such as a Reading/Writing Disorder,
ADD/ADHD, and/or a mental health condition who think they would benefit from assistance or
accommodations should first contact the Disability and Learning Resource Center (DLRC) to
schedule an appointment. DLRC staff will review your disability documentation and work with you
to determine reasonable accommodations. They will then provide you with a letter outlining the
approved accommodations for you to deliver to your instructors. This letter must be presented
before any accommodations will be implemented. You should contact the DLRC as early in the
semester as possible. The DLRC is located within the Wellness Center on the 13th floor of 116 S
Michigan Ave. and can be reached via phone at 312.499.4278 or email at [email protected] .

Classroom behavior
Smartphones should not be used during class time, with the exception of taking photographs of
the screen for notetaking purposes.
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Laptops: Students will be allowed to use laptops for taking notes, but they should not use it for
other purposes during lectures. Any student who does so will be considered “absent/non-
participating” for the class session. More than two absences (for any reason) are grounds for No
Credit.
Tardiness, especially repeated tardiness, may be considered “absent/non-participating.” More
than two absences (for any reason) are grounds for No Credit.

Plagiarism and Academic Misconduct

Any degree of plagiarism will result in “No Credit” for the course and additional institutional
disciplinary action. Academic integrity is expected in all coursework, including online learning. It is
assumed that the person receiving the credit for the course is the person completing the work.
SAIC has processes in place that protect student privacy and uses LDAP authentication to verify
student identity.
The SAIC Student Handbook defines Academic Misconduct as follows:
“Academic misconduct includes both plagiarism and cheating, and may consist of: the
submission of the work of another as one’s own; unauthorized assistance on a test or
assignment; submission of the same work for more than one class without the knowledge and
consent of all instructors; or the failure to properly cite texts or ideas from other sources.
Academic misconduct extends to all spaces on campus, including satellite locations and online
education.”
Plagiarism is a form of intellectual theft. One plagiarizes when one presents another's work as
one's own, even if one does not intend to. The penalty for plagiarizing may also result in some loss
of some types of financial aid (for example, a No Credit in a course can lead to a loss of the
financial aid, merit scholarships, etc.), and repeat offenses can lead to expulsion from the
School. Specific procedures for faculty to follow in the case of academic misconduct are detailed in
the Student Handbook. For more guidance see the Flaxman Library’s Quick Guide “Avoid
Plagiarism” at http://www.saic.edu/webspaces/library/plagiarism_quickguide.pdf .

Course calendar and reading assignments

5 September
Course overview and introduction of aims
Required reading Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. “Christmas Effects.” In Tendencies, 5-9. Durham
and London: Duke University Press, 1993.

12 September
Michel Foucault’s History of Sexuality, Volume 1
Required reading FOUCAULT. (all)
Stryker, Susan. “Biopolitics.” TSQ 1.1 (2014): 38-42
Further reference Huffer, Lynne. Mad for Foucault: Rethinking the Foundations of Queer
Theory. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010.
Pollock, Griselda. “Feminism/Foucault — Surveillance/Sexuality.” In Visual
Culture: Images and Interpretations, edited by Norman Bryson, Michael
 6

Ann Holly and Keith Moxey, 1-42. Hanover, New Hampshire: University
Press of New England and Wesleyan University Press, 1994.
Foucault, Michel. “Sexual Choice, Sexual Act” [1982]. In Michel Foucault:
Politics, Philosophy, Culture, edited by Lawrence Kritzman, 286-303.
New York and London: Routledge, 1988.


19 September
Identifying Politics in Foucault
Required reading Rechy, John. “Promiscuous Rage,” and “The Sexual Outlaw.” The Sexual
Outlaw: A Documentary, 28-32, 299-301. New York: Grove Weidenfeld,
1977.
Wojanrowicz, David. Excerpts from Close to the Knives: A Memoir of
Disintegration [1989-91]. In David Getsy, ed. Queer, 77-81. Cambridge:
MIT Press, 2016.
HALPERIN. “The Queer Politics of Michel Foucault,” pp. 1-125.
Preciado, Paul B. “History of Technosexuality.” In Testo Junkie: Sex, Drugs,
and Biopolitics in the Pharmacopornographic Era [2008], 68-79. Trans.
Bruce Benderson. New York: Feminist Press, 2013.
Butler, Judith. “Foucaultian Subjects.” Giving an Account of Oneself, 22-26.
New York: Fordham University Press, 2005.
Further reference Huffer, Lynne. “Foucault’s Fist.” In Are the Lips a Grave?: A Queer Feminist
on the Ethics of Sex, 73-90. New York: Columbia University Press, 2013.
Moore, Patrick. Beyond Shame: Reclaiming the Abandoned History of
Radical Gay Sexuality. Boston: Beacon Press, 2004.
Hocquenghem, Guy. The Screwball Asses [1973]. Trans Noura Wedell. Los
Angeles: Semiotext(e), 2010.
de Lauretis, Teresa. The Practice of Love: Lesbian Sexuality and Perverse
Desire. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994.
Bersani, Leo. Homos. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995.
Rechy, John. “The Outlaw Sensibility: Liberated Ghettos, Noble
Stereotypes, and a Few More Promiscuous Observations.” In Beneath
the Skin: The Collected Essays of John Rechy, 150-67. New York: Carroll
& Graf Publishers, 2004.
Pérez-Torres, Rafael. “The Ambiguous Outlaw: John Rechy and
Complicitous Homotextuality.” In Fictions of Masculinity: Crossing
Cultures, Crossing Sexualities, edited by Peter F. Murphy, 204-25. New
York: New York University Press, 1994.
Berlant, Lauren. “Live Sex Acts (Parental Advisory: Explicit Material).”
Feminist Studies 21.2 (Summer 1995): 379-404.
Davis, Whitney. “The Unbecoming: Michel Foucault and the Laboratories of
Sexuality.” In Queer Beauty: Sexuality and Aesthetics from Winckelmann
to Freud and Beyond, 243-69. New York: Columbia University Press,
2010.
Preciado, Paul B. “Pornpower.” In Testo Junkie: Sex, Drugs, and Biopolitics
in the Pharmacopornographic Era [2008], 265-317. Trans. Bruce
Benderson. New York: Feminist Press, 2013.
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26 September
Shifting Boundaries: Redefinitions of Queer Theory and its Objects
Required reading Katz, Jonathan Ned. “The Invention of Heterosexuality.” Socialist Review
20 (1990): 7-34.
Cottingham, Laura. "Notes on lesbian." Art Journal 55, no. 4 (1996): 72-77.
Berlant, Lauren and Michael Warner. “Sex in Public.” Critical Inquiry 24.2
(Winter 1998): 547-66.
Namaste, Viviane K. “The Use and Abuse of Queer Tropes: Metaphor and
Catachresis in Queer Theory and Politics.” Social Semiotics 9.2 (1999):
213-22.
Cohen, Cathy. “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The Radical
Potential of Queer Politics?” GLQ 3.4 (1997): 437-65.
Puar, Jasbir. “Homonationalism and Biopolitics.” In Terrorist Assemblages:
Homonationalism in Queer Times, 1-36. Durham: Duke, 2007.
Stryker, Susan. "Transgender Studies: Queer Theory's Evil Twin." GLQ 10,
no. 2 (2004): 212-15.
Further reference Dean, Tim. Beyond Sexuality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
Stryker, Susan. “My Words to Victor Frankenstein Above the Village of
Chamounix,” GLQ 1.3 (1994): 237-54.
Stryker, Susan. "Transgender History, Homonormativity, and Disciplinarity."
Radical History Review 100, (2008): 145-57.
Namaste, Viviane K. "Tragic Misreadings: Queer Theory's Erasure of
Transgender Subjectivity." In Queer Studies: A Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual
and Transgender Anthology, edited by Brett Beemyn and Mickey
Eliason, 183-203. New York: New York University Press, 1996.
Ferguson, Roderick. Aberrations in Black: Toward a Queer of Color Critique.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003.
Najmabadi, Afsaneh. “Beyond the Americas: Are Gender and Sexuality
Useful Categories of Historical Analysis.” Journal of Women’s
History 18.1 (2006): 11-21.
Johnson, E. Patrick. “‘Quare’ Studies, or (Almost) Everything I Know About
Queer Studies I Learned from my Grandmother.” In Black Queer Studies:
A Critical Anthology, edited by E. Patrick Johnson and Mae G.
Henderson, 124-57. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2005.
Rifkin, Adrian. “Does Gay Sex Need Queer Theory?” Paragraph 35.2 (2012):
197-214.
Schlichter, Annette. “Queer at Last? Straight Intellectuals and the Desire
for Transgression.” GLQ 10, no. 4 (2004): 543-64.
Davis, Whitney. “’Homosexualism,’ Gay and Lesbian Studies, and Queer
Theory in Art History.” In The Subjects of Art History: Historical Objects
in Contemporary Perspective, edited by Mark Cheetham, Michael Ann
Holly and Keith Moxey, 115-43. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1998.
Ford, Richard Thompson. “What’s Queer about Race?” South Atlantic
Quarterly 106.3 (Summer 2007): 477-84.
Wickberg, Daniel. “Homophobia: On the Cultural History of an Idea.”
Critical Inquiry27, no. 1 (2000): 42-57.
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27 September | Required Campus Lecture @ SAIC
Deborah Willis
“Picturing Women: The Power of the Gaze”
SAIC Ballroom, 6pm. [Reception at 5.30 to which you are invited.]



3 October
Mutual Implications: Theorizing Structural Homophobia
Required reading Bech, Henning. “Wrongness.” When Men Meet: Homosexuality and
Modernity, 92-94. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987/97.
Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. “Introduction: Axiomatic” [partial] and
“Epistemology of the Closet,” Epistemology of the Closet 22-90.
Bersani, Leo. “Is the Rectum a Grave?” October 23 (Winter 1987): 197-222.
Halley, Janet. “Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Epistemology of the Closet.” In Split
Decisions: How and Why to Take a Break from Feminism. Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 2008.
Snorton, C. Riley. Excerpts from “Introduction: Transpositions.” In Nobody
is Supposed to Know: Black Sexuality on the Down Low, 14-23.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014.
Eribon, Didier. “The Shock of Insult” and “To Tell or Not to Tell.” In Insult
and the Making of the Gay Self [1999], 15-17, 46-55. Trans. Michael
Lucey. Durham: Duke University Press, 2004.
Wiegman, Robyn. “Eve’s Triangles, or Queer Studies beside Itself.”
Differences 26.1 (2015): 48-73
Further reference Wittig, Monique. "The Straight Mind [1978]." In Out There: Marginalization
and Contemporary Culture, edited by Russell Ferguson, Martha Gever,
Tinh T. Minh-ha and Cornel West, 51-57. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1990.
Miller, D.A. The Novel and the Police. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1989.
Owens, Craig. “Outlaws: Gay Men in Feminism.” In Beyond Recognition:
Representation, Power and Culture, ed. Scott Bryson, et al., 218-35.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.
Ross, Marlon. “Beyond the Closet as a Raceless Paradigm.” In Black Queer
Studies: A Critical Anthology, edited by E. Patrick Johnson and Mae G.
Henderson, 161-89.
Sheldon, Rebekah. “Queer Universal.” e-flux Journal 73 (May 2016)
Warner, Michael. “Homo-Narcissism; or, Heterosexuality.” In Engendering
Men: The Question of Male Feminist Criticism, edited by Joseph A.
Boone and Michael Cadden. New York and London: Routledge, 1990.
Nunokawa, Jeff. “Queer Theory: Postmortem.” South Atlantic Quarterly
106.3 (Summer 2007): 553-63
Vance, Carol S. “Social Construction Theory and Sexuality.” In Constructing
Masculinity, edited by Maurice Berger, Brian Wallis, and Simon Watson,
37-48. New York and London: Routledge, 1995.
 9

Warner, Michael. Fear of a Queer Planet: Queer Politics and Social Theory.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993.
Warner, Michael. The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of
Queer Life. New York: Free Press, 1999.



4 October | Suggested Campus Lecture
Arnika Fuhrmann
“Tropical Malady: Queerness and Political Critique in the Cinema of Apichatpong
Weerasethakul”
MacLean Ballroom @ 6pm.


10 October
Allegiances: Temporalities and Kinships
Required reading Rodríguez, Juana María. “Who’s Your Daddy? Queer Kinship and Perverse
Domesticity.” In Sexual Futures, Queer Gestures, and Other Latina
Longings, 29-67. New York: New York University Press, 2014.
Blake, Nayland. Excerpts from “Curating In A Different Light” [1995]. In
David Getsy, ed. Queer, 120-21. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2016.
Rifkin, Mark. “Kinship’s Translations” and “Queer Kinship?” Excerpts from
Introduction to When Did Indians Become Straight: Kinship, the History
of Sexuality, and Native Sovereignty, 9-17, 25-32. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2011.
Freeman, Elizabeth. “Preface” and “Introduction: Queer and Not Now.” In
Time Binds: Queer Temporalities, Queer Histories, ix-xxiv, 1-19. Durham
and London: Duke University Press, 2010.
Lord, Catherine. Excerpts from “Their Memory is Playing Tricks on Her:
Notes toward a Calligraphy of Rage” [2007]. In David Getsy, ed. Queer,
99-103. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2016.
Amin, Kadji. “Haunted by the 1990s: Queer Theory’s Affective Histories.”
WSQ 44.3-4 (Fall/Winter 2016): 173-89.
Further reference Hildebrand, Lucas. “Retroactivism.” GLQ 12.2 (2006): 303-17.
Gonzalez-Torres, Felix. “Public and Private: Spheres of Influence” [1993]. In
David Getsy, ed. Queer, 85-90. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2016.
Eribon, Didier. “Family and ‘Melancholy’.” In Insult and the Making of the
Gay Self [1999], 35-40. Trans. Michael Lucey. Durham: Duke University
Press, 2004.
Halberstam, J. Jack. “Perverse Presentism: The Androgyne, the Tribade, the
Female Husband, and Other Pre-Twentieth-Century Genders.” In Female
Masculinity, 45-74. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1998.
Halberstam, J. Jack. In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies,
Subcultural Lives. New York: New York University Press, 2005.
 10

Bersani, Leo. “Against Monogamy [1998].” In Is the Rectum a Grave? and

other essays, 85-101. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010.
Stockton, Kathryn Bond. The Queer Child, or Growing Sideways in the
Twentieth Century. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press,
2009.
Valentine, David. “Imagining Transgender.” In Imagining Transgender: An
Ethnography of a Category, 29-65. Durham and London: Duke University
Press, 2007.


17 October
Genders’ temporalities: Judith Butler and performativity
Required reading Butler, Judith. “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in
Phenomenology and Feminist Theory.” In Performing Feminism:
Feminist Critical Theory and Theatre, edited by Sue-Ellen Case, 270-82.
Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990.
Austin, J. L. “Lecture I.” In How to Do Things with Words, 1-11. Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1962.
Butler, Judith. “Imitation and Gender Insubordination.” In Inside/Out:
Lesbian Theories, Gay Theories, edited by Diana Fuss, 13-31. New York
and London: Routledge, 1991.
Butler, Judith. “Introduction.” In Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive
Limits of ‘Sex’, 1-16. New York and London: Routledge, 1993.
Butler, Judith. “Gender Regulations,” in Undoing Gender, 40-56. New York
and London: Routledge, 2004.
Ahmed, Sara. “Interview with Judith Butler.” Sexualities 19.4 (2016): 483-
92.
Further reference Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity.
New York and London: Routledge, 1990.
Butler, Judith. “Beside Oneself: On the Limits of Sexual Autonomy,” and
“The Question of Social Transformation,” in Undoing Gender, 1-39, 204-
32. New York and London: Routledge, 2004.
Butler, Judith. “Desire.” In Frank Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin, eds.,
Critical Terms for Literary Study. 2d edition, 369-386. Chicago & London:
University of Chicago Press, 1995.
Butler, Judith. “Against Proper Objects.” Differences 6, no. 2 (1994): 1-26.
Butler, Judith. “Critically Queer.” In Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive
Limits of ‘Sex’, 223-42. New York and London: Routledge, 1993.
Riviere, Joan. “Womanliness as Masquerade” [1929]. In Formations of
Fantasy, edited by Victor Burgin, James Donald, and Cora Kaplan, 35-44.
New York and London: Routledge, 1986.
Spillers, Hortense. “Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe: An American Grammar
Book.” Diacritics 17.2 (Summer 1987): 65-81.
Prosser, Jay. Second Skins: The Body Narratives of Transsexuality. New
York: Columbia University Press, 1998.
Sullivan, Shannon. “Reconfiguring Gender with John Dewey: Habit, Bodies,
and Cultural Change.” Hypatia 15.1 (Winter 2000): 23-42.
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Halberstam, J. Jack. “Transgender Butch: Butch/FTM Border Wars and the

Masculine Continuum.” In Female Masculinity, 141-73. Durham and
London: Duke University Press, 1998.


24 October
Beyond the Politics of Visibility: Stealth, Surveillance, and the Question of Disclosure
Required reading Stone, Sandy. “The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto
[1991].” In The Transgender Studies Reader, edited by Susan Stryker and
Stephen Whittle, 221-35. New York and London: Routledge, 2006.
Dean, Tim. “Cruising as a Way of Life.” In Unlimited Intimacy: Reflections on
the Subculture of Barebacking, 176-212. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 2009.
Snorton, C. Riley, “Rumor Has It” and “Down-Low Diasporas.” In Nobody is
Supposed to Know: Black Sexuality on the Down Low, 121-54.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014.
Ebron, Didier. “Subjectivity and Private Life.” In Insult and the Making of
the Gay Self [1999], 97-106. Trans. Michael Lucey. Durham: Duke
University Press, 2004.
McGlotten, Shaka. “Black Data.” In E. Patrick Johnson, ed., No Tea, No
Shade: New Writings in Black Queer Studies, 262-86. Durham: Duke
University Press, 2016.
Further reference Nguyen, Tan Hoang. A View from the Bottom: Asian American Masculinity
and Sexual Representation. Durham: Duke University Press, 2014.
Warren, Calvin. Onticide: Afropessimism. Queer Theory, & Ethics. ill-will-
editions, 2015.
De Villiers, Nicholas. Opacity and the Closet: Queer Tactics in Foucault,
Barthes, and Warhol. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012.
Snorton, C. Riley. “‘A New Hope’: The Psychic Life of Passing.” Hypatia 24.3
(Summer 2009): 78-92.
Halperin, David. What Do Gay Men Want? An Essay on Sex, Risk and
Subjectivity. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2007.
Gray, Herman. “Subject(ed) to Recognition.” American Quarterly 65.4
(December 2013): 771-98.
Getsy, David. “Seeing Commitments: Jonah Groeneboer’s Ethics of
Discernment.” Temporary Art Review (posted online: 8 March 2017).
[LINK]



24 October | Required Off-Campus Lecture @ MCA Chicago
David Getsy
“Naked Language: Scott Burton’s Queer Postminimalism and the 1977 Behavior Tableaux
Performance at the MCA Chicago”
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago Auditorium, 6pm

 12

31 October [RESEARCH PAPER DRAFTS DUE TODAY]

Homeopathy: Queer Methods and the Issue of Survival
Required reading Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. “Paranoid Reading and Reparative Reading: Or,
You’re So Paranoid, You Probably Think This Essay is about You.” In
Touching Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity, 123-51. Durham
and London: Duke University Press, 2003.
Berlant, Lauren and Lee Edelman. “What Survives.” In Sex, or the
Unbearable, 35-61. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012.
Ah-King, Malin and Eva Hayward. “Toxic Sexes: Perverting Pollution and
Queering Hormone Disruption.” O-Zone: A Journal of Object-Oriented
Studies 1 (2014): 1-12.
McRuer, Robert. “Compulsory Able-Bodiedness and Queer/Disabled
Existence.” In Sharon Snyder, Brenda Jo Brueggemann, and Rosemarie
Garland-Thompson, eds., Disability Studies: Enabling the Humanities.
New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2002, 88-99.
Halberstam, J. Jack. “The Queer Art of Failure.” In The Queer Art of Failure,
87-121. Durham: Duke University Press, 2011
Love, Heather. “Queer Messes.” WSQ 44.3-4 (Fall/Winter 2016): 345-49.
Further reading Berlant, Lauren and Michael Warner. “What Does Queer Theory Teach Us
about X?” PMLA 110 (1995): 343-39.
David Halperin, How to Do the History of Homosexuality. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2002.
Stallings, L.H. Funk the Erotic: Transaesthetics and Black Sexual Cultures.
Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield: University of Illinois Press, 2015.
Muñoz, José Esteban. “After Jack: Queer Failure, Queer Virtuosity.” In
Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity, 169-83. New
York: New York University Press, 2009.
Salamon, Gayle. “Transfeminism and the Future of Gender.” In Assuming a
Body: Transgender and Rhetorics of Materiality, 95-130. New York:
Columbia University Press, 2010.
McRuer, Robert. “Disabling Sex: Notes for a Crip Theory of Sexuality.” GLQ
17.1 (2010): 107-17.
Warner, Michael. “Pleasures and Dangers of Shame.” In Gay Shame, 282-
96. Edited by David Halperin and Valerie Traub. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2009.
Barad, Karen. “Nature’s Queer Performativity.” Qui Parle 19.2
(Spring/Summer 2011): 121-58.
Roughgarden, Joan. Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality
in Nature and People (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004).


7 November
Futurity and the Ever-Present Problem of Community
Required reading Third World Gay Revolution. “What We Want, What We Believe” [1971]. In
Karla Jay and Allen Young, eds., Out of the Closets: Voices of Gay
Liberation, 363-67. New York: New York University Press, 1972/1992.
 13

Edelman, Lee. “The Future is Kid Stuff.” In No Future: Queer Theory and the
Death Drive, 1-31. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2004.
Muñoz, José Esteban. “Feeling Utopia” and “Queerness as Horizon:
Utopian Hermeneutics in the Face of Gay Pragmatism.” In Cruising
Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity, 1-32. New York: New
York University Press, 2009.
Nyong’o, Tavia. “Do You Want Queer Theory (or Do You Want the Truth)?
Intersections of Punk and Queer in the 1970s.” Radical History Review
100 (Winter 2008): 103-19.
Halperin, David. “Judy Garland versus Identity Art.” In How To Be Gay, 401-
20. Cambridge: Belknap Press, 2012.
Henderson, Lisa. “A Cultural Politics of Love and Solidarity” In Love and
Money: Queers, Class, and Cultural Production. New York: NYU Press,
2013.
Further reference Berlant, Lauren. Cruel Optimism. Durham: Duke University Press, 2011.
Halberstam, J. Jack “Space and Sexuality in Queer Studies.” In In a Queer
Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives, 33-45. New York:
New York University Press, 2005.
De Lauretis, Teresa. “Queer Texts, Bad Habits, and the Issue of a Future.”
GLQ 17.2-3 (2011): 243-63.
Bersani, Leo. “Sociality and Sexuality.” Critical Inquiry 26.4 (Summer 2000):
641-56.
Ahmed, Sara. The Promise of Happiness. Durham and London: Duke
University Press, 2010
Joseph, Miranda. Against the Romance of Community. Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 2002
Halperin, David. “The Normalization of Queer Theory.” Journal of
Homosexuality 45, nos.2/3/4 (2003): 339-43.


14 November
Some Case Studies in Queer Theoretical Approaches to Art, Performance, Design,
Architecture, and Visual Culture
Required reading Muñoz, José Esteban. “Jack’s Plunger,” Performing Disidentifications,” and
“Performing Disidentity: Disidentification as a Practice of Freedom.” In
Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics, ix-xiv,
1-34, 161-79. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999.
Doyle, Jennifer. “The Effect of Intimacy: Tracy Emin’s Bad Sex Aesthetics.”
In Sex Objects: Art and the Dialectics of Desire, 97-120. Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 2006.
Murray, Derek Conrad. “Looking for Ligon: Towards an Aesthetic Theory of
Blackness.” In Queering Post-Black Art: Artists Transforming African-
American Identity after Civil Rights, 35-73. London: I.B. Tauris, 2016.
Getsy, David. “Queer Relations.” ASAP/Journal 2.2 (May 2017): 254-57.
[NOTE: No reading summary is required of this text.]
Row, Jennifer. “The Beads of Versailles: Jean-Michel Othoniel’s Les Belles.”
ASAP/Journal 2.2 (May 2017): 449-79.
 14

Crawford, Lucas, “Breaking Ground on a Theory of Transgender

Architecture.” Seattle Journal for Social Justice 8.2 (Spring/Summer
2010): 515-39
Graham, Mark. “Sexual Things.” GLQ 10.2 (2004): 299-303.
Preciado, [Paul] B. Excerpts from Manifiesto contrasexual [2000].
Translated in Total Art Journal 1.1 (Summer 2011).
Fawaz, Ramzi. “Stripped to the Bone: Sequencing Queerness in the Comic
Strip Work of Joe Brainard and David Wojnarowicz.” ASAP/Journal 2.2
(May 2017): 335-67.
Further reference Morraga, Cherríe with Rosemary Weatherston. “Queer Reservations; or,
Art, Identity, and Politics in the 1990s.” In Queer Frontiers: Millennial
Geographies, Genders, and Generations, edited by J. Boone, et al., 64-
84. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2000.
Crawford, Lucas. Transgender Architectonics: The Shape of Change in
Modernist Space. Surrey: Ashgate, 2015.
Muñoz, José Esteban. “Rough Boy Trade: Queer Desire/Straight Identity in
the Photography of Larry Clark.” In The Passionate Camera:
Photography and Bodies of Desire, edited by Deborah Bright, 167-77.
London and New York: Routledge, 1998.
Getsy, David. “Mourning, Yearning, Cruising: Ernesto Pujol’s Memorial
Gestures.” PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art 90 (September 2008):
11-24.
Prosser, Jay. “Transsexuality in Photography — Fielding the Referent.” In
Second Skins: The Body Narratives of Transsexuality, 207-35. New York:
Columbia University Press, 1998.
Vaccaro, Jeanne. “Feelings and Fractals: Wooly Ecologies of Transgender
Matter.” GLQ 21.2-3 (June 2015): 273-93.
Vaccaro, Jeanne. "Felt Matters." Women & Performance 20, no. 3 (2010):
253-66.
Bersani, Leo. “Is There a Gay Art?” [1996]. In Is the Rectum a Grave? and
other essays, 31-35. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010.
Amin, Kadji, Amber Jamilla Musser, and Roy Pérez, eds. “Queer Form,”
special issue of ASAP/Journal 2.2 (May 2017).
Chisholm, Dianne. Queer Constellations: Subcultural Space in the Wake of
the City. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005.
Freeman, Elizabeth. “Deep Lez: Temporal Drag and the Specters of
Feminism.” In Time Binds: Queer Temporalities, Queer Histories, 59-94.
Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2010.


21 November
PRESENTATIONS

28 November
PRESENTATIONS


 15

5 December
NO CLASS, CRIT WEEK

12 December
PRESENTATIONS
Final papers due in class 12 December.