HIST0879 - Global Queer History

Sexuality has a history that is both geographically and culturally specific. For this reason, this course aims to destabilize familiar sexual categories and identities by exploring how it was (and is) to be queer in different parts of the world. We will historicize sexual orientation as a category anchored in Western medical and legal discourses; we will link the history of sexuality with that of capitalism, colonialism, and racism; and we will evaluate the idea of “Gay Imperialism” and how it is resisted around the world. The course is not comprehensive either chronologically or geographically. Instead, it considers some key topics in the history of queer sexualities; it provides a general historiographical background; and it introduces a toolbox for doing critical queer history with a global perspective. Finally, we will address how contemporary LBGTQ+ issues around the world can be put into historical perspective, and why queer history is essential for achieving the goals of social justice.