2017-2018 Academic Catalog

Apr 19, 2024

2017-2018 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

WGS 201 - Sex, Love and Intimacy Across the Color Line

Students will discuss how sex, love, and marriage “across the color line” have been imagined, legislated, policed and experienced throughout American history. Moreover, we utilize the histories of “interracial” intimacy to question what racial and ethnic categories actually are. We will explore the ways in which racial classification and identification have been rooted in sex, love and marriage between people from different “racial” and ethnic groups. Students will break down the contradictory and redundant structures found within these historical trends. We begin with colonial and antebellum slavery and travel chronologically and finish with Chicano/a social movements. Topics include but are not limited to: fears and fascination with “interracial” intimacy; intersectionality; controversies over government legitimacy of “interracial” marriages; queer social spaces for “interracial” love and sex; dystopian and utopian visions of love across the color line; “interracial” marriage as a civil right and a social movement that precipitated marriage equality. Students interested in intersectionality, history of the Americas, Africana studies, Asian American studies, Latino/a studies, and social justice issues are encouraged to take this course. May be repeatable for credit.

Program of Liberal Studies (PLS) Designation: VP, DI

Anticipated Terms Offered: Periodically