Queer of Color Critique

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Queers of Color Critique Course Description Examine how categories of difference challenge disciplines through critical takes which take up Race and Queer (LGBTQIAA*) identities and sexualities. In this course we engage with texts and creative works in the field of Queer Studies with a focus on communities of color. This course favors interaction with popular media, memoir, creative texts, in addition to cutting edge Queer/Quare/ Kweer Theory.

Course Objectives 1. To provide a rounded understanding of the history of the intervention that Queer of Color Critique has for Ethnic Studies, Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Queer Studies specifically.

2. Examine some central trends and concerns of Queer of color critique.

3. Investigate the multi-genre forms by which Queer of Color critique operates.

Course Readings • • • • •

Black Queer Studies eds. Mae Henderson and E. Patrick Johnson This Bridge Called My Back Eds. Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa Voyage of the Sable Venus – Robin Coste Lewis *Q&A Queer in Asian America – Eds. David Eng and Alice Y. Hom Films and reading available at SWEM.

Learning Responsibilities • Reading - This is your education. Make the best of it, make it yours. Students are required to be prepared for every class discussion. You are expected to have read the materials listed in the course outline by the class session specified. You are also required to bring that reading material with you to class. This is imperative to facilitate discussion and for your own reference during class.

• Discussion – Some individuals may have strong feelings about one topic or another in this class. This is expected. However, speaking over and interrupting individuals is not conducive to a learning environment. Furthermore, talking and chatting while someone is speaking is downright disrespectful and hampers your ability to understand the person who is speaking. In the spoken word community we have a saying: “respect the mic.” That is, engage with whomever is speaking with interest and attentiveness. I expect you to respect the mic/ classroom so that we can have a respectful and efficient learning environment. © Dr. Bettina A. Judd 2016

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• Community Responsibility – This classroom places a big emphasis on community learning through group interaction. In this way, not only are we learning from the texts and the professor, but from each other—together. This requires a certain amount of responsibility to yourself and your cohorts to keep up with the readings so that you can contribute to the best of your abilities in class. This also means doing the work agreed upon in group interactions so that your fellow group mates are not forced to pick up your slack. It also means being assertive about a group member who may be slacking. You all have a responsibility to each other and there are no “outs” with group work assignments.

• Technology – Laptops are admissible for reading and note taking, but please try to keep social media habits under control in the classroom. With the exception (and within reason) we use Twitter and may use it as class discussion and in addition to class discussion.

• Cell Phones – Turn them off, or on vibrate. DO NOT SEND TEXT MESSAGES IN THE CLASSROOM. I REPEAT: DO NOT SEND TEXT MESSAGES IN THE CLASSROOM. No exceptions. Not even if you are telling your friends how great this class is. There is an exception to this. You are welcome to tweet what is going on in class discussion. Note above.

• Violation of any of these rules will be reflected in your participation grade.

Accommodations For Students With Disabilities The College of William and Mary has resources to help students with disabilities. If you have any provisions for your learning needs, please contact Disability Services so that they can be in contact with me regarding accommodations. Do not wait until the first writing assignment to do this. In addition, you are welcome to talk to me about any aspects of the classroom environment that would better serve you. You may set up an appointment with Disability Services at 757-221-2510. You may also go directly to the center at the Campus Center, Room 109.

Assistance with Academic Writing Because there may be writing assignments in this course, I encourage you to be in contact with the Writing Resources Center. There, you can make an appointment to go over any written assignments prior to their submission. This is a fantastic service that helps writers at all levels and can only serve to better your writing skills. You may

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set an appointment with the Writing Resource Center online at: http://www.wm.edu/ as/wrc/.

Religious Observances And Student Body Participation It is my own policy that students not be penalized in any way for participation in major religious observances. This is a very important aspect in many of our lives.

However, you must inform me in writing by about such observances by the end of add/drop so that proper arrangements can be made for assignments and readings.

Absences This class is about participation. If you are not present, you cannot participate. I do take note when students are missing or are not present in class discussion. If there is an assignment that was due on a day that you were absent, you are responsible for making sure that I receive the assignment on time.

A note on contagious (airborne) illness: As much as your fellow classmates and I love your presence in class, we care more about your health and the health of our whole community. If you have unfortunately caught an airborne illness such as the flu or a cold please stay at home and get well. Contact me via email, check in at our class hashtag on Twitter (see first page of this syllabus), and ask fellow classmates for updates on class discussion and any important information that you may have missed.

Always let me know that you’re out because of an illness.

Grading and Assignments All assignments should be typed, double spaced with one-inch margins with a reasonable font such as Times New Roman. Script type is unacceptable. Works should be cited under an appropriate citation style. When assignments are to be posted online they should be in .doc or .docx (Word) format. Please do not post documents in Word Perfect or any other format, you will risk my not being able to view and read them.

Although assignments will be uploaded to Blackboard for grading, please have them with you in class.

Feedback will be available in the format the assignment was given. Allow 10-14 days for feedback.

Class Structure This is class is structured around ways of learning that are both analog and digital. We will meet regularly in our designated classroom for class discussion, however our learning and communication will continue online via Twitter (see hashtag and my user

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name above) and resources will be available on our Blackboard site at http:// blackboard.wm.edu.

I will occasionally recap class discussion, make class announcements, and suggest supplemental readings on our twitter hashtag.

If you are unfamiliar with Twitter you may find this document useful: http:// www.icc.edu/innovation/PDFS/resources/TwitterBasics.pdf. We will also go over Twitter basics in class.

Blackboard: Documents and other resources are available online through our school’s course management system of choice: Moodle. This site is located at http:// blackboard.wm.edu.

Grade Distribution, Assignments and Expectations Class Participation (25%) Participation is a very important part of our class dynamic here. Because the material in this class affects how we view ourselves and the world around us, it is important that we be able to articulate what we are learning to ourselves and to each other in a respectful yet engaged manner. This process allows for a group dynamic wherein we are learning from each other in community rather than struggling with material on our own. A part of this community engagement involves responding to the weekly course material Pop Quizzes (20%) There will be a total of five pop quizzes throughout the semester. These are simple quizzes to gauge reading and reading comprehension.

Response Essays (30%) There are three response papers required in this course, due for a single unit. Response papers are an opportunity for you to synthesize, analytically engage with and respond to the readings assigned that unit. In four to five double spaced pages you will demonstrate understanding of select texts from that unit and provide a critical response to those texts. Critical response does not mean unfounded opinion. Critical response engages the ideas presented, analyzes the means by which they are presented and puts such ideas and means in conversation with other texts.

Final Project (35%) This is a concluding research paper of 18-20 pages or structured creative project on a topic of your choice related to the subject of Black Queer Studies.

- 10% Annotated bibliography due three weeks before final assignment is due.

- 15% Final paper.

- 10% In Class Presentation.

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Course Outline Early Feminist Interventions In this unit we will read from texts that demonstrate the close ties between Feminist of Color Critiques of the 1970s and 80s and what becomes Queer of Color Critiques in the 1990s and early 2000s. Radical women of color such as Chrystos, Audre Lorde, and Cherrie Moraga wrote through a "theory of the flesh" about the unique position they had as intellectuals and activists in liberation movements due to their position as lesbian women of color. Their writing, along with the writing of other intellectuals on the edges of freedom movements critiqued what was known as the gay liberation movement, women's liberation movements, and Black liberation struggle for their exclusionary and myopic politics.

Week 1 Feminist Frameworks: Theory in the Flesh

Introductions.

Syllabus Review.

In Class Film Viewing: Tongues Untied Reading from This Bridge Called My Back: Catching Fire: Preface to the Fourth Edition -Cherríe Moraga The Bridge Poem -Kate Rushin La Jornada: Preface, 1981 -Cherríe Moraga Section II. Entering the Lives of Others: Theory in the Flesh Section III. And When You Leave, Take Your Pictures With You: Racism in the Women’s Movement

Week 2 Race, Resistance, and Queer Identities

Online Class Discussion Reading from This Bridge Called My Back: Section IV. Between the Lines: On Culture, Class, and Homophobia Section V. Speaking in Tongues: The Third World Woman Writer Class viewing of Paris is Burning in SWEM Reading from This Bridge Called My Back: Section VI: El Mundo Zuro

Queer of Color Cultures © Dr. Bettina A. Judd 2016

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In this unit we will engage with the art, performance, and culture of queers of color in addition to engaging with the intellectual work of queers of color who intervene on cultural studies, visual culture studies, and performance studies.

Week 3 Sexuality, Race Naming and Pathologies

In Class: Discussion Cathy Cohen, “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics?” in Black Queer Studies. Also in GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies vol. 3., no. 4 (1997): 437-465.

Richard Fung “Looking for My Penis: The Eroticized Asian in Gay Video Porn” in Q&A. eds.

David Eng and Alice Y. Hom. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998. 115- 134.

Siobann Sommerville, “Scientific Racism and the Invention of the Homosexual Body” in Queering the Color Line. Durham: Duke, 2000. 15-38.

Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes, “Gay Shame, Latina-and Latino Style: A Critique of White Queer Performativity. in Gay Latino Studies. Durham: Duke, 2011. 55-80.

Week 4 Making “Queer” Politics and Theory

In Class: Discussion Karin Aguilar-San Juan, “Going Home: Enacting Justice in Queer Asian America.” In Q&A, eds.

David Eng and Alice Y. Hom. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998.

E. Patrick Johnson, “Quare Studies, or Almost Everything I Know about Queer Studies I Learned from my Grandmother.” In Black Queer Studies. Durham: Duke, 2005. 124-157.

Michael Hames-Garcia, “Queer Theory Revisited,” in Gay Latino Studies: A Critical Reader, ed.

Michael Hames-Garcia and Ernesto J. Martinez. Durham, NC: Duke, 2011, 19-45.

View: There is No Name for This by Cianna Stewart and Ming-Yuen S. Ma. Available: https:// vimeo.com/63067278.

Week 5 Queers of Color Performance

Jose Esteban Muñoz, “Performing Disidentifications.” In Disidentifications. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999. 1-34 Kara Keeling, “Joining the Lesbians”: Cinematic Regimes of Black Lesbian Visibility. In Black Queer Studies. 213-227 View: StudvilleTV Episode 3.1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kpzmu8GpnNU Trigger Warning: Discussion of rape.

The Aggressives Online

Week 6 Queers of Color Performance 2

“Creating, Curating, and Consuming Queer Asian American Cinema: An Interview with Marie K. Marohoshi in Q&A 81-94.

Russell Leong “Litany” in Q&A 213-221 Sonna Tsuyuko Tanigawa, “Trying fo’ Do Anykine to Donna” in Q&A 222-226 © Dr. Bettina A. Judd 2016

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From Black Queer Studies: IV. Black Queer Fiction: Who is Reading Us? Saving Face SWEM Voyage of the Sable Venus View: Looking for Langston

Diaspora and Transnational Queer of Color Critique In a globalizing world, queer of color critique, as we've read so far has influences and implications that are also global. In this unit we will engage with texts that ask questions about queers of color globally, about sexuality and sexuality based identities and how such identities appear globally in art, film, and academic discourse.

Week 7

In Class: Discussion Jasbir Puar, “Transnational Sexualities: South Asian (Trans)nation(alism)s and Queer Diasporas.” in Q&A, 405-424.

Ignatius Bau, “Queer Asian American Immigrants: Opening Borders and Closets.” In Q & A 57-78.

Gayatri Gopinath, “Communities of Sound: Queering South Asian Popular Music in the Diaspora.”

In Impossible Desires. Durham: Duke, 2005. 29-62.

View: Fire SWEM

Week 8

Research week

Week 9

In Class: Jafari S. Allen, “Black Queer Diaspora: At the Current Conjuncture” in GLQ 18.2-3. 2012, 211-248.

Select 10 selections to read and explore Zanele Muhole, “Inkanyiso.org.” Inkanyiso.org. http:// inkanyiso.org View: A Jihad for Love SWEM or Online through HULU and Netflix and Ex, Campbell. Stud Life.

Drama, 2013. SWEM

Week 10

Presentations

© Dr. Bettina A. Judd 2016