Constructs and performance of race and gender identity
Seminar - UHON 301

Instructor(s): Elizabeth Silva

Course Description

This course locates identity politics related to the construction and performance of race and gender, creating room for critical thought, and understanding and imagining of self, individually, and as part of a collective. An interdisciplinary approach engages students in ideological inquiries around historical, legal, and communal constructs of race and gender in the United States. We will thoughtfully question Westernized conceptions of human rights based on race and gender constructs, as well as how humans define self, in relation to others through raced and gendered subjectivities and performances. The intersectional approach sees race and gender identity as mediated by class, sexuality, citizenship, etc. We will assess our own identities positioned in society, relationally. We will explore how we define ourselves in relation to others through our race and gender identities, and see how these identities interplay with other identity constructs as we problematize traditional knowledge claims to objectivity.

Texts

All texts, podcasts, short videos, and reading materials will be available via Canvas.

Readings include:

Alexander G. Weheliye. 2014. Habeas Viscus/Racializing assemblages, biopolitics, and Black Feminist theories of the human. Durham: Duke University Press.

Allen, Jafari S. 2011. !Venceremos? the erotics of black self-making in cuba. Durham: Duke University Press.

Hunter, M. L. (2005). Race, Gender, and the Politics of Skin Tone. New York and London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis.
Marcia Ochoa. 2014. Queen for a day/Transformistas, beauty queens, and the performance of femininity in Venezuela. Durham: Duke University Press

Sandra Soto. (2010). Reading Chican@ like a queer. Austin: University of Texas.

Requirements

Students will participate in weekly online discussion forums (10), an identity self-reflection paper (1), an agency and change final project (1). Thoughtful, active engagement in discussion will be central to student success in this class.

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About the Instructor(s): Elizabeth Silva

Elizabeth C. Silva, PhD has worked in racial, gender and class equity movements for over 20 years; trained in queer women of color grassroots activism, interdisciplinary research, and intersubjective analysis. Dr. Silva holds a PhD in Education Culture and Society as well as a Gender Studies Graduate Certificate (University of Utah), a MA in Language Literacy Sociocultural Studies and a BA in Sociology and Spanish with a minor in Psychology (University of New Mexico).