Spring 2025 - HIST 454 D100
Problems in the History of Sexuality (4)
Class Number: 3909
Delivery Method: In Person
Overview
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Course Times + Location:
Jan 6 – Apr 9, 2025: Wed, 9:30 a.m.–12:20 p.m.
Burnaby
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Instructor:
El Chenier
echenier@sfu.ca
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Prerequisites:
45 units, including 9 units of lower-division HIST or 9 units of GSWS. Recommended: HIST 115.
Description
CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:
Explores how ideas, practices and identities have changed over time in response to social, political and economic pressures. Emphasis on postmodern approaches to understanding sexuality, and the international historical scholarship it has generated. Chronological and geographical focus of this course may vary. Content may vary from offering to offering; see course outline for further information. HIST 454 may be repeated for credit only when a different topic is taught.
COURSE DETAILS:
Sex and sexuality has once again taken over the news media cycle and contemporary politics in Canada, the United States, and elsewhere. In this iteration of HIST 454 we will be examining four of these issues – SOGI, gender-affirming care, reproductive rights, and murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls – to explore how history can deepen our understanding of them and empower us to engage in informed, nuanced, and insightful conversations.
Please bring to class your strong commitment to learning and willingness to actively participate in building a community of care.
Through work undertaken in this seminar, students have the opportunity to develop their:
- critical understanding of sex and sexuality, gender, race, and settler colonialism
- primary source analysis, research, and writing skills
- oral and visual presentation skills
- capacity to engage in conversations about contemporary issues from a historical perspective
- understanding of how historical scholarship can be used in the judicial system through the preparation of a historical background paper
Grading
- Seminar Participation 20%
- “In the news” Presentation and Discussion Leadership 15%
- 2x Primary Source Analysis (in class assignment) 20%
- Research Paper Proposal: Due March 5 10%
- Research Paper: Due April 11 35%
Materials
REQUIRED READING:
Jules Gill-Peterson, Histories of the Transgender Child (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2018).
Lee Maracle, Ravensong (Vancouver: Press Gang, 1993).
REQUIRED READING NOTES:
Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.
Registrar Notes:
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS
SFU’s Academic Integrity website http://www.sfu.ca/students/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating. Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.
Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the university community. Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the university. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the university. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html
RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION
Students with a faith background who may need accommodations during the term are encouraged to assess their needs as soon as possible and review the Multifaith religious accommodations website. The page outlines ways they begin working toward an accommodation and ensure solutions can be reached in a timely fashion.