When did sexuality begin? Is it safe to assume that gender constructions are universal and timeless? In this course, we will engage with a broad range of readings that serve as primary texts in the history of sexuality and gender. Our aims are threefold: (1) to analyze the literary evidence we have for sexuality and gender identity in Western culture; (2) to survey modern scholarly approaches to those same texts; and (3) to consider the ways in which these modern theoretical frameworks have become the most recent set of primary texts on sexuality and gender.

This course takes an interdisciplinary approach to the intellectual history of the modern-day prison. What historical shifts, political logics, and ideological developments led to the phenomenon we have come to know as "mass incarceration"? How did the carceral logic that informs the seemingly inevitable contemporary connection between crime and punishment evolve in the West? Our topics will include influential theories that defined the physical space of the prison, the criminalization of marginalized populations, the emergence of theories and categories of deviance, and the development of criminology as an academic discipline.

This course will explore current issues and responses to the problem of gender-based violence, focusing especially on the topics of rape/sexual assault, child sexual abuse, intimate partner violence, sexual harassment, stalking, and domestic sex trafficking. We will discuss ongoing controversies about the causes and effects of such violence and examine the psychological, legal, sociological, and political discourses surrounding these issues.