Professor Paisley Currah

Advanced Topics in Women's and Gender Studies:

Sex, Gender and Transgender Queries

Course Description:

This course will situate “trans” as an identity, a set of practices, a question, a site, and as a verb of change and connection.  The course will begin with a brief theoretical overview of the several key early interventions in gender theory. Subsequent readings will include material on social and legal constructions of sex in the U.S. and on movements for gender self-determination.  “Trans” will be examined both as a particular kind of claim for gender recognition and as a move away from norms organized around the gender binary. Many of the texts will be situated on a continuum between gender fundamentalist projects and gender subversive projects.  In most discussions, questions of gender norms will be framed in relation to particular policy debates.

 

Required Texts:

The Transgender Studies Reader, edited by Susan Stryker and Stephen Whittle (New York: Routledge, 2006). (Available at Book Culture, 536 West 112th Street)

Transgender Rights, edited by Paisley Currah, Richard M. Juang, and Shannon Price Minter (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006). (Available at Book Culture)

 

Articles and other texts will be on reserve, made available through Courseworks.

 

Contact information:

Office hours: 3 – 4 Mondays, and by appointment
Email: pcurrah@gmail.com


Attendance and class participation:

·         Be there.

·         Be prompt.

·         Be present: no cell phones, no texting, no websurfing or emailing if you bring a laptop to class.

·         We won’t be taking a class break during class, but feel free to leave for a few minutes during the class for your own personal break.

 

And, as per New York State law, academic norms, and the Provost’s policy: “each student who is absent from school because of her religious beliefs will be given an equivalent opportunity to register for classes or make up any examination, study, or work requirements that she may have missed because of such absence on any particular day or days. No student will be penalized for absence due to religious beliefs, and alternative means will be sought for satisfying the academic requirements involved.”

 

Course requirements:

Attendance and participation.  Each seminar participant will be expected to lead the discussion on a particular reading at least once during the semester.

 

Three 3-4 page response papers (15% each):

Identify and analyze a theme, a question, a debate, a point of contradiction, or a paradox in at least three of the texts we have read in the preceding three or four weeks.  (Texts can include policy documents, documentaries.)

 

            Response paper 1:  February 23rd

            Response paper 2:  March 23rd

            Response paper 3:  April 27th

 

Policy brief (15%), 5 pages:  March 30th

This work may be done individually, or in groups of up to three people. Identify an actually existing obstacle, barrier, or site resistance to gender recognition or gender expression claims in an institution or state agency. What is the policy? What are its effects on gender non-conforming in individuals? What is the rationale? What interests are at stake? What solutions have been advanced?


Class presentation (10%): March 23rd-May 4th

Describing your policy brief.


10 page paper (30%): due on Monday, May 4th.

Frame the policy problem you identified in the policy brief, and the resolution you put forward, in relation to the course readings and themes. Each student will be required to meet at least once with me to discuss their paper.


For all written work:

·         Double spaced, normal margins, normal fonts.

·         I have posted a grading rubric that explains the criteria I use to evaluate written work under “Assignments” in Courseworks.

 

Graduate students may make alternate arrangements with me for producing graduate level written work for this class that also advances their larger intellectual projects.

 

Students with disabilities who require accommodation should consult with me and/or the Office of Disability Services.



WEEKLY SCHEDULE

This schedule of readings will be adjusted, no doubt, over the course of the semester. Announcements and updates to the week’s reading assignments will always be posted on Courseworks.

 

Monday, January 26th:  Introduction: two texts

Boston Public Health Commission Homeless Services, “Health Services Guidelines for Servicing Transgender Guests,” January 22, 2002. Distributed in class and on Courseworks.)

 

Glossary of terms.  Distributed in class and on Courseworks.

 

Film: “Operation Invert.” Director: Tara Mateik. 2003.

 

Monday, February 2nd: Gender/Transgender

Harold Garfinkel, “Passing and the Managed Achievement of Sex Status in an ‘Intersexed’ Person,” Transgender Studies Reader. Read pages 58-71 and 89-93.

 

New York Academy of Medicine Committee on Public Health. 1966. Change of sex on birth certificates for transsexuals. Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine  42: 721-724.  Courseworks.

 

Candace West and Don H. Zimmerman, “Doing Gender.”  Gender & Society 1 (1987): 125-151.  Courseworks.

 

Joanne Meyerowitz, “A ‘Fierce and Demanding’ Drive,” Transgender Studies Reader, pp. 362-386.

Optional: 

Suzanne J. Kessler and Wendy McKenna, “Toward a Theory of Gender,” Transgender Studies Reader, pp. 165-182.

 

Monday, February 9th:  Movements

Guest speaker Dean Spade

Some of the readings for today are meant to accompany Dean Spade’s talk, see below.

Megan Davidson, “Seeking Refuge Under the Umbrella: Inclusion, Exclusion, and Organizing Within the Category Transgender.” Sexuality Research and Social Policy 4, no. 4 (December 2007).  Courseworks.

 

Rickke Mananzala and Dean Spade, “The Nonprofit Industrial Complex and Trans Resistance.” Sexuality Research and Social Policy Vol. 5, No. 1 (March 2008).  Courseworks.

 

Anna M. Agathangelou, M. Daniel Bassichis, and Tamara L. Spira, “Intimate Investments: Homonormativity, Global Lockdown, and the Seductions of Empire.” Radical History Review Issue 100 (Winter 2008). Courseworks.

 

Optional:

Christina B. Hanhardt, “Butterflies, Whistles, and Fists: Gay Safe Streets Patrols and the New Gay Ghetto, 1976 – 1981.” Radical History Review Issue 100 (Winter 2008).  Courseworks.

 

And right after class on February 9th, a talk by Dean Spade:

“Trans Politics on a Neoliberal Landscape”

Dean Spade '97
Co-sponsored by Well-Woman and Q
6:30 PM, James Room, 4th Floor Barnard Hall

 

February 16: Discriminations

Shannon Minter, “Do Transsexuals Dream of Gay Rights?”  Transgender Rights, pp. 141-170.

 

Kylar Broadus, “The Evolution of Employment Discrimination Protections for Transgender People,” Transgender Rights, pp. 93-101.

 

Daisy Hernandez, “Becoming a Black Man.”  ColorLines RaceWire. Available at: http://www.alternet.org/story/76384/

 

Associated Press, “Trans customers accuse Toys ‘R’ US of harassment,” June 28, 2002.  Courseworks.

 

OPTIONAL, but skim if you have time
(Don’t print all the cases—too much paper)

Paisley Currah, “Gender Pluralisms,” in Transgender Rights, read pages 7-13 (about the Doe and Youngblood cases)

 

Ulane v. Eastern Airlines, 742 F.2d 1081 (7th Cir. 1984)

 

Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, 490 U.S. 228

 

Jesperson v. Harrah’s, 444 F.3d 1104 (9th Cir. 2006)

 

Schroer v. Billington, (2008)
And go here to learn a little more about Diane Schroer: http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/transgender/24969res20050602.html

 

Paulette M. Caldwell, “A Hair Piece: Perspectives on the Intersection of Race and Gender,” Duke Law Journal, Vol. 1991, No. 2. (Apr., 1991), pp. 365-396.

 

                        Bivens V. Albuquerque Public Schools (1995).

 

Kristen Schilt, “Before and After: Gender Transitions, HumanCapital, and Workplace Experiences.” The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy Vol 8, No. 1 (2008). Courseworks.

 

Paisley Currah, “Expecting Bodies: The Pregnant Man and Transgender Exclusion from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.”  Women’s Studies Quarterly 36, nos. 3 & 4 (December 2008): 330-336.  Courseworks.

 

 

February 23: Trans / Feminisms

Response paper 1 due in class

 

Janice Raymond, “Sappho by Surgery: The Transsexually Constructed Lesbian Feminist,” Transgender Studies Reader, pp. 131-143

 

Sandy Stone, “The Empire Strikes Back: A posttranssexual manifesto,” Transgender Studies Reader, pp. 221-235.

 

Sally Hines, “I am a Feminist, But…Transgender Men and Women and Feminism,” in Different Wavelengths: Studies of the Contemporary Women’s Movement, edited by J. Reger (New York: Routledge, 2005).

 

Julia Serano, selections from Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity. (Boston: Seal Press, 2007).

 

Emi Koyama, “Whose Feminism Is It Anyway? The Unspoken Racism of the Trans Inclusion Debate,” Transgender Studies Readers, pp. 698-705.

 

Optional:

Judith Halberstam, “Transgender Butch: Butch/FTM Border Wars and the Masculine Continuum,” in Halberstam, Female Masculinity (Duke, 1998), pp. 142-173 plus notes.

 

March 2nd:  Trans / Feminism, cont’d

Susan Stryker, “My Words to the Victor Frankenstein above the Village of Chamounix: Performing Transgender Rage,” Transgender Studies Reader, pp, 244-256.

 

Jay Prosser, “Judith Butler: Queer Feminism, Transgender, and The Transubstantian of Sex,” Transgender Studies Reader, pp. 257-280.

 

Judith Butler, “Undiagnosing Gender,” Transgender Rights, pp. 274-298.

American Psychiatric Association, “Diagnostic Criteria for Gender Identity Disorder.”

Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association, Standards of Care (read online)

 

March 9th: Fixing Bodies

Judith Butler, “Doing Justice to Someone: Sex Reassignment and Allegories of Transsexuality.”  Transgender Studies Reader, pp. 183-193.
           
Dean Spade, “Mutilating Gender,” Transgender Studies Reader, Transgender Studies Reader, pp. 315-332.

OPTIONAL:
 

            John Colapinto, “John / Joan,” The Rolling Stone, December 11, 1997. Pages 54-97. Available at http://www.infocirc.org/rollston.htm

 

            John Colapinto, “Gender Gap: What were the real reasons behind David Reimer's suicide?,” Slate, June 3, 2004. Available at: http://www.slate.com/id/2101678/.

 

Bernice Hausman, “Body, Technology, and Gender in Transsexual Autobiographies,” Transgender Studies Reader, pp. 335-361.
 

March 16th: SPRING BREAK--NO CLASS

 

March 23rd:  Gender Recognition, Marriage, and Trans-normativity
Response paper 2 due in class

 

Ruthann Robson, “Reinscribing Normality? The Law and Politics of Transgender Marriage,” Transgender Rights, pp. 299-309.

 

Julie Greenberg, “The Roads Less Travelled: The Problems with Binary Sex Categories,” Transgender Rights, pp. 51-73.

 

Beyond Same-Sex Marriage: A New Strategic Vision For All Our Families & Relationships.  Available At: http://www.beyondmarriage.org/full_statement.html

 

Excerpts from the following cases:

J.T. v. M.T., 140 N.J. Super. 77 (1976)

Littleton v. Prange, 9 S.W.3d 223 (1999)

Excerpts from In Re Helig, 372 Md. 692 (2003)

 

 

March 30th: Exporting (Trans)gender
Policy brief due in class

Presentations:

 

Human Rights Watch, “Kuwait: Repressive Dress-Code Law Encourages Police Abuse,” press release January 16, 2008, Availabel at http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2008/01/16/kuwait-repressive-dress-code-law-encourages-police-abuse

 

Advocacy letter re Kuwait arrests, on Courseworks

 

Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of International Human Rights Law in Relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. 2007. http://www.yogyakartaprinciples.org/docs/File/Yogyakarta_Principles_EN.pdf

 

Asfaneh Najmabadi,  “Transing and Transpassing Across Sex-Gender Walls in Iran.” In “Trans-“ special issue of Women’s Studies Quarterly 36, nos. 3 & 4 (Fall/Winter 2008): 23-42.  Courseworks

 

Excerpts from Sonia Katyal, “Exporting Identity,” Yale Journal of Law and Feminism Vol 14 (2002), p. 97-176.  Read pages 2-4, and 11-17 (page numbers refer to the PDF formatted numbers). Courseworks.

 

Optional:

Joseph Massad, “Re-orienting Desire: The Gay International and the Arab World,” Public Culture 14 (2), spring 2002, pp. 361-385. Courseworks.

 

Evan B. Towle and Lynne Marie Morgan, “Romancing the Transgender Native: Rethinking the Use of the "Third Gender" Concept.” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies - Volume 8, Number 4, 2002, pp. 469-497

 

April 6th:  Amputation, Growth, and Corporeal Sovereignty

 

Presentations:

Mauro Cabral and Paula Viturro, “(Trans)Sexual Citizenship in Contemporary Argentina.  In Transgender Rights, pp. 262-273.

 

Loeb, Elizabeth. “Cutting It Off: Bodily Integrity, Identity Disorders, and the Sovereign Stakes of Corporeal Desire in U.S. Law.”  In “Trans-“ special issue of Women’s Studies Quarterly 36, nos. 3 & 4 (Fall/Winter 2008): 44-63.

Eva Hayward, “More Lessons from a Starfish: Prefixial Flesh and Transspeciated Selves,” Women’s Studies Quarterly 36, nos. 3 & 4, pp. 64-85.

 

Music:  Antony and the Johnson, “The Cripple and the Starfish,” I am a bird now, 2005. 

Live performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbCIQ-SKhKE

 

 

April 13th: Amputation, Growth, and Corporeal Sovereignty, cont’d

 

Presentations:

 

Eva Hayward, “More Lessons from a Starfish: Prefixial Flesh and Transspeciated Selves,” Women’s Studies Quarterly 36, nos. 3 & 4, pp. 64-85.

 

 

April 20th: Sex and the StateGuest lecturer: Gayle Salamon, English, Princeton

Presentations:

 

Gayle Salamon, “Withholding the Letter” (to be distributed in advance)

 

“The Rights of Intersexed Infants and Children,” Transgender Rights, pp. 122-138.

 

Paisley Currah and Lisa Jean Moore, “‘We Won’t Know Who You Are’: Contesting Sex Designations on New York City Birth Certificates.”  Hypatia 24, no. 3 (forthcoming  Summer 2009).

 

Optional:

 

Morgan Holmes “Deciding Fate or Protecting a Developing Autonomy? Intersex Children and the Columbian Constitutional Court,” Transgender Rights, pp. 102-121.

 

April 27th:  Bathrooms and Presentations
Response Paper 3 due in class

 

Simone Chess, Alison Kafer, Jessi Quizar, and Mattie Udora Richardson, “Calling All Restroom Revolutionaries!,” in That’s Revolting, edited by Mattilada, aka Matt Berstein Sycamore (Brooklyn: Soft Skull Press, 2004), pp. 189-205.

 



May 4th: Last class
Final paper due in class.