AFRC326 - QUEER VALUES

FALL 2015: QUEER VALUES - What are queer cultural experiences and values? Many academics and social movements have noted that the radical aspirations of queer theory and activism not only disrupt but also shore up neoliberal ideologies. In this course students will explore the historical co-emergence of queer cultures and neoliberalism by examining the promises and pitfalls of queer politics over the past quarter century. The coining of queer theory by Theresa de Lauretis in 1990 was intended as a disruptive joke. Its provocation resided in joining queer, an appropriation of street slang bandied about among New York City activists and artists in the 1980s, to theory, the passport of privilege in academic life. The irreverence of her joke exemplifies a central ethic of queer experience that renders palpable the tensions between margins and centers. The course will traverse scholarship from economic and queer anthropology, history, sociology & science studies, philosophy, political theory and literary studies.


This wide survey of literature will allow students to develop an understanding of the political and economic processes that have conditioned the emergence of queerness as a diverse range of ethical commitments in particular sociocultural contexts globally. Students will investigate the affective dimensions of the emergence of queer theory, studies and activism within the United States and elsewhere in the context of global neoliberal social reforms. The course is split into four units: 1) In the Place of Queer Origins; 2) Queer Values; 3) Queer Circulations and Subjectivities; and 4) Queer Temporalities.