HIS2322 : Diversities of Sexuality and Gender in History
- Offered for Year: 2024/25
- Module Leader(s): Dr Willow Berridge
- Lecturer: Dr Lutz Sauerteig, Dr Sophie Moore, Dr Laura Tisdall, Dr Vicky Long, Dr Sally Waite, Professor Rachel Hammersley
- Owning School: History, Classics and Archaeology
- Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters
Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.
Semester 1 Credit Value: | 20 |
ECTS Credits: | 10.0 |
European Credit Transfer System |
Aims
This module aims to survey diversities of sexuality and gender expression throughout history, as well as the manifold discourses and regulatory systems that have sought to restrain this diversity. In particular, it challenges students to explore the multiple experiences and contexts that have shaped the emergence of both modern and pre-modern identity labels. Did the gender binary as we understand it exist in the Byzantium of late antiquity, or pre-colonial Igboland? Is our understanding of what it means to be ‘gay’ or ‘transgender’ specific to the era of Western modernity? Was Kabaka Mwanga of Buganda, denounced as a ‘sodomite’ by Christian missionaries, ‘homosexual’ in the same way as Alan Turing? And why have modern governments, religious movements and police systems found sexual otherness so threatening?
Aims:
- To familiarise students with the range of different expressions of non-normative gender and sexuality across the Ancient, Medieval, and Modern eras.
- To identify the various means through which hegemonic cultures have sought to marginalize, repress and erase forms of sexual otherness they deem threatening.
- To provide an awareness of complex debates concerning identity labels
Outline Of Syllabus
Topics may include:
Sexuality in Classical Athens
Intersexuality in Classical and Hellenistic Greece
Transvestism in Classical Athens
The one sex/two sex model in Antiquity
Non-binary divinity in the Ancient Near East
Transgender saints and court eunuchs in Byzantium
Liwat, Khanatha and Sihaq from Classical Islam to the Gunpowder Empires
‘Female husbands’ and diverse sexuality in pre-colonial Africa
Making Sex and the one-sex body
Non-normative physical sex in early modern England and France
Nymphomaniacs and passionless women: making and breaking feminine norms
Just good friends? Sex between women in early modern culture
Sex for one? The eighteenth-century anti-masturbation campaign
Pornography and perversity in early modern culture
The emergence of modern sexology from Havelock Ellis to Alfred Kinsey
Hermaphroditism in nineteenth century medical discourse
European colonialism: between sexual repression and sexual exploitation
Psychiatry discourse and aversion therapy
Homosexual identities in twentieth century Britain
Lesbian interactions with feminism in 20th century Britain
Transgender history in 20th century Britain
Bisexuality in twentieth century Britain
Modern Muslim experiences of diversity in sexuality and gender identity
The backlash: Homophobic and transphobic rhetoric from Janice Raymond to Robert Mugabe
The struggle for LGBTQ+ rights from Stonewall to Kampala
Teaching Methods
Teaching Activities
Category | Activity | Number | Length | Student Hours | Comment |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Lecture | 22 | 1:00 | 22:00 | 2 Lecture p/w |
Guided Independent Study | Assessment preparation and completion | 62 | 1:00 | 62:00 | N/A |
Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Small group teaching | 11 | 1:00 | 11:00 | 1 seminar p/w |
Structured Guided Learning | Structured research and reading activities | 22 | 2:00 | 44:00 | 2 hours preparation and reading for each discussion board and seminar |
Structured Guided Learning | Structured non-synchronous discussion | 11 | 1:00 | 11:00 | Discussion board (will contribute towards portfolio submission) |
Guided Independent Study | Independent study | 50 | 1:00 | 50:00 | N/A |
Total | 200:00 |
Teaching Rationale And Relationship
Lectures will introduce topics and provide expert orientation and exposition on a broad range of themes and issues concerning historical diversities of gender and sexuality as well as the discourses about them, to be supplemented by the module reading list.
Seminars will also consolidate the learning progress from lectures and weekly readings by enabling students to focus on connected issues and material in greater depth. Seminars will hinge upon debate regarding questions and materials circulated in advance, including primary sources, developing both students' interpersonal and group skills as well as their ability to develop appropriate methodologies for engaging with primary sources. They will also enhance students' capacity to engage with secondary sources critically.
Discussion boards will develop further discussions originating from the lecture and seminar content, and will offer the opportunity for in depth feedback from lecturers as well as feeding into the summative portfolio assessments.
Study-abroad, non-Erasmus exchange and Loyola students spending semester 1 only are required to finish their assessment while in Newcastle. Where an exam is present, an alternative form of assessment will be set and where coursework is present, an alternative deadline will be set. Details of the alternative assessment will be provided by the module leader.
Assessment Methods
The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners
Other Assessment
Description | Semester | When Set | Percentage | Comment |
---|---|---|---|---|
Essay | 1 | A | 70 | 2,000 word essay |
Portfolio | 1 | M | 30 | 2 500 word submissions and 1 250 word submission, making 1,250 words in total. |
Formative Assessments
Formative Assessment is an assessment which develops your skills in being assessed, allows for you to receive feedback, and prepares you for being assessed. However, it does not count to your final mark.
Description | Semester | When Set | Comment |
---|---|---|---|
Essay | 1 | M | Formative 500 word essay plan, to allow students to secure feedback from course tutors on ideas for their main summative assignment. |
Assessment Rationale And Relationship
The Portfolio exercise will test the students’ familiarity with a broad range of the themes and knowledge areas covered on this covered. It will also test their ability to reflect on the methodological challenges posed by various types of primary source relevant to this subject area.
The essay examines students’ ability to engage critically with historiographical and terminological debates, as well as to write and research independently. It will be preceded by a formative assessment - a 500 word essay plan - to support students as they develop their ideas.
Work submitted during the delivery of the module forms a means of determining student progress. Submitted work tests knowledge outcomes and develops skills in research, reading and writing.
Study-abroad, non-Erasmus exchange and Loyola students spending semester 1 only are required to finish their assessment while in Newcastle. Where an exam is present, an alternative form of assessment will be set and where coursework is present, an alternative deadline will be set. Details of the alternative assessment will be provided by the module leader.
Reading Lists
Timetable
- Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
- HIS2322's Timetable