ILS 2180  Sexuality:  Science/Culture/Law
Tentative Course Fall 2018



WEEK 1        WEEK 2      WEEK 3     WEEK 4     WEEK 5        WEEK 6

WEEK 7       WEEK 8      WEEK 9     WEEK 10    WEEK  11


NOTE:  This schedule may change as needed.  Your presence in class ensures correct assignments



WEEK 1


M 9/3       Course Introduction; PBS Video               

                 HOMEWORK (DUE 9/5):
  •        Complete Syllabus Quiz in Ulearn; See Quizzes link
  •        Set Up Blog; email the Web address to your page (http://wordpress)
                 to Professor Harmon:  [email protected] by class time.
  •       Read "Epitemology of the Closet" by Sedgwick; see "Course Readings" link in Ulearn

W 9/5     Share Response 2; open discussion; Review film terms


                 HOMEWORK (DUE 9/10):  
  •        Watch the Celluloid Closet (1996; streaming on Amazon; $4.28)
  •        Complete Response 3, The Celluloid Closet:  What struck you as surprising, interesting, or particularly important about this film? What connections can you make to Sedgwick's "Epistemology of the Closet?"



WEEK 2

  M 9/10    Film Clip Analysis & Blog Post


                 HOMEWORK (DUE 9/12): 
  •         Read "Run, Mourner, Run" by Randall Kenan; See Course Readings
  •         Complete Response 4:  Argue what you see as the theme of this story and why.  Theme  =      the central idea communicated by the work.  Identify the theme as a one word idea.

W 9/12     Blog Post & Share: Discuss Reading; Analyze Film Clip & Blog

                 HOMEWORK (DUE 9/17):  
  •         Read "The Social Constructions of Difference & Inequality:  Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality"
  •         Watch Brokeback Mountain (2005, Ang Lee, 135 minutes); See Amazon.com (rent $3.99)
  •          Response 5:  While watching Lee's film, identify potential ways that sexual identity and gender are socially constructed and explain in a minimum of 300 words.  Include one quote from  Ore's article.

WEEK 3

M 9/17     Preview Essay 1; Watch Undertow (2012, dir. Javier Fuentes-Leon, 1 hr. 40 minutes);  live 
                  blogging

                 HOMEWORK (DUE 9/19): 



W 9/19    Continue film

                 HOMEWORK (DUE 9/25):




WEEK 4
M 9/23     Approaching Essay 1; film clip and analysis

                 HOMEWORK (DUE 9/27):
  • ​        Complete first draft of Essay 1 & submit to Ulearn:  SUBMIT ESSAYS/ASSIGNMENTS >
                  FIRST DRAFT, ESSAY 1
  •         Submit copy of first draft to SmartThinking tutor



W 9/25    First Draft of Essay 1 Due ; Watch film or film clip; blogging

                HOMEWORK (DUE 10/1):  
  •        Complete Peer Critique of your partner's visual analysis and post to Ulearn: SUBMIT ESSAYS/ASSIGNMENTS > PEER CRITIQUES
  •       Upload Smart Thinking report and revision plan as one MS Word file; Go to SUBMIT           ESSAYS/ASSIGNMENTS <SMARTHINKING REPORTS & REVISION PLANS


WEEK 5

M 10/1  Group Presentation:  Group Exercise & film clip, Sedgwick & Brokeback Mountain  
             (Nicholas Bediako); Peer Critique  


              HOMEWORK (DUE 10/3):  
  •      Final draft of Essay 1 due with Reflection



W 10/3     Final Draft of Essay 1 due w/ ReflectionGroup Presentation, Genetic Cause of 
                 Homosexuality?:  Group Exercise (Rya Ramsey, Megan Larkins, Jessica Turnipseed)

                 HOMEWORK (DUE 10/8):  
  •        Read, "Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens:  The Radical Potential of Queer Politics" by Cathy J. Cohen
  •        Watch film:  Carol (2015, 118 min)​; available on Netflix
                 Read "Sex & The Brain
  •        Complete Response 6: Should the film Carol be considered a work with political potential?  How does the work of Simon LeVay complicate or reinforce this political potential?


WEEK 6

 M 10/8    Group Presentation, the Social Construction of Sexual Identity:  Group Exercise & film clip
                  (Nick Jones, Justin Nichols, Jayla Wood)  

                 HOMEWORK (DUE 10/10):  Read "'Quare' studies, or (almost) everything I know about queer studies I learned from my grandmother" by E. Patrick Johnson


W 10/10  Group Presentation, The Stonewall Riots & the Gay Civil Rights Movement (Cultural & 
                Legal Significance) :  Group Exercise & film clip (Taylor Collins, Samantha Deselms, 
                Daylean Pereira)


                HOMEWORK (DUE 10/15):  
  •       Read "Queer Times, Queer Assemblages" by Jasbir K. Puar

F 10/12 LAST DAY TO WITHDRAW FROM AN ACADEMIC COURSE

WEEK 7

M 10/15    Group Presentation & Group Exercise (Film Clip): Moonlight  
                  (Barry Jenkins, 2016): (Gillian Howard, Danielle Jones, Barbara Jackson)
                 HOMEWORK (DUE 10/17): 
  •         Read first half of Virgil

 W 10/17  Watch Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016); running time 1 hr. 51 min.

                 HOMEWORK (DUE 10/22): 
  •         Complete Reading of Virgil
  •          Complete Response 9


WEEK 8
M 10/22   Discuss Moonlight & Virgil; Discuss Essay 2
                 HOMEWORK (DUE 10/24): 
  •        Read first half of Blue is the Warmest Color
  •        Complete First Draft of Essay 2
  •        Upload Copy of Draft to Submittable


W 10/24   First Draft of Essay 2 Due; Reading Quiz & Discuss Virgil; Group Presentation: Sexual 
                 Identity & The Graphic Novel (Iman Mitchell, Rachel Perron, Serena Benson)

                HOMEWORK (DUE 10/29):  
  •       Read Remainder of Blue is the Warmest Color
  •       Complete Response 10:  Blue is the Warmest Color
  •       Upload Smart Thinking report and revision plan as one MS Word file; Go to SUBMIT ESSAYS/ASSIGNMENTS <SMARTHINKING REPORTS & REVISION PLANS


WEEK 9
M 10/29   Peer Critique; Discuss Blue is the Warmest Color; Set up documents for Group Project 
                 (Final)

                 HOMEWORK (DUE 10/31):  


W 10/31    Final Draft of Essay 2 with Reflection; Work on Group Project (Final); 

                 HOMEWORK (DUE 11/5):
  •        Work on Group Project


WEEK 10
M 11/5    Work on Group Project (Final)


                 HOMEWORK (DUE 11/7):
  •        First Draft of Group Project Due

W 11/7     First Draft of Group Project Due; Work on Group Project (Final)


WEEK 11
M 11/12    Reading Day (no class meeting); 
W 11/14    Final Exam due with Reflection