Recent scholarship on sex, gender and sexuality in Africa has focused on the relationship between a constructed African sexual deviance and the rising rates of HIV/AIDS on the continent. This course seeks to understand how the stereotypes of African sexuality, same-sex relationships and gender oppression were formed. Through a wide range of scholarly literature, primary sources, biographies and visual texts we will then move beyond this narrow focus and use historical studies to destabilize dominant assumptions about gender and sexuality in Africa. To do this we will use predominantly African texts and develop analytical tools appropriate to African contexts. In this way the course will provide rich accounts of African lives and how they shape and are shaped by issues of gender and sexuality. Weekly hours: 1.5 Lecture hours and 1.5 Seminar/Discussion hoursPrerequisite(s): 3 credit units HIST at
Recent scholarship on sex, gender and sexuality in Africa has focused on the relationship between a constructed African sexual deviance and the rising rates of HIV/AIDS on the continent. This course seeks to understand how the stereotypes of African sexuality, same-sex relationships and gender oppression were formed. Through a wide range of scholarly literature, primary sources, biographies and visual texts we will then move beyond this narrow focus and use historical studies to destabilize dominant assumptions about gender and sexuality in Africa. To do this we will use predominantly African texts and develop analytical tools appropriate to African contexts. In this way the course will provide rich accounts of African lives and how they shape and are shaped by issues of gender and sexuality. Weekly hours: 1.5 Lecture hours and 1.5 Seminar/Discussion hoursPrerequisite(s): 3 credit units HIST at