ERIC Number: EJ918919
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011
Pages: 10
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0271-0633
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Available Date: N/A
The Intersectional Potential of Queer Theory: An Example from a General Education Course in English
Carlin, Deborah
New Directions for Teaching and Learning, n125 p55-64 Spr 2011
In this chapter, the author describes how a pedagogical approach utilizing insights and principles from queer theory facilitated an intersectional analysis in a large lecture, general education course on "Gender, Sexuality, Literature and Culture" at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her goal in using queer theory's deconstructive methodology was to disrupt and destabilize potentially predetermined student conceptions of gender and sexuality in ways that fostered intersectional analysis because "sexuality is always already intersecting with other vectors of identity and difference." As the evaluations indicate, college-age students (no doubt because of their own life-stage issues around independence and sexual identity) were intrigued by the course material and open to explorations of gender and sexuality as they were expressed in different cultural, national, familial, religious, class, and historical formulations. A queerly informed pedagogy offers the tools to deconstruct norms and to situate differences within multiple vectors of identity not restricted exclusively to gender and sexuality.
Descriptors: College English, General Education, Homosexuality, Sexual Identity, Social Theories, Teaching Methods, Lecture Method, Courses, Student Attitudes, Gender Issues, Sexuality, Social Attitudes, Social Bias, College Students, Cultural Influences, Social Influences, Course Content
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Massachusetts
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