Sexual Revolutions

Human sexuality is often represented as being “natural” and static, yet sexual norms and sexual cultures have experienced significant shifts over time. With a focus on historical and contemporary moments and movements of change – revolutions in sex and sexuality – this subject invites students to consider how systems of power, cultural formations, gender relations, economic contexts and medico-scientific discourses contribute to shaping our sexual lives. By analysing a range of case studies and examples across diverse cultural contexts, this subject will equip students with the conceptual and theoretical tools to understand human sexuality as a contingent and dynamic social phenomenon in our world. Case studies may include (but are not limited to): utopian communities, the English sodomy trials, socialist sexual cultures, sex in the 1960s, sex in the women’s liberation movement, Stonewall and gay and lesbian rights movements, sexualities on the internet, sex during and “after” the AIDS crisis, and the commodification of sexuality.

• 1Discuss the ways in which sexuality is culturally, historically, politically and geographically contingent and discursively constructed
• 2Articulate the theoretical underpinnings of key foundational and canonical texts in sexuality studies
• 3Apply theoretical knowledge about sex and sexuality to a range of case studies
• 4Formulate research questions, locate and interpret sources, and assess the significance of specific case studies of sexual revolutions
• 5Express ideas and research findings in both written and oral forms.