Course dates
Course overview
This is a great introduction to feminist and queer studies, and their relationship to the archive, which are spaces that hold different narratives and histories about how we once lived, informing us about the past, present, and future.
To avoid disappointment, please book your place on the course 72 hours prior to its commencement.
This holds an important place within feminist and queer scholarship, enabling us to understand how racialised and gendered histories live on. Through media examples, we will explore how LGBTQ artists and activists use the archive in their cultural interventions.
The American author, feminist and social activist bell hooks articulates that “confronting the ways women-through sex, class and race-dominated other women” is the basis for a truly liberatory and empowering feminist framework. Through an analysis of media examples, this unique course will provide you with a fascinating overview of, and accessible way into, feminist and queer studies. We will put feminism and queerness in conversation with the archive – a space in which we can understand the past, present and future in parallel - gaining an insight into the major themes and intersections within these fields. We’ll cover film, photography, television and archival material in order to address the body, gender politics and erotic desire through an intersectional lens. You will be encouraged throughout to develop new ways of thinking about gender and sexuality. This is ideal for former or future students within the arts, gender, media and cultural studies, who are looking to develop or build further on their existing knowledge or interests.
You will not only learn about feminist and queer studies, but also how to present your ideas, develop arguments, analyse media examples and how to conduct research through a feminist and queer framework. Towards the end of the course you will have the opportunity to present and receive feedback on a topic of your choice based on the themes you have explored over the duration of the course.
Why Study this Course?
- Gain insight into key issues within sexuality, gender, race and media studies
- Develop a variety of approaches and skills to analyse media examples
- Learn to reflect upon the relationship between feminism and the media
- Understand how film and media shape our understanding of sexuality
- Learn to understand key theoretical concepts which shape the intersections of feminism, sexuality, race and media studies
Fees
£370
Goldsmiths offers a 15% concession rate on short courses to Lewisham Local cardholders, Students and Goldsmiths Alumni.
Booking information
Disability Support
We are committed to providing reasonable teaching adjustments for students with disabilities that may impact on their learning experience. If you require adjustments, please contact us at shortcourses@gold.ac.uk so we can respond to your requests as soon as possible.
Please note our short courses sell-out quickly, so early booking is advisable.
Enquiries
If you have any questions about this course please contact shortcourses (@gold.ac.uk).
For information on our upcoming short courses please sign up to our mailing list.
Location
Online
Tutor information
Chloe Turner
Chloe Turner is a writer and PhD researcher with the Centre for Feminist Research. Turner is an Associate Lecturer in the Design School at University of the Arts London and the Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London where she teaches feminist, decolonial, queer/trans theories & design.
Turner convenes the popular public course, 'Masters of Sex: Feminisms, Sexuality and the Archive' and is an Editorial Member of the Feminist Review. Early discussions of Turner’s PhD research on queer & trans futures can be found at Soapbox: Journal of Cultural Analysis, Metaphor as Metamorphosis Art Journal, Sonic Scope: New Approaches to Audiovisual Culture and forthcoming/accepted with The Geographical Journal, The Journal of Creative Media and The Sociological Review.
Bridging theory and culture Turner has previously been in conversation with queer and trans artists including D Mortimer (as part of 'Where Life Begins' (2021) at Neumarkt Theatre, Zurich), Lydia Garnett (exhibition text for her show ‘Close Shave’ (2022) at Sudbury Studios, London) and Dr Althea Greenan curator of the Womens Art Library (for the project ‘Being, Making, Becoming’ (2022) a collaboration between Art360 Foundation, London and Hauzer & Wirth, New York).
Since 2018 Turner’s project Feel Tanks have been supported as part of multiple British Academy / Leverhulme Trust and AHRC funded research projects, the most recent being 'Feeling, Making, Imagining Time: Everyday Temporal Experiences in the Covid-19 Pandemic' (2021-2022) with Professor Rebecca Coleman (University of Bristol) and Dr Dawn Lyons (University of Kent).
Course structure
Week 1: Introduction
- Introductions
- The course content, objectives and outcomes will be discussed
- There will be a collective reading of a short text to provide you with an insight into the type of literature which will be covered in the course
Week 2: Mapping Queer and Feminist Studies
- A history of different types of feminism(s) will be outlined and analysed through a critical lens
- The purpose and power of feminism will be explored using bell hooks’ text, looking at the consciousness raising element of feminism as a radical praxis
- A history of queer studies will then be outlined with a focus on queer of colour perspectives
- The intersection between queer of colour theory and women of colour feminisms will be reflected upon with reference to the El Tayeb reading on queering ethnicity in Europe
- To illustrate the importance of an intersectional view of queer and feminist histories, there will be a short screening of Gay Black Group (United Kingdom, 1983, 24min)
Week 3: Media Studies and Sexuality
- Sexuality within the media will be discussed through looking at different media case study examples
- The construction of sexuality in the media will be explored through a feminist lens
- Drawing on critical media studies, students will engage in an interactive discussion on power, agency and audiences
Week 4: The Use of Archives
- A look at the role of archives and the types of knowledge(s) that are conserved in archival spaces
- Through looking at Esteban’s work, the concept of archive will be queered, illustrating how archives may be located in unexpected places and home different types of knowledge, emergent knowledge
- There will be a screening of Marlon Rigg’s work to illustrate how an avant-garde piece of work by Black queer filmmaker Marlon Riggs speaks to the power of the archive
Week 5: On Queerness and Diaspora
- The relationship between queerness and diaspora will be built upon to illustrate the power of “queer diaspora” in capturing the nuanced histories of those whose identities have marginally positioned
- Racialised subjectivities within queer spaces will be explored using Gloria Anzaldúa’s work on women of colour feminisms and sexualities
- The diasporic element will be further consolidated through reflecting on transnational queer and feminists relationships that forged solidarity and intimacy
Week 6: Black and brown Audio Visual Culture: British Perspectives
- Tracing the history of Black and brown audio-visual culture in Britain from the 1980s onwards
- A brief look at the infrastructure and institutional support that enabled Black and brown creatives to craft experimental work
- An analysis of the textual, political and social potency of the work in the context of anti-racist movements and an expansion on the concepts of diaspora, identity, Blackness and queer.
- A look at how this work correlates with a politics and praxis of resistance
Week 7: Feelings, Intimacy and Affect
- The affective cartography of different sexualities will be explored here, with a deep analysis on tactility, trauma and affect theory
- The ways in which trauma and colonial histories effect intimacy and affect will be analysed
- Sarah Ahmed’s work on happiness will be used to interrogate how certain feelings may be socially conditioned and bend according to the will of patriarchal and racist structures
Week 8: Navigating Desire and Race
- The racialisation of desire will be explored. Desire will be interrogated through the prism of colonial histories, looking at how this impacts on the ways in which certain racialised subjectivities may be represented and perceived
Week 9: Pleasure Politics
- The power of pleasure in its nuanced and capacious conceptualisation shall be built upon using the work of Audre Lorde and contemporary feminists
- Pleasure as resistance will be explored in the context of histories of racialised oppression and sexism
Week 10: Class Presentations
- You will share a 5 minute presentation on a selected case study based on the themes from the course
Learning outcomes
At the end of the course you will have:
- An understanding of the key themes of feminist and queer of colour studies
- Developed the skills to analyse media examples
- Reflected on various constructions of femininity, masculinity and sexuality
- Discussed, shared and collaborated with other participants
- Demonstrated critical thinking and analysed various approaches to race, gender and media
About the department
Our Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies is committed to asking the hard questions about the media that will change the world in the 21st century. We are ranked 12th in the world for communication and media studies, and 2nd in the UK for "world leading or internationally excellent" research. The Department works closely with a range of bodies including the Centre for Feminist Research and the Centre for Investigative Journalism, as well as housing important research centres in media democracy and political economy.
The Department offers both a range of well-established undergraduate programmes and a series of dynamic and innovative postgraduate pathways. The Screen School houses a number of highly renowned filmmaking and scriptwriting programmes, and regularly hosts events in their state-of-the-art lecture theatres and studios in the Professor Stuart Hall Building. The Department is devoted to integrating criticism and creation, through a mixture and theory and practice at all levels of study. Industry speakers, networking events, careers fairs and the option to undertake work placements alongside international exchange programmes connect us to the wide world of media work.
