Masters of Sex: Feminisms, Sexuality, and the Archive

This 10-week course will introduce you to feminist and queer studies, and their relationship to the archive, spaces that hold different narratives and histories about how we once lived, informing us about the past, present, and future.

Join Chloe Turner, an experienced writer and researcher, and explore how racialised and gendered histories live on and how LGBTQ artists and activists use the archive in their cultural interventions.

Through an analysis of media examples, this unique live online course will provide you with a fascinating overview of, and accessible way into, feminist and queer studies. You will be encouraged throughout to develop new ways of thinking about gender and sexuality.

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.

This course is ideal for former or future students interested in arts, gender, media, and cultural studies, and are looking to develop or build further on their existing knowledge or interests.

Course structure

• Session 1: Introduction – course content, objectives, outcomes, and a collective reading
• Session 2: Mapping Queer and Feminist Studies – phases of feminism(s) outlines and critical analysis, purpose and power of feminism, queer of colour and women of colour feminisms, short screening of Gay Black Group (United Kingdom, 1983, 24min)
• Session 3: Media Studies and Sexuality – case study examples, the feminist lens of sexuality in the media, interactive group discussion
• Session 4: The Use of Archives – role of the archive, Esteban and the archive in unexpected locations, a screening of Black queer filmmaker Marlon Rigg’s work to illustrate how their avant-garde piece of work speaks to the power of the archive
• Session 5: On Queerness and Diaspora – the power of “queer disapora”, exploring aspects of Gloria Anzaldúa’s work on women of colour feminisms and sexualities
• Session 6: Black and Brown Audio Visual Culture: British Perspectives – tracing Black and brown AV culture in the UK from the 1980s onwards, Black and brown creatives: an analysis of the work in the context of anti-racist movements
• Session 7: Feelings, Intimacy and Affect – mapping sexualities (tactility/trauma/affect theory), and the socially conditioned feelings, looking at Sarah Ahmed’s work on happiness
• Session 8: Navigating Desire and Race – the racialisation of desire
• Session 9: Pleasure Politics – the power of pleasure, and pleasure as resistance
• Session 10: Class Presentations – 5-minute presentations on your selected case study

Learning outcomes

• Gain an understanding of the key themes of feminist and queer of colour studies
• Explore and reflect on constructions of femininity, masculinity, and sexuality
• Develop a variety of approaches and skills to analyse media examples
• Demonstrate critical thinking and analyse various approaches to race, gender and media
• Discuss, share and collaborate with other participants

Fees

Early bird price: £314.50 Standard price: £370.  Please note that concessions cannot be applied to early-bird bookings.

Goldsmiths offers a 15% concession rate on short courses to Lewisham Local cardholders, Students and Goldsmiths Alumni.

Booking information

Please note our short courses sell out quickly, so early booking is advisable.

Location

Online

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.

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.

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). 

Show more