Research Seminar in Women's and Gender Studies

Gender, Sexuality, and the Politics of Surveillance
WGST
4990
Credit Hours
3
Linda Reeder
Core/Cross-listed
Core Course
Course Description

Advanced seminar in Women's and Gender Studies. Topics and form of the class vary according to the instructor, but all courses are designed to deepen a student's understanding of the discipline's theories and methods. Can be substituted for WGST 4940. Previous WGST courses are strongly recommended.

This course explores the impact expanded forms of corporate, state, and private surveillance have had on defining, controlling, privileging or devaluing, our bodies over the past few decades. Through readings and discussions, we will explore how surveillance practices and technologies are linked to systemic forms of discrimination, and work to normalize whiteness, able-bodiedness, capitalism, patriarchy, and heteronormativity. We will look hard at the meaning of surveillance, who is surveilled, and who is surveilling, the changing technologies of surveillance, the wider politics of surveillance in our lives.