GEN139 Gender and Intimacy

Faculty of Social Studies
Spring 2009
Extent and Intensity
1/1. 6 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
doc. Kateřina Lišková, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. PhDr. Iva Šmídová, Ph.D.
Department of Sociology – Faculty of Social Studies
Contact Person: Ing. Soňa Enenkelová
Timetable
Mon 12:00–13:30 U34
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 50 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/50, only registered: 0/50, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/50
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 18 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
The aim of this seminar is to discuss the ways in which the institution of family has changed over time and place, and with it, our notions of gender, love, and sex. Through exploring the connections people make in their private lives, we will investigate the structural outline our society imposes on the private and intimate matter par excellence, the family. Our background will be interdisciplinary, spanning from sociology, anthropology, and history to gender and queer studies. We will focus on family forms that are diverse and at the same time shaping our understanding and experiencing of the contemporary “family” in North Atlantic culture, i.e. the United States and Europe. Readings and debates will encompass the American suburban family of the 1950s, working-class black kinship of the 1970s, current anti-immigration measures and their effect on family life, as well as relations between family and the state in Europe under Communism and its subsequent transition in the post-Communist era. Students own ethnographic explorations will shed light on the connections between private and public, past and present. We will contest the notion of the “normal family” and explore various forms of familial configurations ranging from the mainstream nuclear family as the basis of biological reproduction, to emerging forms of gay and lesbian kinship and parenting. While paying attention to socially relevant aspects of ethnicity and class, our primary focus will be on gender as a category of social stratification and identification as well as a unit of social analysis. At the end of this course, students should be able to understand the historicity and social situatedness of the institution of family and be able to explain changes and variaton within family models.
Syllabus
  • 1. What is Sex and What is Gender?
  • 2.-4. What is Family? Family at Different Times and Places
  • 5.-7. Normal Family?
  • 8.-10. Family, Ethnicity, and Class
  • 11.-12. Love, Autonomy, and Intimacy
Literature
  • American families : a multicultural reader. Edited by Maya Parson - Gabrielle Raley. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2008, viii, 475. ISBN 9780415958219. info
  • MARCUS, Sharon. Between women : friendship, desire, and marriage in victorian england. Oxfordshire: Princeton University Press, 2007, x, 356. ISBN 9780691123851. info
  • All our families : new policies for a new century : a report of the Berkeley family forum. Edited by Mary Ann Mason - Arlene S. Skolnick - Stephen D. Sugarman. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003, x, 310. ISBN 0195148819. URL info
  • FADERMAN, Lillian. Krásnější než láska mužů :romantické přátelství a láska mezi ženami of renesance po současnost. Translated by Martin Pokorný. Vyd. 1. Praha: One women press, 2002, 637 s. ISBN 80-86356-12-4. info
  • COONTZ, Stephanie. The way we never were : american families and the nostalgia trap. New York: Basic books, 1992, viii, 391. ISBN 0465090974. info
  • STACK, Carol B. All our kin : strategies for survival in a Black community. New York: Harper & Row, 1975, xv, 175. ISBN 0061319821. info
Assessment methods
written abstracts from literature for the class, final group projects
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is taught once in two years.
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2010.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2009, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/fss/spring2009/GEN139