CSIS 490: Directed Topics
Term 1 and Term 2
Students must complete the following steps before being registered into a directed studies course:
- Choose a topic or area of interest.
- Identify a faculty member you would be interested in working with and inquire if they are able to supervise the course. (Sessional Instructors are not able to supervise these courses.)
- Work with your supervising faculty member to design a detailed course description, forms of assessment, and a draft reading list.
- Once you have the approval of the supervising faculty member on these documents, please submit the details and other relevant documents in the form below.
- You must also include written confirmation that your supervisor has agreed to work with you. For example, a copy of email correspondence or a signed statement.
- If your course plan is approved by the GRSJ Undergraduate Chair you will be registered in the course by the department and informed of your registration.
CSIS 450:Topics in Critical Studies in Sexuality
Instructor: Dr. Isabel Machado
Topic: Performing Gender and Sexuality (Aka “Drag Around the World”)
This course uses different frameworks and lenses to look at performances that defy gender and sexual normativity in different parts of the globe. It explores how not only femininity and/or masculinity are being recreated, reaffirmed, or mocked in different performances, but also ideas (and ideals) about race, class, body shapes and abilities, national and local belonging, and ethnicity. We will investigate how “drag” can simultaneously reflect, reinforce, and resist ideologies from mainstream cultures and look for instances of queer joyful defiance and gender euphoria in gender-bending popular public performances. We will also acknowledge the moments in which cross-dressing serves as a means of reinforcing normativity and policing gender identities, sexualities, and embodiments.
CSIS 301: Introduction to Trans* Studies
Instructor: Dr. Isabel Machado
How race, citizenship, gender, sexuality, culture and dis/ability are materially and socially constructed together to give meaning to the category trans*. (Trans*: transgender, transsexual, gender variant and other articulations.)
Term 1
Description: CSIS 301 provides an entry-level understanding of foundational ideas and topics in Trans Studies through various conceptual and theoretical frameworks, understanding trans identities and experiences historically. It explores how race, citizenship, gender, sexuality, culture, and ability are materially and socially constructed together to give meaning to the category trans while also looking at how cisnormativity and transphobia intersect with other systems of oppression and privilege. Students will develop a critical awareness of the systemic, institutional, and historical oppression and erasure that shape trans identities and lives while recognizing (and imagining) ways of resisting oppressive norms and systems.
Trans*: umbrella term to describe people whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.
CSIS 300A: Introduction to Critical Studies in Sexuality
Instructor: Dr. Isabel Machado
This course presents an interdisciplinary and intersectional approach to the study of human sexuality.
Term 2
Description: CSIS 300 is a multi-disciplinary and intersectional approach to the study of human sexuality.
Building on the foundation established in CSIS 200, it offers a more in-depth exploration of the complexities of sexuality studies. Students will be exposed to different theoretical and disciplinary approaches to the subject of human sexuality while learning together how to apply them outside the classroom and communicate complex scholarship with broader audiences. This course also explores, unpacks, and challenges assumptions, biases, and discourses about sex and sexuality in popular culture and academia.
CSIS 200: Critical Engagements in Sexuality Studies
Instructor: Dr. Isabel Machado
The study of sexuality is also always the study of systems of power, such as: racism, classism, ableism, and settler colonialism. In this course, we will consider the myriad systemic factors that influence and shape our understandings of sexuality in North America.
Term 1
Description: CSIS 200 is a survey intro course where students learn about the basic concepts related to sexuality studies and build a foundation in the discipline.
Sexuality is often thought of as a natural and unchanging behaviour that has no history. In this course, however, we treat sexuality as socially constructed and historically dynamic. We will study how the meaning and politics of sexuality have changed over time and look at the emergence of new categories of sexual identity while emphasizing how sexuality intersects with race, gender, class, ability, religion, ethnicity, citizenship, nationality, health, education, and other markers of difference and belonging.
GRSJ 480: Decolonizing Praxis: A Practicum in Social Justice
Instructor: Dr. Tara Mayer
Term 2
Description: Connects feminist and critical race theory and practice through placement in a community organization. As is the case with all UBC practice-related courses, this course requires a criminal record check. Open to GRSJ Majors. This course is graded Pass/Fail.
GRSJ 450: Directed Studies
General reading and/or a research undertaking, with the agreement, and under supervision of, a faculty member selected by the student and approved by the GRSJ Undergraduate Advisor. A written paper or equivalent will be required. Open to GRSJ majors or minors.
Term 1 and Term 2
Students must complete the following steps before being registered into a directed studies course:
- Choose a topic or area of interest.
- Identify a faculty member you would be interested in working with and inquire if they are able to supervise the course. (Sessional Instructors are not able to supervise these courses.)
- Work with your supervising faculty member to design a detailed course description, forms of assessment, and a draft reading list.
- Once you have the approval of the supervising faculty member on these documents, please submit the details and other relevant documents in the form below.
- You must also include written confirmation that your supervisor has agreed to work with you. For example, a copy of email correspondence or a signed statement.
- If your course plan is approved by the GRSJ Undergraduate Chair you will be registered in the course by the department and informed of your registration.
GRSJ 422: Advanced Research Seminar
Instructor: Dr. Ayesha Chaudhry
Critical theories, methodologies, ethics and practices appropriate for advanced feminist research. Recommended pre-requisite: all of GRSJ 101, GRSJ 102. Restricted to GRSJ Majors with fourth-year standing.
Term 1
Topic: The Politics and Organization of Knowledge Production in the University