GRSJ 230: Gender, Race, Sexuality & Representation in Modern Asia

Instructor: Dr. Yao Xiao

The complex relationships between mechanisms of power, gender, and representation in Asia in different spaces examined through an interdisciplinary lens.

Term 1

Description: Representation is power. Representation tells stories. Representation speaks to identification and meanings. Rather than attempt the mission impossible of defining “Asia”, this course aims to unpack the complexity of what “Asian-ness” means, in what contexts, within what power dynamics, and for whom. From the streets to the screen, from grassroots identities to popular cultures, from memories of wars to workers in factories, from community making to social movements, we – as co-learners – will utilize an interdisciplinary lens to understand key dimensions of representation, to identity how it works in multiple different contexts of Asia, and to examine both the foreground and background of “Asian-ness”, almost always already within the power dynamics of gender, race, sexuality, and more.

Need Help?

For help with courses and degree planning contact the GRSJ Undergraduate Advisor

GRSJ 226: Human Rights & Artistic Expression: Thinking Beyond the Legal

Instructor: Dr. Mark Harris

Description: How human rights are expressed in the Arts. Critical engagement with feminist, race and social justice scholarship, and activism.

Need Help?

For help with courses and degree planning contact the GRSJ Undergraduate Advisor

GRSJ 505: Directed Readings/Studies

GRSJ 505: Directed Readings
Term 1, Term 2, or Term 1/2

GRSJ 505 is available to GRSJ MA and PhD students
A total of 6-credits of Directed Readings/Studies may be counted towards your degree.

GUIDELINES AND PROCESS FOR APPROVAL

The process below must be complete before the start of the term in which you wish to take the course.

Choose your topic, area of interest, and a faculty member you are interested in working with. If you need assistance finding an appropriate and willing supervisor see the GRSJ Graduate Advisor. Sessional instructors are not available to supervise any Directed Readings course.
Design a course outline that you and the supervising faculty member agree to. Prepare a bibliography of primary and secondary texts, a schedule of meetings to be held with the supervisor (at least once every two weeks), and papers to be written and/or presentations to be given.
Fill out the details on the form below and upload the agreement of the supervising faculty member. The form must be submitted before the registration deadline for that term and for GRSJ Graduate Chair approval.
After the approval is obtained you will be registered in the course by the GRSJ Program Assistant. Please note that the course work must be completed and marks submitted before the end of the exam period for that term.

APPLY ONLINE

Apply Online

GRSJ 503: Special Topics in Gender, Race, and Sexuality

GRSJ 503A (3): Special Topics in Gender, Race, and Sexuality

This course is currently not being offered in 24W

Instructor: TBA

CSIS 500: Critical Studies in Sexuality: Multi-disciplinary Approaches

CSIS 500C (3): Queer and Trans of Colour Creativity and World Making

24W Term 2 – Mon 12:00-3:00pm

Instructor: Dr. JP Catungal

What kinds of worlds do queer and trans people of colour imagine and create, and how – through what ways of knowing and being – can be we sense them? What can practices of queer and trans of colour creativity tell us about the present moment and how we have arrived here? How do they orient us towards more socially just, more abundant and more capacious futures?

This course concerns queer and trans of colour ways of being, knowing and doing, and the political and intellectual resources they offer for understanding the world as we know it. Our focus will be on “queer and trans of colour” in multiple registers: (1) as a set of subject positions, (2) as ways of sensing and navigating the world, and (3) as practices of making place and making home.

Our interlocutors in this course – guest speakers, readings, case studies –engage variously artistic, academic and activist forms of practice. Along with attending to the aesthetic and formal dimensions of their work, we will also think with queer and trans of colour creative practices as cultural and political analyses of the ‘sexual’ in its entanglements with racism, coloniality, empire and capitalism. Along the way, we will linger on the sensual, bodily and felt ways that queer and trans of colour thinkers and creators make sense of the world, and imagine and enact other ways of being and becoming anew.

CSIS 500 Syllabus

GRSJ 515A: Critical and Creative Social Justice Studies Seminars

GRSJ 515A (3): Critical and Creative Social Justice Studies Seminars

24W Term 2 – Thu 2:00-5:00pm

Instructor: Dr. Minelle Mahtani

The potential of creative work to disrupt ingrained ideas and representations by appealing to the senses. Study and engage with academics, artists, and activists interested in how art contributes to critical and engaged social justice work.

GRSJ 511: Difficult Knowledge: Ethics and Praxis of Research in Challenging Settings

GRSJ 511 (3): Difficult Knowledge: Ethics and Praxis of Research in Challenging Settings

This course is currently not being offered in 24W

Instructor: TBA

Interdisciplinary seminar considering the ethics and praxis of working with difficult knowledge, such as highly divisive questions of memory and responsibility in the context and aftermaths of oppression and mass violence.

GRSJ 502: Issues in Gender, Sexuality and Critical Race Theories

GRSJ 502 (3): Issues in Gender, Sexuality and Critical Race Theories

24W Term 1 – Mon 10:00am-1:00pm

Instructor: Dr. Jasbir Puar

Introduces students to key issues at the intersection of Queer, Trans, Feminist and Critical Race Theories. We will examine a variety of cultural texts (eg, fiction, film) and new models of academic and cultural engagement with a radical democratic politics.

Required for first year MA and PhD students.

GRSJ 501: Issues in Decolonizing and Feminist Methodologies

GRSJ 501 (3): Issues in Decolonizing and Feminist Methodologies

24W Term 1 – Mon 2:00-5:00pm

Instructor: Dr. Ayesha Chaudhry

In this course we will read beautiful writings by scholars reflecting on practices of resistance in colonial spaces, such as the university and the nation state. We will read these writings to learn methods of appreciation and listening, we will explore what it means to think of love as a critical methodology, and consider pedagogies that involve practices of vulnerability, risk and tenderness. We will think deeply about the power of witnessing as rigorous academic work. In our course of study, we will explore the meanings and practices of “decolonization” and “feminism”. This course is intentionally concerned with community; we will read intensively and engage deeply in community. In order to participate in our class community, to enrich our conversations and be enriched by them, students are invited and encouraged to complete readings for each class. The purpose of class meetings is to reflect, and wrestle with the texts at hand, engage in transformative interactions with each other, and to provide precious time dedicated to deep thinking.

Required for first year MA and PhD students.

GRSJ 225: Youth Activism and Social Justice

Instructor: Dr. Kim Snowden

A critical engagement with major issues, debates, and politics in feminist and social justice scholarship through an exploration of youth movements with a focus on activists, popular culture, digital activism, fan cultures, and literature by and for youth.

Description: In recent years, there has been a rise in social justice movements lead by youth around the world. From Malala Yousafzai, to the Parkland survivors, to Greta Thunberg and Autumn Peltier, to global movements focused on the right to education, ending child labour, or ending the practice of child brides, young people are leading the fight for social justice and social change. GRSJ 225 provides an introduction to intersectional feminist scholarship with a focus on contemporary youth culture and the social and political resistance of youth movements.

Students will engage critically with major issues, debates, and politics in feminist and social justice scholarship and activism by exploring the social experiences, politics, and influences of youth cultures and movements in a variety of contexts. We will analyze specific movements, activists, artists, popular culture, music, digital activism, fan cultures, and literature by and for youth and seek to understand the social and cultural forces that shape the experiences of youth. Course readings and scholarship include indigenous feminisms, trans studies, critical race studies, sexuality studies and queer theory, media and literary studies, digital feminism, and theories of the body.

Need Help?

For help with courses and degree planning contact the GRSJ Undergraduate Advisor