MONASH UNIVERSITY FACULTY HANDBOOKS

Arts Undergraduate Handbook 1996

Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996

ANY2130

Race and sexual politics

L Healey

Synopsis This subject explores the construction of the `other' - that is, identity construction by way of racial, sexual and gendered self-identification and stereotyping in contemporary and colonial cultures. It does this by examining how social identities are constructed and manifested in a range of discourses (eg HIV/AIDS, sex-tourism of Southeast Asia, colonial images of colonised peoples). It encourages students to look for the links between race and sexual categories of difference and those of gender, class, ethnicity and nationality. Students are introduced to a range of feminist, post-colonial and anthropological theories of racial, sexual and cultural difference, race and sexual violence, and the nature of knowledge itself.

Assessment Written (5000 words): 70% + Examination (1 hour): 20% + Participation: 10%

Recommended texts

• Frankenberg R White women, race matters: The social construction of whiteness University of Minnesota Press, 1993
• Harding S Whose science? Whose knowledge? Thinking from women's lives Open U P, 1991
• Hooks B Ain't I a woman: Black women and feminism South End Press, 1981
• Hooks B Feminist theory: From margin to center South End Press, 1984
• Pettman J Living in the margins: Racism, sexism and feminism in Australia Allen and Unwin, 1992
• Ramazanoglu C Feminism and the contradictions of oppression Routledge, 1989