Queer Ecologies
| Module title | Queer Ecologies |
|---|---|
| Module code | HIC2032 |
| Academic year | 2023/4 |
| Credits | 15 |
| Module staff |
| Duration: Term | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration: Weeks | 11 |
| Number students taking module (anticipated) | 16 |
|---|
Module description
This module takes up the term queer ecologies to help question normative and heterosexist understandings about the human body, the (un)natural, reproductive ethics, history, and technology. You will engage with a range of literary, artistic, and political primary and secondary sources including artworks, fiction and poetry, performances, digital platforms and resources, activist events, and more.
Drawing on traditions including evolutionary biology, queer geography and history, critical race theory, ecofeminism, and environmental justice, the module will draw important connections between the material and cultural dimensions of queer environmental issues. Students will study canonical and experimental literary, cultural and historical ecological texts in the light of queer theory, including intersections with critiques of settler colonialism. By analysing such texts alongside careful readings of some of the major voices in thinking and writing queer, you will expand your knowledge base and develop your ability to engage in sophisticated critical discussions.
Module aims - intentions of the module
The module aims to introduce you to current themes, theories and discussions in current queer environmental humanities research, by focusing on the varied intentions, practices and outcomes (environmental, cultural and political) of queer ecological thinking. You will gain experience of interpreting a range of literary, artistic, and political primary and secondary sources including artworks, fiction and poetry, performances, digital platforms and resources, activist events, and more.
This module aims to address the following questions:
- How can a focus on queer ecologies and queer environmentalism help to rethink assumptions about the past, present (and future) of environmental change?
- How can attention to queer theory help to challenge the colonial rationalist binaries including the un/natural, non/human, dis/order, dis/orientation, un/civilized and un/known in this moment of planetary precarity?
- What is the function of exploring queer environmental issues alongside resource and energy related writing, including fiction, history, and creative non-fiction, and other cultural texts such as documentaries, installation art, poetry, interactive websites, photography? How can we use these materials to reconfigure environmental debates connected to postcoloniality, globalization and the capitalist world-system?
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
ILO: Module-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 1. Express a broad historical, literary, creative and political knowledge and understanding of queer ecological thinking and practice over the last 30 years.
- 2. Engage with independent ideas and analyse the role of queer ecologies in rethinking nature and the human across a range of planetary environments, and in new understandings of ecological change.
- 3. Demonstrate an interdisciplinary understanding of environmental humanities research and a critical understanding of the use of visual culture and queer theory in creative ecological practices.
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 4. Analyse and reflect creatively upon a range of literary, historical, artistic and cultural sources, in relation to queering environmental humanities research, across temporal and geographical contexts.
- 5. Engage critically with a variety of disciplinary practices in their relationship to queer ecologies and intersectional environmental issues.
ILO: Personal and key skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 6. Deploy persuasive communication skills both independently and in group work
- 7. Mobilise effective research skills to critically analyse primary and secondary material on the module themes and issues.
- 8. To work independently and to module deadlines
Syllabus plan
Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:
- Queer futurity (e.g. how can queer history and queer temporality be used to envisage different futures, as part of alternative thinking about life on a damaged planet)
- Queer kinships (e.g. more-than-human alliances; animacies; animals, plants, bacteria, oceans, rock, air…)
- Queer technologies (technobodies, cyborgs, prosthesis, the biocultural, and more)
- Queering ‘nature’ (e.g. challenging the binary of the un/natural, examining the issues around ‘wildness’ and ‘wilderness’)
- Queering place and identity (e.g. home, belonging, migration diaspora, memory, counter-mapping, the politics of environment, the local and global)
- Queer intersectionality
- Queer ecologies in literature, film, art, performance
- Queer activism, resistance, politics
- Queer antiracism
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 22 | 128 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled learning and teaching | 22 | Tutor-led workshops |
| Guided independent study | 128 | Private study |
Formative assessment
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio plan | 500 words | 1-8 | Written /oral |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 0 | 0 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio of work Students may work independently or in small groups (to be discussed with module tutors). Students may choose THREE from the following: *Review of an ecological website and/or queer digital project *Primary source analysis *Review of literary text, performance, interview, installation or film *Review of a historiographical debate *Review of an activist practice or event in relation to environmental humanities research * Annotated photo-album or photo-essay *Short piece of creative writing, plus academic reflection | 100 | 3000 words | 1-8 | Written feedback |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio | Portfolio (2500 words) | 1-8 | Referral/Deferral period |
Re-assessment notes
Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.
Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
Ideas
Cameron Butler, ‘A Fruitless Endeavour: Confronting the Heteronormativity of Environmentalism’, Routledge Handbook of Gender and Environment, ed. Sherilyn MacGregor (2017): 270–86
Mel Y. Chen, Animacies: Biopolitics, Racial Mattering, and Queer Affect (2012)
Lee Edelman, No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive (2004)
Noreen Giffney and Myra J. Hird, Queering the Non/Human (2016)
Jack Halberstam, The Queer Art of Failure (2011)
Donna Haraway, ‘Teddy Bear Patriarchy: Taxidermy in the Garden of Eden’, Social Text 11 (1984-85): 20-64
Sherilyn MacGregor, ed., Routledge Handbook of Gender and Environment (2017)
Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands and Bruce Erickson, Queer Ecologies: Sex, Nature, Politics, Desire (2010)
Sophie Lewis, ‘My Octopus Girlfriend: On erotophobia’, n+1 39 (Winter 2021) https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-39/reviews/my-octopus-girlfriend/
Tim Morton, ‘Queer Ecology’, PMLA 125:2 (2010)
José Esteban Munoz. Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity (2009)
Tavia Nyong’o, Afro-Fabulations: The Queer Drama of Black Life (2018)
Sam See, Queer Nature, Queer Mythologies (2020)
Matthew Schneider-Mayerson and Brent Ryan Bellamy, An Ecotopian Lexicon (2019)
Paul Preciado, Testo Junkie: Sex, Drugs and Biopolitics (2008)
Nicole Seymour, Strange Natures: Futurity, Empathy, and the Queer Ecological Imagination (2013)
Riley C. Snorton. Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity (2017)
Art, Film and Literature
Oliver Baez Bendorf, The Spectral Wilderness (2015)
CA Conrad, Ecodeviance (2014)
Rita Indiana, Tentacle (2018)
My Octopus Teacher (2020)
Moonlight (2016)
Fire & Flood: Queer Resilience in the Era of Climate Change (2019)
Patricia Piccinini, artist’s website and video discussing her work
Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources
Electronic Platforms and Resources: see ELE
| Credit value | 15 |
|---|---|
| Module ECTS | 7.5 |
| Module pre-requisites | None |
| Module co-requisites | None |
| NQF level (module) | 5 |
| Available as distance learning? | No |
| Origin date | 24/06/2022 |
| Last revision date | 18/09/2023 |
