Sexualities
| Module title | Sexualities |
|---|---|
| Module code | HIH3619 |
| Academic year | 2019/0 |
| Credits | 30 |
| Module staff | Professor Sarah Toulalan (Convenor) Dr Catherine Rider (Lecturer) Miss Sarah Jones (Lecturer) Dr Ina Linge (Lecturer) |
| Duration: Term | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration: Weeks | 11 | 11 |
| Number students taking module (anticipated) | 36 |
|---|
Module description
The history of sexuality is a vibrant field that includes not only the study of changing sexual practices and their meanings, categorisations, and regulation, but also of ways of thinking about bodies, sex and gender. It is also not just about sexual behaviour: it implicates wider issues from religion and politics to medicine, science and technology. The concept of ‘sexuality’ has not always existed, but was a medical construction of human behaviour that emerged towards the end of the nineteenth century: so how was human sexual behaviour conceptualised before this? This module seeks to explore such questions, examining and comparing the various different contexts, situations and behaviours that have been associated with sex in times past.
No prior knowledge, skills or experience is required; it is suitable for all students at this level.
Module aims - intentions of the module
This module is designed to enhance your understanding of recurring themes in the history of sexualities over a time scale extending from the medieval period to the twentieth century. It will be taught by two or three different tutors, and exact chronological and thematic focus will depend on which tutors are teaching the module in any given year. By close specialist evaluation of key topics such as conceptualising sexuality, in settings as various as twelfth-century English marriage and the early twentieth-century armed forces, you will trace key developments in the subject, and think about these comparatively across time and space. The module will also introduce you to the approaches of different disciplines, such as sociology and art history, and to a variety of different historical source materials, such as trial records and medical texts. By using a combination of tutor-led seminars and lectures, student-led seminars and independent study, the module will enable you to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of taking a comparative approach to the study of sexualities. In this way you will learn to draw thematic comparisons between material from different sources, show awareness of contrasting approaches to research, and demonstrate an enhanced understanding of some of the philosophical questions arising from research into large historical themes. You will also learn to present some of these complex issues to the rest of the class by leading a seminar in the second half of the course.
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
ILO: Module-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 1. Analyse developments in the history of sexualities and compare its relationship to other phenomena such as religion across a variety of historical time-periods and contexts
- 2. Compare and explain key historiographical developments in the history of sexualities across different societies and periods, and relate them to an overall conception of the subject
- 3. Evaluate carefully and critically the approaches that historians and scholars working in other disciplines have taken to sexualities
- 4. Define suitable research topics for independent study/student-led seminars in the history of sexualities
- 5. Demonstrate the possibilities and limitations of comparative methodological approaches in historical research more generally
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 6. Analyse the key developments in complex and unfamiliar political, social, cultural or intellectual environments
- 7. Identify and deploy correct terminology in a comprehensible manner; use primary sources in a professional manner; present work in the format expected of historians, including footnoting and bibliographical references
- 8. Assess critically different approaches to history in a contested area
ILO: Personal and key skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 9. Work both in a team and independently
- 10. Digest, select and organise material to produce, to a deadline, a coherent and cogent argument, developed through the mode of assessment
- 11. Understand as a team how to lead a group discussion of a historical topic
Syllabus plan
Term 1: Lectures and seminars covering methodological and conceptual issues relating to sexualities, and set-up for student-led seminars. The module will be taught through 6 x 2-hour seminars and 11 x 1-hour lectures in term 1. The lectures will focus on subjects/issues from the tutor’s own area of specialism and may suggest questions and themes which could be explored comparatively by you. The seminars will explore particular issues in more depth, through discussion of sources and issues/debates raised by the secondary literature. They will also lay the foundations for the student-led seminars in the second half of the course. Topics covered will vary according to tutor availability, and may not cover the full chronological time span from medieval to modern, but may include any (but not all) of those listed below.
Lectures will always include an initial lecture on conceptualising/theorising sexualities; up to 9 further topics will be selected from the list below and will vary depending on the composition of the tutor team each year.
Introduction: module outline; conceptualising/theorising sexualities; historiographies; medicine and sex; reproduction and contraception; religion; regulation; marriage and family; age and sex; heterosexuality; homosexuality; perversions; virginity, chastity and abstinence; love and intimacy; prostitution; violence; knowledge and experience.
Term 2: Five 2-hour seminars led by groups of 2 or 3 students on topics chosen by students and agreed with tutors. Topics will vary according to tutor availability and student choice but may include global comparisons as well as any of those from the list of possible lecture topics.
When creating student groups for student-led seminars the following will be taken into consideration:
- Preference for working on a specific time period
- Preference for working on a specific place
- Preference for a particular topic
Term 3: 1 x revision session for exam preparation.
Tutor-led seminars will include some or all of the following sessions:
- General introduction and set-up: explaining how the course works; explaining the module guide and assessments; answering queries; organising work for seminars.
- Three seminars on topics of tutor choice.
- A Workshop to plan student-led seminars and on leading a seminar.
- A seminar on tutor choice of topic with sections led by student groups to prepare for student-led seminars.
Student-led seminars
Groups may choose to work on:
- Global comparisons (groups may present on a specific country or a continent or region, or a comparison between no more than two countries/regions; if a comparison is presented then it must be for the same time period for each place selected; a comparison may also be presented for the same place but between different time periods).
- Any of the lecture topics that has not been covered in any of the tutor-led sessions unless it is for a different time period.
- Other topics by agreement with tutor(s).
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 33 | 267 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled learning and teaching | 11 | 11 x 1 hour lectures to run on alternate weeks over both terms |
| Scheduled learning and teaching | 12 | 6 x 2 hour tutor-led seminars |
| Scheduled learning and teaching | 10 | 5 x 2 hour seminars. Each led by a group of 2 or 3 students. Topics should be chosen from a menu of subjects agreed in advance by tutors. While tutors give guidance and a basic reading list, you are responsible for designing seminar activities and identifying further reading materials |
| Guided independent study | 267 | You prepare for seminars, essay, final report and exam through reading and research; you also work in groups to lead seminars based on projects that have been developed |
Formative assessment
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essay plan | 500 words | 1-8, 10 | Oral and written feedback |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 70 | 30 | 0 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essay | 30 | 3000 words | 1-8,10 | Oral and written feedback |
| Student-led seminar [comprising: leading a student led seminar (36%) and attending all student-led seminars (4%)] | 40 | 2 hours | 1-11 | Oral and written feedback |
| Takeaway examination | 30 | 3000 words | 1-8,10 | Oral and 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essay | Essay | 1-8, 10 | Referral/Deferral period |
| Student-led seminar and participation | 1500 words (written by student individually) describing and reflecting on the proposed seminar activities and materials equating to one persons contribution (c. 45 minutes), plus proposed handout or powerpoint from seminar (not more than 2 sides of A4) and seminar reading list (not more than 1 side of A4) | 1-11 | Referral/Deferral period |
| Takeaway exam | Takeaway exam | 1-8, 10 | Referral/Deferral period |
Re-assessment notes
The re-assessment consists of a 3,000 word essay and 3,000 word take-away exam, as in the original assessment, but replaces leading and participating in student-led seminars with a written seminar plan and reading list that corresponds to one student’s contribution to such a seminar. The plan should outline how the seminar is to be structured and organised as well as detailing the material to be used. This will enable a reader to gain a sense of what the student intended to do in the seminar, the rationale for this activity, and when this activity / discussion would take place.
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
- Bristow, Joseph, Sexuality, New York and London: Routledge, 1997.
- Clark, Anna, Desire: A History of European Sexuality, London: Routledge, 2008.
- Crawford, Katherine, European Sexualities, 1400-1800, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
- Dinshaw, Carolyn, Getting medieval: sexualities and communities, pre- and postmodern, Durham NC: Duke University Press, 1999.
- Ellingson, Stephen and M. Christian Green (eds), Religion and Sexuality in Cross-cultural Perspective, London: Routledge, 2002.
- Fisher, Kate and Sarah Toulalan (eds), Bodies, Sex and Desire from the Renaissance to the Present, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2011.
- Garton, Stephen, Histories of Sexuality, Antiquity to Sexual Revolution, London: Equinox, 2004.
- Herzog, Dagmar, Sexuality in Europe: a twentieth-century history, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
- Houlbrook, Matt and Harry Cocks (eds), The Modern History of Sexuality,Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2006.
- Karras, Ruth Mazo, Sexuality in Medieval Europe: doing unto others, London: Routledge, 2005.
- Kimmel, Michael S. And Rebecca F. Plante, Sexualities: identities, behaviors and society, New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
- Miller, Andrew H. And James Eli Adams, Sexualities in Victorian Britain, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.
- Nye, Robert (ed.), Sexuality,Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999
- Peakman, Julie (general ed), A Cultural History of Sexuality, Oxford: Berg, 2011 (6 vols.)
- Phillips, Kim M. and Barry Reay, Sex before Sexuality: a Premodern History, Cambridge: Polity, 2011.
- Stearns, Peter N., Sexuality in World History, London and New York: Routledge, 2009.
- Toulalan, Sarah and Kate Fisher (eds) The Routledge History of Sex and the Body in the West, 1500 to the Present, London and New York: Routledge, 2013.
- Weeks, Jeffrey, Sex, Politics and Society: The Regulation of Sexuality since 1800, London and New York: Longman, 1989.
- Weeks, Jeffrey, Sexuality and its Discontents: meaning, myths and modern sexualities, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985.
- Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E., Christianity and Sexuality in the Early Modern World: Regulating Desire, Reforming Practice, London and New York: Routledge, 2000.
Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources
- ELE – https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=4109
- EEBO
- ECCO
- Old Bailey Online
- Online newspapers and periodicals
Indicative learning resources - Other resources
- Other material from module lecturer(s) as needed.
| Credit value | 30 |
|---|---|
| Module ECTS | 15 |
| Module pre-requisites | None |
| Module co-requisites | None |
| NQF level (module) | 6 |
| Available as distance learning? | No |
| Origin date | 17/07/2014 |
| Last revision date | 13/12/2018 |
