Gender, Sexuality, and U.S. Empire

Course Description

Summary

This course examines the entangled histories of race, gender, and sexuality within the expansion and maintenance of U.S. Empire. We will explore histories ranging from the selective exclusion of nineteenth century migrants, America’s global war on sex work in the early twentieth century, to the gendered dimensions of twentieth century warmaking.

In addition to learning historical material, students will constantly be asked how history becomes “history.” What are narratives central to the U.S. nation-state? How were they constructed and how was the management of intimacy necessary to imperial survival?