WGSS 36.02 Mapping the Queer and Trans South
Although by some accounts the American South is home to nearly 35% of the country’s LGBTQ population, popular conception of the region is one of limited queer life. This course explores narratives and theories produced by queer and trans people in the South, alongside and within the broader colonial, carceral, and racial geographies of the region. We will look at how the American South is constructed as a meaningful entity, and how queer and trans people do or do not fit into that image. Readings and materials will include media representations of queer and trans people in the South, oral histories, memoirs, and poetry. How can an exploration of the queer and trans populations of the South destabilize normative regional conceptions? And what might a queer history/framing of the South—and a Southern framing of queerness/transness—offer to our understanding of the contemporary United States?