ASIAN 4494 - Topics in Southeast Asian Studies

(crosslisted) ANTHR 4494 , FGSS 4494 , LGBT 4494 
     

Queer, Quare, Kuaer: Theory and Mediamaking in Southeast Asia - this course is a survey of LGBTQIA issues across contemporary Southeast Asia. It is framed as a south-south conversation between western queer theory, Black, Indigenous, and diasporic critiques, and ethnographic accounts of LGBTQIA experiences from Southeast Asia. For a more holistic understanding of this complicated and oftentimes fluid region, we will also take the occasional detour into South and East Asian contexts. From Black lesbian and gay writers and filmmakers in the US, to LGBT activism in Northeast India, Myanmar, China, and Thailand; to comparative discussions of queer sociality and kinship in Taiwan, Tibet, and Singapore; to urban lesbian subjectivities in Jakarta, Bangkok, and Ho Chi Minh City; to transsexual experiences in Malaysia, South Korea, and the Philippines, the course brings in conversation  queer, quare, and kuaer theories to decenter western-centric understandings of LGBTQIA issues and to offer an in-depth understanding of gender pluralism localized in Southeast Asian contexts. (SC)