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Undergraduate GRF-HSY204-2023
Histories of Sexuality
$1,892 $2,142
Your upfront cost: $0
Duration
13 weeks
Study method
100% Online
Available loans
- HECS-HELP
- FEE-HELP
Assessments
100% online
Prior study
Not required
Start dates
- 17 Jul 2023
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19
Times Higher Education Ranking 2023
16
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Subject details
At the completion of this unit you will be able to:
- Understand patterns, trends, and themes in the history of sexuality
- Contextualize sex and sexuality within wider social, political and economic settings
- Explain diverse historical, cultural and political perspectives sensitively and ethically
- Develop sustained, logical and informed scholarship about histories of the body, gender, sex and sexuality
- Locate and interpret primary sources and material culture
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- Perspectives on the history of sexuality
- Dominance and submission in Ancient Greece and Rome
- Virginity and chastity and the early Christians
- Medieval Lust
- The puritans: Austerity in the American colonies
- 'Enlightened' sexuality in the eighteenth century
- The Victorians
- Friends and lovers: Romantic friendships and marriage
- Dating and mating: teenagers
- Sexualities under fire: The Second World War
- Sexual revolutions
- Androids and Apps: Sexuality in the twenty-first century
Others
This is a Level 2 subject. Completion of at least one Level 1 History subject or cognate subject.
Additional requirements
No additional requirements
Please note: This subject was previously known as - 'History of Sex and Sexuality'
Sexuality saturates modern life. Our sexual and gender identities signal our selfhood to others and define who we are, whether that's straight, queer, trans or gender diverse, or one of many other possibilities. Sex is everywhere, from the sheets to the streets, to the internet. How we present ourselves, who we are intimate with, what we do and how often we do it is the subject of commentary, intervention, and regulation. But who has determined what's 'unnatural' and what's 'normal and when? What have historical actors, experts and institutions said in the past about sex? And have ordinary people always followed the rules?
This unit explores histories of sex and sexuality from antiquity to the present. Taking a chronological approach to private practices and erotic lives, we will investigate diverse topics, including prostitution, marriage, crossdressing, birth control, war, chastity, queer lives and the internet to identify historical change and continuity. The course focuses on practices, identities and attitudes in Europe, the US, and Australia to consider how gender, class and ethnicity inflect public narratives and intimate lives. Using primary sources and historical objects, you will investigate the meanings people and institutions attach to desire, bodies, and sexuality at different times and places and interrogate our contemporary sexual lives and their possibilities.
- Exhibition Proposal (40%)
- Digital Exhibition (60%)
For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).