AN488 Half Unit
Gender, Sexuality and Kinship
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Dr Jo Hemlatha
Availability
This course is available on the MA in Modern History, MRes in Anthropology, MSc in Anthropology and Development, MSc in China in Comparative Perspective, MSc in Culture, Justice, and Environment, MSc in Gender, MSc in Social Anthropology and MSc in Social Anthropology (Religion in the Contemporary World). This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.
Course content
This course provides an examination of the cultural frameworks and social aspects of gender roles, personhood, human sexuality, and kinship systems, analysed through ethnographic examples from a diverse range of settings. It aims to equip students with the analytical tools to engage in theoretical debates concerning core concepts such as ‘gender’, ‘sexuality’, 'kinship', 'marriage', and the relationship between 'nature' and 'culture', as well as exploring how the experiences of gender, sexuality, and kinship vary according to the regimes of politics, law and materiality in which they are embedded.
The course charts the history of anthropological debates on sex and gender, sexuality, kinship, and relatedness, and familiarises students with a range of contemporary approaches to these themes, placing ethnographic materials into a critical dialogue with recent developments in theoretical fields such as feminist theory, queer theory, the anthropology of colonialism, cognitive science, and psychoanalysis.
Teaching
10 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the Winter Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.
Formative assessment
Essay (1500 words)
Students will have the opportunity to submit one formative essay of up to 1500 words during the course.
Students will be informed of their formative submission deadline by email by the end of Week 4 of term.
Indicative reading
- Carsten, J. After Kinship (2003)
- Chodorow, N. (1999) The Power of Feelings: Personal Meaning in Psychoanalysis, Gender and Culture.
- Donnan, H. and Magowan, F. (2010) The Anthropology of Sex.
- Esteban Munoz, J (2009). Cruising Utopia
- Foucault, M. (1975). Discipline and Power.
- Levi-Strauss, C. (1969) The Elementary Structures of Kinship
- Lewin, E and Leap, W. (2009) Out in public: reinventing lesbian/gay anthropology in a globalizing world
- Moore, H. L. A (1994) Passion for Difference: Essays in Anthropology and Gender
- Murray, J. B (2025). Queer Anthropology
- Raha, N., & Van Der Drift, M. (2024). Trans Femme Futures.
- Smith, M. & Mac, J. (2020). Revolting Prostitutes
- Stone, L. (1996) Kinship and Gender: An Introduction
Assessment
Essay (100%, 3500 words) in Spring Term Week 4
Key facts
Department: Anthropology
Course Study Period: Winter Term
Unit value: Half unit
FHEQ Level: Level 7
CEFR Level: Null
Total students 2024/25: Unavailable
Average class size 2024/25: Unavailable
Controlled access 2024/25: NoCourse selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.
Personal development skills
- Self-management
- Team working
- Problem solving
- Application of information skills
- Communication
- Commercial awareness
- Specialist skills