GI421 Half Unit
Sexuality, Gender and Culture
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Rohit Dasgupta
Availability
This course is available on the MSc in Culture and Conflict in a Global Europe, MSc in Culture and Conflict in a Global Europe (LSE & Columbia), MSc in Culture and Conflict in a Global Europe (LSE & Sciences Po), MSc in Culture and Society, MSc in Gender, MSc in Gender (Research), MSc in Gender (Rights and Human Rights), MSc in Gender (Sexuality), MSc in Gender, Development and Globalisation, MSc in Gender, Media and Culture, MSc in Gender, Peace and Security, MSc in Gender, Policy and Inequalities, MSc in Human Rights, MSc in Human Rights and Politics and MSc in Political Science (Global Politics). This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process.
Students should apply by 10am UK time on Friday 26 September 2025. Offers will be made after 10am on this date and will continue until all places are filled.
Priority is given to home department students and then to those who have the course listed in their programme regulations who apply in the first 24-hours (by 10:00am, Friday 26 September 2025), space permitting. Please note the timing of your request within the first 24-hours will not impact chances of being accepted onto the course. Requests received after this timeframe, or outside option requests, will be allocated randomly if space remains.
Please do not email the Course Convenor with personal expressions of interest as these are not required and do not influence who is offered a place. Contact gender@lse.ac.uk with any queries.
Requisites
Mutually exclusive courses:
This course cannot be taken with GI422 at any time on the same degree programme.
Course content
‘Sexuality, Gender and Culture' introduces students to historical and theoretical components of the field, and explores case studies of the development of sexual cultures, identities and social movements from the late 19th century to the present. The course provides theoretical foundations in sexuality studies, incorporating intersectional, black feminist, postcolonial, queer, trans*, and social justice perspectives. Indicative topics include: colonialism and sexuality, sexualisation of culture, sexuality and political economy, pleasure and danger; pornography and sale of sex debates; LGBT emergence (these vary due to teaching team). It cuts across theory and social movements and requires students consider a reflexive approach to their own interests and perspectives. The course is interdisciplinary and demands a high level of student participation, but does not require a background in the field. It is also available as a first half of a full unit 'Transnational Sexual Politics’ (GI422), though with different forms of assessment.
Teaching
15 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the Autumn Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.
This course is taught alongside students from GI422.
Formative assessment
One 1500 word critical analysis to be submitted during AT.
Indicative reading
Alexander, Jacqui (1994) 'Not Just (Any) Body Can Be a Citizen: The Politics of Law, Sexuality and Postcoloniality in Trinidad and Tobago and the Bahamas', Feminist Review 48: 5-23.
Arondekar, A. and Patel, G. (2016) Area Impossible: Notes Toward an Introduction’, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 22 (2): 151–71
Balani, Sita. 2023. Deadly and Slick: Sexual Modernity and the Making of Race. London: Verso
Butler, Judith. 2002. “Is Kinship Always Already Heterosexual?,” Differences: a Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 13(1): 14-44
Eng, David L. and Puar, Jasbir, (2020). ‘Introduction Left of Queer’. Social Text 145, Vol. 38, No. 4 , 1-23
Foucault, Michel. 1978. History of Sexuality, Vol I: An Introduction. New York: Pantheon.
Hemmings, Clare. 2014. “Introduction: Sexuality,” in The Handbook of Feminist Theory, edited by Evans et al. London: Sage, pp. 267-74
McClintock, Anne. 1995. Imperial Leather: Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Context. New York: Routledge.
Showden, Carisa. 2012. “Theorising Maybe: A Feminist/Queer Theory Convergence,” Feminist Theory 13(1): 3-25
Stryker, S. and Bettcher, T.M. (eds) 2016. ‘Trans/Feminisms’, Special Issue of TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, 3(1-2).
Lorde, Audre. (1978) 1993. “The Uses of the Erotic: the Erotic as Power,” in The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader, edited by Abelove and Halperin. London: Routledge. pp. 339-343.
Assessment
Essay (100%, 3000 words)
Key facts
Department: Gender Studies
Course Study Period: Autumn Term
Unit value: Half unit
FHEQ Level: Level 7
CEFR Level: Null
Total students 2024/25: 15
Average class size 2024/25: 15
Controlled access 2024/25: YesCourse 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
- Leadership
- Self-management
- Team working
- Problem solving
- Application of information skills
- Communication
- Specialist skills