1. To examine how gender, sexuality and the body have shaped and been shaped by a wide range of historical processes and events.
2. To think critically about how historians analyse gender, sexuality and the body.
3. To gain a familiarity with a variety of historical contexts.

(LO1) Students who take this module should develop a broad understanding of a variety of historical contexts.

(LO2) Students will be familiar with how to analyse gender and sexuality.

(LO3) Students will have the ability to work with primary sources.

(LO4) Students will gain ability to write detailed essays showing evidence of a deep understanding of the subject matter appropriate to study at the Masters level.

(S1) Improving learning performance.

(S2) Team-working, respect for others reasoned views, flexibility and adaptability.

(S3) Gathering, analysing and organising information.

(S4) Structure, coherence, clarity and fluency of written expression.

Topics may include:

Theorising gender, sex and the body: purity and pollution; the role of the subordination of women in constructing socio-political order, and the nature/role of sexual violence;

Defining norms: masculinity and femininity;

Defying norms: hermaphrodism, the ‘third sex’ (e.g. of hijras), transgender, etc;

The ‘invention’ of deviancy/new categories of being: the homosexual, the hysterical woman, feminism;

Childhood, age, and sexuality;

Sex, silence and taboos;

Intersectionality.

The majority of teaching will be delivered face-to-face on campus. Online delivery will be used to complement the on-campus delivery and where technology affords a better learning experience.

All members of the seminar are required to read in advance in order to facilitate general discussion. The discussion will revolve around set question(s) circulated in advance (in the module outline). Detailed feedback is provided by the module tutors on both written work and the oral presentation.

Students thus construct knowledge themselves and build independence as learners and researchers. The process of seminar discussions is collaborative and reflective, and students are required to reproduce this process outside of the classroom in their essay writing.