The Future of Sex and Gender

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2010:

For the purposes of considering requests for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements of this entry.

The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website : http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

How is the future of sex and gender imagined in the world today? Indeed do these concepts have a future? Can they adequately capture the breadth, range and fluidity of contemporary and global "sexed and gendered" lives? Key themes will include: the increasing instability of the concepts of sex and gender and their transformations. gender fluidity in the face of persisting gender inequality. gender v lived bodies. imagined futures of everyday gender practices. the future of sexualities. and the transcendence of the body, including cyberspace, cybersex the techno world of games and second life. These themes will be explored in a global and cross-cultural context.

Students who successfully complete this subject will:

• have a sound understanding of the main developments in feminist thinking about the past and future of gender inequalities, developments around the concepts of sex and gender(s), and the intersections of gender, "race", ethnicity and class.
• have an awareness of the main developments in feminist thinking about the persistence of gender inequality and the place of gender within emerging social transformations globally
• have an understanding of feminist thinking about the emergence of radically new forms of gender, embodiment and being human, with emphasis on the interfaces between the biological and the social.
• have a sound understanding of the main frameworks for analysing the status, usefulness and future of the concepts of "sex" and gender" in a globalising world, with a particular focus on cross-cultural comparisons of such framework

A reader will be available in the university bookshop.

This subject potentially can be taken as a breadth subject component for the following courses:

• Bachelor of Biomedicine
• Bachelor of Commerce
• Bachelor of Environments
• Bachelor of Music
• Bachelor of Science
• Bachelor of Engineering

You should visit learn more about breadth subjects and read the breadth requirements for your degree, and should discuss your choice with your student adviser, before deciding on your subjects.

Students who successfully complete this subject will:

• demonstrate research skills through competent use of the library and other information sources.
• show critical thinking and analysis and ability to communicate knowledge intelligibly and economically through recommended reading, essay writing and tutorial discussion, and by determining the strength of an argument.
• demonstrate understanding of social, ethical and cultural context through the contextualisation of judgements, developing a critical self-awareness, being open to new ideas and possibilities and by constructing an argument.