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Women, Queer and Trans* of Color Genealogies: Theories,

Practices and Community Research

Instructor: Ren-yo Hwang Office: INTN 4033

Course Website: ilearn.ucr.edu Office Hours: Mon & Wed (3-5 pm) and by appointment

Email: read.ren.write@gmail.com

“Born in Space”, collage acrylic portrait on canvas Jennicet Gutiérrez, mixed media portrait JC Honey Campbell from “Born in Flames” Series: “No Pride for Some of Us Without Artist: Adee Roberson Liberation for All of Us", Artist: Micah Bizant Women and Gender Studies (Introductory Course: requires Introduction to Gender Studies or Queer Studies, or permission from instructor) Course Description: Women/Queer/Trans* of Color Genealogies (WQToC, respectively: WoC, QoC, ToC) focuses on the knowledge and cultural production produced by communities multiply marginalized by categories of race, gender, sexuality, class, ability, citizenship and location. We will explore the overlaps and tensions between and internal to “women of color”, “queer of color” and “trans* of color” communities through nontraditional multimedia archives of affect, grief, desire, loss, belonging/unbelonging, performativity, love, liberation, contradictions and identitarian politics. The course is not intended to give any complete archive of such genealogies, rather, it will be an exploration of how such counter genealogies provoke other-worldly analyses and ways of relating to power, feeling, futurity and memory/memorialization. This syllabus provides a curated selection of works, and is not a survey of all WQToC works, rather this course

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is intending to provoke critical dialogue with these select texts in order to build a framework for further investigation for upper-division courses in the program of Gender and Women’s Studies. The course is divided in three parts. Week 1-7 will be dedicated to reading and forming critical questions and discussion from women/queer/trans of color visual texts, theories, practices, genealogies and films. Week 7-13 will look at collaborative research projects led by women/queer of color organizations that involved academic and/or community-based research that centered other models of knowledge production, place-making and priorities, whilst producing research legible to multiple audiences inside and outside of the formal university. Finally, in week 14-15, will offer a social justice lab for your final research project. We will partake in small group exercises to practice techniques in oral history, testimonials (written, poetic, journaling and conversational), digital storytelling and other collaborative ethnographic tools. COURSE OBJECTIVES - Develop and practice critical thinking skills together. - Learn critically engagement and close reading of a variety of texts (written and filmic). - Grasp a foundation of key themes, texts and theories in women/queer/trans of color studies. - Be ready to pursue more advanced courses and readings in race, gender, sexuality and ability. - Practice collaborative learning and teaching with one another. - Learn basic skills for community-engaged oral history, community participatory action research and methods. - Partake in a successful team-based collaborative project. COURSE OUTLINE

WEEK ONE: INTRODUCTIONS & TEAM BUILDING

Part One: Introduction, Ice Breakers/Team Building, Review Syllabus, Short Reading Note Praxis, excerpts from Barbara Christian, “The Race for Theory,” Cultural Critique 6 (Spring 1987): 51-63. Access online through JSTOR.

Part Two: Discussion of Oral History Community-Collaboration Project, Assign Small Team Groups, excerpts from Lorde, Audre. 1984. Sister Outsider: Essays & Speeches.

WEEK TWO & THREE: WOMEN OF COLOR FEMINISMS

1) Lorde, Audre. 1984. Sister Outsider: Essays & Speeches. Berkeley, CA: Crossing Press, 2007 edition (continued) 2) Moraga, Cherríe, and Gloria Anzaldúa, eds. This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. SUNY Press, 2015. 3) Mohanty, Chandra and M. Jacqui Alexander ed. Feminist Genealogies, Colonial Legacies, Democratic Futures. New York: Routledge (Selections) Optional Readings: 1. bell hooks: Feminism is for Everybody. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2000. (Selections)

FILMS TO BE SCREENED: The Edge of Each Other's Battles The Vision of Audre Lorde (2002) A Place of Rage (Pratibha Parmar, 1991), Born Into Flames (Lizzie Borden, 1983)

WEEK FOUR & FIVE: BLACK FEMINIST THOUGHT AND PRAXIS

1) Davis, Angela Y. Women, Race and Class, New York, NY: Random House, 1981. (Selections) 2) Collins, Patricia Hill. Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of

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empowerment. Routledge, 1990. (Selections) 4) hooks, bell. Ain't I a woman: Black women and feminism. Boston, MA: South End Press, 1981 5) Beale, Frances. "Double jeopardy: To be black and female." The black woman: An anthology (1970). 6) Combahee River Collective. “Why Did They Die? A Document of Black Feminism.” Radical America 13.6 (1979): 41-50 OPTIONAL ARTICLES: 1) Beverly Guy-Sheftall, ed., Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought, 2) Combahee River Collective. “A Black Feminist Statement.” Words of Fire: An Anthology of African- American Feminist Thought. Ed. Beverly Guy-Sheftall. New York, NY: New Press, 1995. 3) Snorton, C. Riley. “Transfiguring Masculinities in Black Women’s Studies | The Feminist Wire” FILMS TO BE SCREENED: Pariah (Dee Rees, 2011), Free Angela (Shola Lynch, 2012), Conversation with bell hooks, Shola Lynch and Janet Mock: Are You Still a Slave? Liberating the Black Female Body Eugene Lang College, May 6 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJk0hNROvzs (excerpts) WEEK SIX & SEVEN: QUEERING FEMINISMS, QUEER OF COLOR CRITIQUE

1) E. Patrick Johnson, “‘Quare’ Studies, or (Almost) Everything I Know About Queer Studies I Learned from My Grandmother,” Text and Performance Quarterly Vol. 21 Issue 1(January 2001), 1-25. 2) Urvashi Vaid, Irresistible Revolution: Confronting Race, Class and the Assumptions of LGBT Politics (Magnus Books, 2012). 3) Jose Esteban Muñoz, Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999. Introduction 4) Gayatri Gopinath, Impossible Desires: Queer Diasporas and South Asian Public Cultures (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005. Selections. 5) Daniel Heath Justice, Mark Rifkin, and Bethany Schneider, eds. GLQ: Sexuality, Nationality, Indigeneity, Volume 16, Number 1-2, 2010. Selections.

FILMS TO BE SCREENED: Tongues United (Marlon Riggs, 1989), Paris is Burning (Jennie Livingston, 1990), Full Body Quotation (short performance piece film, Wu Tsang, 2011)

WEEKS EIGHT & NINE: QUEER OF COLOR ACTIVISM & THE RESISTANCE TO HOMONATIONALISM

1) Reagon, Bernice Johnson. "Coalition Politics: Turning the Century", West Coast Women’s Music Festival, Yosemite National Forest, CA (1981), in Home Girls: Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, Kitchen Table Women of Color Press; Rutgers University Press (1983), 2000. 2)Cohen, Cathy J. “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics?” GLQ 3 (1997): 437–65 3) Rivera, Sylvia. "Queens In Exile, The Forgotten Ones," GenderQueer: Voices From Beyond the Sexual Binary, Joan Nestle, Clare Howell & Riki Wilchins, eds. New York: Alyson Books, 2002, 67–85. 4) Hanhardt, C. B. "Butterflies, Whistles, and Fists: Gay Safe Streets Patrols and the New Gay Ghetto, 1976-1981." Radical History Review 2008.100 (2008): 61-85. 5) Farrow, Kenyon. “Is Gay Marriage Anti-Black?”. Against Equality: Queer Critiques of Same-Sex Marriage. AK Press. 2010 6) Dulani, Jai, Ching-In Chen and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, eds. The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities. Brooklyn: South End Press, 2011.

FILMS TO BE SCREENED: No! The Rape Documentary (Aishah Shahidah Simmons, 2006), Chocolate Babies (Stephen Winter, 1997), Wildness (Wu Tsang, 2012),

Recommended Readings: Crunk Feminist Collective. December 2012. “(Un)Clutching My Mother’s Pearls, or Ratchetness and the Residue of Respectability.”

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Alexis Pauline Gumbs “Feminist Archives: Seek the Roots: An Immersive and Interactive Archive of Black Feminist Practice.” In Feminist Collections” WEEK TEN & ELEVEN: TRANS POLITICS AND TRANS OF COLOR PRAXIS

1) Select Keywords in: TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, Volume 1, N. 1–2. Duke University Press 2) Koyama, Emi. The Transfeminist Manifesto. Catching a Wave: Reclaiming Feminism for the Twenty-First Century, Boston, MA: Northwestern University Press, 2003 _____. "Whose feminism is it anyway? The unspoken racism of the trans inclusion debate." in Stryker S, Whittle S, eds. The Transgender Studies Reader. New York: Routledge, 2006. 3) Ida Hammer and Reina Gosset, “Holding the Pattern While Living Our Truth: Ida Hammer Speaking on Violence Against Trans Women, as told to Reina Gossett” in Queering Sexual Violence (2016) 4) Haritaworn, Jin. Queer Lovers, Hateful Others: Regenerating Violent Times and Places (Selections) 5) Spade, Dean. Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics … (Selections) 6) Mock, Janet. Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More, Atria Books, 2014. (Selections)

FILMS TO BE SCREENED: MAJOR! (Annalise Ophenlian, 2016), Pay it No Mind: Marsha P. Johnson (Michael Kasino, 2012), FREE CECE! (Jaqueline Gares and Laverne Cox, 2016), Happy Birthday, Marsha! (trailer, Sasha Wortzel & Reina Gossett, 2016), Transgender Tuesdays: A Clinic in the Tenderloin (doc, 2012)

WEEK TWELVE & THIRTEEN: PRAXIS AND RESEARCH 1) Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples, selections. 2) Ed. Andrew Jolivette. Research Justice: Methodologies for Social Change. (Selections). 3) Nyden, Philip and Wim Wiewel, “Collaborative Research: Harnessing the Tensions Between Researcher and Practitioner,” The American Sociologist, Winter, 1992. 43-55. 4) Cancian, Francesca, M. “Conflicts Between Activist Research and Academic Success: Participatory Research and Alternative Strategies,” The American Sociologist, Spring 19

In Class Social Justice Lab: (reviewing)

Young Women’s Empowerment Project (YWEP) reports: 1) https://ywepchicago.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/bad-encounter-line-report-20121.pdf 2) https://ywepchicago.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/girls-do-what-they-have-to-do-to-survive-a-study-of-resilience-and-resistance.pdf

Street Wise And Safe (SAS) and Global Action Project (GAP) 1) http://streetwiseandsafe.org/wpcontent/uploads/2015/09/curriculum_getyrrights_toolkit_FINAL_2015-06-17.pdf 2) http://streetwiseandsafe.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SERVE.pdf 3) http://streetwiseandsafe.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Surviving-the-Streets-of-New-York.pdf

Trans Latin@ Coalition: http://www.translatinacoalition.org/#!product/prd13/3650951011/transvisible-report

FILMS TO BE SCREENED: http://streetwiseandsafe.org/resource/the-real-t-this-is-my-truth/ (2015) “I Use My Love to Guide Me”: Surviving and Thriving in the Face of Impossible Situations: A conversation with CeCe McDonald, Reina Gossett, and Dean Spade (Excerpt, Vimeo, 2014), Transvisible: The Bamby Salcedo Story (Dante Alencastre, 2014).

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DataCenter: 1) http://www.datacenter.org/what-we-do/research-justice/ 2) http://www.datacenter.org/research-tools/research/

WEEK FOURTEEN & FIFTEEN: SOCIAL JUSTICE LAB CONTINUED- FINAL PROJECT WORKING GROUPS & PRESENTATIONS

COURSE POLICIES Grading: Each of your written works will be graded on your progress in substantiating the arguments of the authors work, individually and together, and linking it to your own critical thought on the readings to the themes of the course. Using selected evidence directly from the text, the goal is to sharpen the skills and interests in which you will address, with clarity and conciseness, what each reading contributes.

Breakdown for grading:

Participation/Attendance: 10% Weekly Reading Notes: 20% Short Response Papers: 25% Group Project: 15% Final Paper (10-12 pgs): 30% Total: 100%

Attendance and Participation: Attendance is required. Much of this class learning experience will be learned through your presence, contributions and shared analysis. You may miss up to two classes. However, if you plan to miss more than two classes, your participation grade will be in jeopardy. The 10% for participation is awarded not just for showing up, but for making contributions in some way to class discussion. If you miss four classes, you will lose all participation and will receive an alternative make-up assignments. Absences beyond four classes are subject to failing the course. It is expected for students to come to class prepared and ready for discussion, with reading available as well as reading notes out to be discussed. Family and medical emergencies are excusable with documentation, however work is still due on time, unless discussed otherwise.

Work Format: All written work must be typed, double-spaced, and use a 12-point font and standard margins. All papers must have your full name (preferred or given), the date, the assignment number and/or title in the top header or a cover page. Please staple all work over 1-page in length.

Email Policies: I will check emails before 6pm and will respond to emails the best I can within 24hrs on weekdays. Additionally, if you would like an answer same day, please send it to me before 5pm, if not, I will do my best to reply to you the following morning. You may email me if you have any questions about the readings, assignments, or course itself. If your question requires a discussion, I would recommend attending office hours or scheduling an appointment. PLEASE title your email with the following subject heading: WGS200: (Name, Concern)

No late work will be accepted. If you are to be absent, to avoid receiving deductions on your work due, particularly your reading notes and responses, they will need to be submitted to me by email prior to class at read.ren.write@gmail.com

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

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1) Critical Reading Response Papers (25% of total grade, Each 5%)– Five 2-page reading response papers will be submitted at the beginning of sessions in weeks 2,5,8,11,14. Consider these papers incremental midterms and final paper. The idea of these short papers are to practice critical thinking through reproducing and assembling each authors argument in your own words. This should not be a simple summary of the readings, rather we will learn to how to write as a mode of critical engagement with the arguments, theories, concepts and ideas of each reading and select visual media pieces. We will distinguish together how women of color and queer of color theories and contributions offer alternative archives and ways of knowing and unknowing that center affect, desire, grief, love, movement, performance. We will also look to how this might inform methods and methodologies of self-determined community practices, research, engagement and cultural production. 2) Weekly Reading Notes (20% of total grade, Each 3%) – Every week you will be asked to submit a copy of your reading notes. These notes will prepare you for completing your critical reading response papers. Your notes should consist of at least three pertinent questions about the larger argument of each reading, and one to two questions that narrowly specify something challenging for you in the reading. The idea of the reading notes is to allow you space and time to ask questions, both the provoking and mundane. These questions need not be profound or ground-breaking, rather, it’s an exercise in developing a dialogue with the reading as a critical thinker. You will be asked to thematically categorize your questions. We will practice this together with an in-class short reading on the first day of instruction. 3) Final Group Project – (15% of total grade) We will have the chance to collectively learn digital storytelling through collaborating with a Los Angeles or Long Beach-based queer/WoC organization in helping them document a project, program or history (TBD with consent and direction from organization). We will learn a few basics on oral history, interviewing, decolonial methodologies for community-based collaborations, and lastly basic skills on summary indexing and video editing (Final Cut Pro X). Break down of grading (10 points total):

Collaboration with Team (group evaluation) – 1pt Report of your contributions and process – 1pt Group Report (collaborative) – 3pt Final Project – 5pt

4) Final Paper – (30% of total grade) 10-12 page final paper. You may use parts of your reading responses (if they were accepted) to complete this. However, it is now your job to put together a final argument as to how your selected readings (minimum four major texts, and two articles) supported your understanding of a women/queer/trans of color practice, critique, analysis or genealogy. If you are seeking extra credit, if having missed three or more Reading Notes, or two or more Reading Responses, your final paper must be 15-pages. 5) Participation (10% total) Please reread “Course Policies” for more details.

GENERATIVE LEARNING SPACES

Classroom time is an opportunity to work out, struggle with and share complex ideas through writing, peer and group discussion. Please remember that together we can foster a space of respect whilst acknowledging our differences. We are learning together to engage one another in a respectful and compassionate manner. All students should be able to express their thoughts, opinions, and ideas without being shut down by one another. As part of a continual effort to improve our collective educative spaces, let us not presume anyone's abilities, circumstances, chosen name, gender, race, ethnicity, education, politics or point of view.

NEEDS- Do let me know if there are different abilities/access needs we can assist in accommodating