Courses:

In global media and activist discourses, culturally specific expressions of gender variance are often framed in tension with—or in service to—Western conceptions of LGBTQ+ identity. This course examines that ambivalent space, focusing on the fraught dynamics between global LGBTQ+ movements and localized modes of gender and sexual variance. How do transnational rights frameworks both enable and constrain? How do local communities navigate global categories that may not align with their cultural, political, or historical contexts? We begin by exploring foundational theories of coalition politics within the U.S. context, reading scholars such as Cathy Cohen and Dean Spade, to understand the complexities of alliance, resistance, and identity-based organizing. From there, we shift toward transnational and postcolonial feminist critiques (including Chandra Mohanty, Angela Davis, and Jasbir Puar) to examine how these coalitional frameworks extend, fracture, or reconfigure in international contexts.