Contemporary Global Stages

Space is not given. It is made.

Queer Nightlife introduces students to the intersections of queer studies and performance studies by focusing on queer nightlife performances. Working across various geographies, we will explore various modes of performance such as drag, burlesque, DJing, and dance. Our explorations will lead us to visit nightlife in US urban spaces, South America, Kenya, Australia, France, India, and Bolivia. By examining queer nightlife in a global context, we will locate the various ways in which queer spaces are made and experienced along the lines of race, class, sexuality, gender, class, and ability.

While these performances function as sites of performance, community, labor, survival, resistance, joy, and desire, we will also interrogate how these performances are impacted by pressures applied by various state and cultural apparatuses (gentrification, surveillance, etc.). Over the course of the semester, students will learn about and engage with performance ethnography through original research, which will inform our course’s culminating project-- a collaboratively devised nightlife space.

Spring 2024 (2244)

THEA 0825-31167

Tuesday/Thursday
9:30 - 10:45 AM
CL 319

 

 

 

Number of Credits

3