| Course Title: Nature is Queer |
| Start Date: 09/04/2024 End Date: 12/17/2024 |
| Term: Fall Semester 2024 |
| Description: Queerness is all over the natural world. This class will highlight the diversity of sexual strategies in nature, and help dispel the notion that biology describes sex as binary or only heterosexual. In reality, biologists are well aware of the queerness of nature, but have struggled with how to study this sexual diversity and have often settled for convenient categories. Four billion years of evolution have produced myriads of sexual and reproductive strategies in diverse organisms: from the widespread occurrence of same sex sexual behavior, to sex change, multiplicity of mating types, male pregnancy, selfing, etc; Nature has done it all! Class discussion will require an open mind, and developing comfort around conversations related to sex, reproduction, and the sometimes disturbing history of science. Students will be expected to write several assignments for the general public. One such assignment requires students to dive deeply into the queerness of one organism of their choosing to produce a printed catalog page for public display. |
| Distribution(s): NO - Meets No Distrib. Rqmt , FY - First-Year Seminar , WI - Writing-Intensive |
| Academic Level Of Course: Undergraduate | Credits:4.00 |
| Faculty | Phone | Email address |
| Patricia Brennan | pbrennan@mtholyoke.edu |
| Meeting Dates | Method | Meeting days | Meeting times | Building name | Room | Frequency |
| 09/04/2024 - 12/17/2024 | Seminar | Tuesday and Thursday | 10:30AM - 11:45AM | CLAP - Clapp Laboratory | 203 | Weekly |
| Requisite Courses | ||
| None |
| Comments |
| Additional Comments |
| Course Tags | ||
| FYSEM0001 | First-Year Seminar | This is a First-Year Seminar. |
| Cross-listed Sections |
| None |
| Course Availability | ||||
| Section status: Closed | Capacity: 12 | Enrollment: 16 | Available: 0 | Waitlist: 0 |
BOOK INFORMATION
| Book List | Required | Publisher Full Price |
| Title: Queer ducks and other animals Author: Schrefer, Eliot Copyright: 2022 Edition: Volume: ISBN: 9780063069503 Publisher: Harper Collins |
Required | 12.95 |
| Additional Book Comments |
| This is the complete book list for this class. |
| Instructor's comments about the book list: Students can order from Amazon |