Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies

A critical examination of the HIV/AIDS global pandemic from a multidisciplinary perspective and with an emphasis on sexuality. The course examines the basic biology of HIV/AIDS and then covers social, historical, political, cultural, gender, and public health aspects of HIV/AIDS. Attention is given to the distinct features of vulnerable and marginalized populations, prevention, treatment, drug development, and access to medicines.

JSU237H1 is particularly intended for students in the Health Studies and/or Sexual Diversity Studies programs.

An interdisciplinary examination of sexuality across cultures and periods. How are sexualities represented? How are they suppressed or celebrated? How and why are they labeled as straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, or perverse? How do sexualities change with ethnicity, class, and gender?

A cross-cultural perspective on the methodological and theoretical approaches used by social scientists to study human sexuality and gendered diversity.

An interdisciplinary examination of the development of political visibility by gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and the transgendered in the contemporary period; and an analysis of public policy on and state regulation of sexual diversity in Canada, the U.S., Europe, with additional attention paid to developments in Latin America, East Asia, and Africa. (Given by the Department of Political Science and the Sexual Diversity Studies Program)

This course focuses on Canadian literary and artistic productions that challenge prevailing notions of nationality and sexuality, exploring not only how artists struggle with that ongoing Canadian thematic of being and belonging, but also celebrate pleasure and desire as a way of imagining and articulating an alternative national politics.

HIV has forever changed the way human beings understand sexuality. Through a social justice lens, this course examines the nature of community norms, laws, popular media, and the academy to explore how the epidemic has impacted the provision of social services in relation to the diversity of human sexuality.

What do electronic technologies mean for feminist and queer identity, activism, sociability, art, and politics? This course considers a range of critical pressure points central to digital studies, including social networking, participatory media, digital archives, databases, new media activism, performance, embodiment, and representations of race, gender, and sexuality in electronic contexts.

This course offers a survey of some key texts and narratives that have traversed and structured Western conceptualizations of sexuality from Greek antiquity to the 19th century. We will examine a variety of literary, philosophical and medical sources in light of what they say about past conceptualizations of the body, desire and its pleasures, and we will ask how they resonate with, or radically differ from, our current understandings of bodily norms, passions and transgressions.

This course is a short critical survey of some of the ways in which sexuality has been theorized over the past fifty years, paying particular attention to the fruitful relays between cultural theory and political activism at large. Its aim is not to be exhaustive but to highlight some of the more challenging approaches to the study of bodies, desires and the environments they’re immersed in and with which the dynamically interact. We will examine how sexuality has been conceptualised, regulated and politically mobilized in recent years, specifically in North America.

The course explores the legal regulation of sexuality. How does law understand, constitute and regulate sex, sexuality and sexual diversity? It will consider the role of different types of regulation, including criminal law, family law and constitutional law, and explore issues ranging from sex work and pornography to same sex marriage to transgender discrimination.

Topics vary from year to year depending on instructor. This seminar is intended to expose students in the Sexual Diversity Studies program to topics that may not be covered by permanent university courses.

Topics vary from year to year depending on instructor. This seminar is intended to expose students in the Sexual Diversity Studies program to topics that may not be covered by permanent university courses.

This multidisciplinary course examines multiple lesbian identities that have varied in time and place. The course will pose such questions as: What does lesbian mean? Why have changes occurred in meaning? How has the identity of lesbian been culturally represented and politically expressed in various social and political contexts? It will also take up contemporary theoretical, cultural, and political understandings of lesbianism.

Experiences of queer youth are explored in various education settings through academic research, personal essays, and visual and performing arts to investigate how queer youth define themselves, what they are learning, the curriculum and pedagogy used in the learning process and the possibilities of said learning for social change, individual and community well-being.

Queer Pop Culture seeks to represent a diversity of approaches in queer popular cultures, exploring the ways in which LGBTQ subjectivities are represented in literature, film, and the media, as well as the ways in which sexual identity is inextricably bound up with other axes of identity.

An exploration of LGBTQ rights and changes in social and cultural responses to sexual diversity in varied regional, national, and cultural contexts, potentially including Africa, Latin America, South and East Asia, and Eastern Europe.  The role of transnational linkages and networks will also be considered in effecting change.

This course examines current and historical transgender issues by exploring legal and health care issues, politics, mainstream and other media representations (including films, interviews, and other genres), as well as current and historical advocacy and community work in relation to power structures such as the nation-state, race, disability, and sexuality.

This course provides an introduction to the intersections between race, gender and sexuality through an exploration of the political theories, activisms and cultural forms of LGBTQ people of colour. It examines the emergence of queer of colour theory and critiques, and the ways in which the intersections of race, gender and sexuality figure in national, global, economic, & cultural structures.

Explores the role of sports and wellness programs in promoting or impeding social inclusion, as well as their role in community building among sexual minorities. It will consider the ways that sexuality has been framed or regulated in sports, as well as the challenges to such limits from among athletes, LGBT activists, and others.

An interdisciplinary and intersectional approach to the study of disability and sexuality. Students will enage with historical, mainstream and critical discourses and explore complex issues and representations pertaining to disability, sexuality, sexual practices and desire. Draws from a range of writings and cultural texts in queer, crip and sexuality studies. 

Topics vary from year to year depending on instructor. This seminar is intended to expose students in the Sexual Diversity Studies program to topics that may not be covered by permanent university courses.

A research essay under the supervision of a faculty member with knowledge of sexual diversity, the proposal and supervisor subject to the approval of the SDS Program Director. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

A major research essay prepared over the course of two academic terms (one year); under the supervision of a faculty member with knowledge of sexual diversity; the proposal and supervisor subject to the approval of the SDS Program Director. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

A capstone for majors and specialists who will work closely with SDS faculty in developing their own research project while participating in this seminar and learning about key debates, methodologies, and ethical issues in conducting research in SDS. Students will learn to write proposals, ethics reviews, grants and other relevant documents. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

This course explores the history, culture, and aesthetics of sexual representations. Is there a difference between erotica and pornography? How do debates about artistic merit and censorship relate to larger issues of power, capitalism, and technology? How are sexual desires and identities increasingly shaped around those sexual representations?

This course critically examines the socio-political cultural context that has produced a new queer visibility. It assesses many of the post-Stonewall changes in the North American public sphere and the interelationship between the new queer visibility and the North American and public sphere.

This course introduces students to Trans Studies as an emerging interdisciplinary field of scholarship from various angles: academic, activist, socio-historical, and clinical. Students will develop their abilities to assess representations of trans and intersexed people and social issues, taking into account how race, citizenship, gender, sexuality, culture and dis/ability are materially and socially constructed together to give meaning to the category trans.

This course explores, through queer of colour critique, feminist and queer theories, how sexuality, gender, and race are performed and heard in several popular music styles/genres. Sampling the field with readings, music videos and audio recordings, we examine sexuality, gender and race in music performance and reception currently and historically.

A service learning course with student placements in various LGBT community organizations alongside regular classroom seminars to look at the politics of engagement, active citizenship, mobilization, archiving community histories, accessibility, belonging, activism, and philanthropy.