W5: Queered by the system

Week 5: Queered by the system
In week 5 we began our second unit exploring the central question of: How is innocence constructed? We began by looking at how groups of people are queered by the system in prison abolition contexts.

• Mini-Presentation: Kai Davis, “Homicidal Rainbow” (cw: violence, school shootings, anti-queer violence)
• Cathy Cohen, “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens”

• Erica R. Meiners, “The Trouble with the Child and the Carceral State” (cw: anti-Black violence, suicide, prisons)

• Sabina Vaught, “Structural Liberalism and Anti-Bullying Legislation” (cw: prisons, bullying)
• “Prisons Will Not Protect You,” Against Equality - pick 2 articles before page 215*
• Mia Mingus, “Still Choosing to Leap: Building Alternatives”
• Stay Solid, “Unschooling, deschooling”
• Stay Solid, Walia (cw: police violence)
• Optional:
• Critical Resistance, “Not So Common Language”
• Abolish Prisons, “Ahmed Mohamed and the School-To-Prison Pipeline” (cw: police violence, islamophobia)

In class:

• Watch: Joshua Allen, “A World Without Cages” (anti-Black, anti-trans violence)

Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1tkGVsA17Jkse2sRrnuAevtjygyVfoTNHdFKkVOqe7uo/edit?usp=sharing

W6: Children in cultural genocide, cultural revival

Week 6: Children in cultural genocide, cultural revival
This week we packed a lot in, taking time to look at language as a tool for cultural survival and the positioning of children in efforts for both cultural genocide by the US government and cultural revival by indigenous groups. Through their positioning we worked to understand the relationship between the Child and societal conceptualization of the future.

• Mini-Presentation: "Friends from the Other Side / Amigos del Otro Lado", Gloria Anzaldua
• Gloria Anzaldúa, "Chapter 5: How to Tame a Wild Tongue" from Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza

• Tohe, “No Parole Today” pgs 1-17 cw: violence, find on tisch website
• Waziyatawin, “What Does Justice Look Like” PDF pgs 19-32, book pages 37-62 cw: racism, genocide
• Stay Solid, "Alfred/Coulthard", pg 215-216
• Stay Solid, "Arcand", pg 223-224
• Stay Solid, "ILLOGIK/Testament", pg268-269
• Stay Solid, "Morin" pg283-284
• Pember, Standing Ground on NoDAPL: Oceti Sakowin School Educates Next Generation
• Dhillon, “Indigenous Youth Are Building a Climate Justice Movement by Targeting Colonialism”
• Watch: “Home to Me”
• For organization background: http://nwejinan.com/about/
• Optional:
• Kid-oriented resources, 10 Books About Residential Schools to Read With Your Kids
• Gloria, Chapter 7: "La conciencia de la mestiza" from Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza
• We Still Live Here, alternative link: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3h1myn

In class:

• Watch: Jess X. Snow, "Creature Impact"

Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12i8djALjqcYTw8BwZAVGmECbPomxb1NM52WwredPAuc/edit?usp=sharing 

W7: Protect the children

Week 7: Protect the children
In week 7 we explored "Protect the Child" rhetoric in relation to three specific historical contexts: the 'Save Our Children' campaign, AIDS and the Ryan White bill, and Palestine/US militaristic imperialism. During class students split into groups and then presented on their subtopic to the whole group.

• Mini-Presentation: Amahl Bishara, “The Aida Camp Alphabet”*
• All:
• Save Our Children
• McCreery, "Save Our Children/Let Us Marry" (cw: queerphobic rhetoric)
• Watch:
• Anita Bryant on Constitutional Revision No 2 (cw: queerphobia)
• Anita Bryant Confronted in 1977 (cw: queerphobia)
• Optional, but it’s funny: Squeeze a Fruit for Anita
• Ryan White CARE Act, Analysis
• Electronic Intifada, “Pinkwashing and the Gay International”
• Pick one topic:
• AIDS/Ryan White
• Donovan, "The Problem With Making AIDS Comfortable"
• Reagan’s AmFar Speech, on trunk or watch here: Reagan Speech Video
• AIDS timeline (notice where Reagan’s speech fits into this)
• Fatal Advice, “The Erotics of Innocence” thru pg 77 (cw: pedophilia, queerphobia)
• Watch: Michael Jackson, Gone Too Soon
• Palestine/US militaristic imperialism
• Against Equality*:
• Queer Eyes on What Prize
• Pictures at an Execution (cw: violence)
• Pick another article from “Don’t Ask to Fight Their Wars”
• Sarah Schulman, "Israel and Pinkwashing"


Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1PE30-kozmmN5cWKmjfSExNOpJPZDcJAKKGFo17ftll4/edit?usp=sharing

W8: Sexual innocence

Week 8: Sexual innocence
In Week 8 we explored the relationship between systems of oppression and child sexuality, bringing in the concepts of societal pedophilia, comprehensive sexuality education, age drag, and child sexual development.

• Mini-Presentation: Andrea Gibson, “Swingset”
• Mary Zaborskis, “Age Drag”
• Last two articles from Against Equality, “Prisons Will Not Protect You”* (cw: queerphobia, prisons, pedophilia)

• James R. Kincaid, “Producing Erotic Children,” from Curiouser (cw: pedophilia, child sexual assault)
• Burk, “Teaching Consent”
• De Melker, “The Case for Starting Sex Ed in Kindergarten”
• ACCM, “Inclusive Sex Ed Language Checklist”
• NSVRC, “An Overview of Healthy Childhood Sexual Development”
• NCTSN, “Sexual Development and Behavior in Children”
• Watch: Toddlers and Tiaras, “Precious Moments Pageants 2011”
• Watch: For Harriet, “How Dare You Call Blue Ivy Ugly” (cw: misogynoir)
• Optional: The Heart, “How to Become a Princess” (super highly recommended and pretty short!)
• Optional: Richard D. Mohr, “The Pedophilia of Everyday Life,” from Curiouser (cw: pedophilia)

Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/19aO6BTt5nfVAugCmfGRAlR4Wm5fEo1C1UODUpLJ-tDM/edit?usp=sharing

W9: Asexuality, deviance, violence in disabled/queer/kid space

Week 9: Asexuality, deviance, violence in disabled/queer/kid space
This week we were lucky enough to be joined via Skype by the incredible Cyree Jarelle Johnson, a New York writer and community worker to explore the connections between child sexual assault, disability justice and disabled experiences, and queerness. Check out Cyree's work at their website here: http://www.cyreejarellejohnson.com/

Week 9 also concluded our unit centered on the question How is Innocence Constructed?

• Eunjung Kim, “Asexuality in Disability Narratives” (cw: ableism)
• Mia Mingus, “Changing the Framework: Disability Justice”
• Stay Solid!, Mia Mingus, pg 207
• Stay Solid!, Hildebrant, pg292-293 (cw: fatphobia)
• Robert McRuer, “Compulsory Able-Bodiedness and Queer/Disabled Existence”
• Michel Desjardins, “The Sexualized Body of the Child” from Sex and Disability (cw: ableism, eugenics, compulsory sterilization)
• Meda Kahn, Strange Horizons “Difference of Opinion”
• Joe Kadi, “Making Sense of My Happy Childhood/Creating Theory,” from Thinking Class (cw: explicit descriptions of child sexual assault)
• Cyrée Jarelle Johnson, Social Silence and Child Sexual Abuse (cw: child sexual assault)
• Optional: Cyrée Jarelle Johnson, “Disease is Not a Metaphor” (cw: ableism)
• Optional: Alison Kafer, “Debating Feminist Futures” (cw: ableist, eugenicist, queerphobic rhetoric)
• Check out: Kids As Self Advocates

Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/18rZZ1o4HXy3lg-MLlvgjUmSgRAQ5dTZ26zfFir0vqro/edit?usp=sharing

Concept map created in class

W10: The closet and coming out

Week 10: The closet and coming out
Week 10 began our unit around the question: How do we understand queer experience? To start out we read Spit and Passion, a graphic memoir about the adolescence of a queer Cuban girl written by Cristy C. Road. Through this book and accompanying articles we talked about constructions and complications of coming out and the closet. To see more of Cristy C. Road's illustration work check out her website: http://croadcore.org/

• Cristy C Road, Spit and Passion (full book) (cw: queerphobia)

• Darnell Moore, “Coming Out or Inviting In?” (cw: mentions of racism, suicide)
• Stay Solid, "A letter to adults/a letter to teens," pg 24-25
• Optional: Marlon Ross, “Beyond the Closet as Raceless Paradigm”

Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1GlfUEghizzu1g24zW30ubAa4IDl9ZRagTKbzhQhygW4/edit?usp=sharing

images: Cristy C. Road, Next World Tarot

W11: Queer feelings

Week 11: Queer feelings
Queer feelings - how are feelings queer? How do mental health, happiness scripts, and suicidality connect to queerness and systems of oppression? What roles do community play? This week we were joined by Professor Kareem Kubchandani, a Tufts professor in the department of drama and dance who shared about his work on Southeast Asian queer drag experiences.

• Mini-Presentation: Sez Me, "L O L"
• Sara Ahmed, “Unhappy Queers” (cw: suicide, queerphobia)
• Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, “Suicidal Ideation 2.0” (cw: suicide)
• Beck Levy, “Suicide didn’t kill me but capitalism might” (cw: suicide, ableist, capitalist violence)
• Darnell Moore, “The Queer Shame and Shame Queered”
• Stay Solid! Reynolds, pg276
• Stay Solid, Murray, 77-78
• Stay Solid, Dewi Oka, 187 (cw: rape)
• Watch: Free to Be You and Me, “It’s Alright to Cry”