Course Catalogue

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This module examines how institutional, global, everyday and intimate spaces and places are inherently gendered and sexualised, and conversely how spaces and places gender, sexualise and sex identities and bodies. Students will be introduced to theoretical understandings of geographies of gender, sex and sexuality, and explore a range of perspectives and concepts that relate to gender, sex, sexualities and space and place. We will use a range of international case studies to illuminate the normative gendering and heterosexualisation of specific sites (ranging from the home to the nation state) and how gender and sexuality shape experiences of spaces, places and mobility at a variety of scales. This module will also examine how feminist and queer activists have contested or transgressed normative understandings of gendered/sexualised space and place.

2 hours per week over 5 weeks

Students should have completed Level 2 Geography at minimum of grade D3

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60% Exam, 40% short essay assignment

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. Where, exceptionally, reassessment on Honours courses is required to satisfy professional/accreditation requirements, only the overall course grade achieved at the first attempt will contribute to the Honours classification. For non-Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

■ To examine the role and importance of gender and sexuality as bases for inequality, and social stratification

■ To critically explore the ways in which gender and sexuality create and are created by spaces, places and environments.

■ To explore how gender and sexuality have been conceptualised in geographical studies - from the early emphasis on gender roles and binary understandings of sex and sexuality, through to more intersectional understandings of identity, subjectivity, and performance

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ Demonstrate a deeper understanding of the relation between gender, sexuality and space and how gender and sexual norms are spatially constructed.

■ Understand the origins and history of feminist and queer perspectives in human geography and appreciate the level of influence these have had on the discipline.

■ Critically assess how gender and sexuality intersect with other axes of difference to structure systems of advantage/disadvantage, e.g. race, social class, ability.

■ Identify and explain inequalities in gendered and sexed experiences of different geographical issues, e.g. work, reproduction and mobility.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.