Pride Month: Course Syllabi Featuring UTP Titles

Pride Month

To celebrate Pride Month, we have developed a blog series with weekly posts, designed to allow UTP authors the opportunity to share with us what Pride means to them, and to discuss a whole manner of Pride-related topics.

This week we’re showcasing UTP books that have made their way onto recent course syllabi. Read on to see how our books are used in undergraduate classroom across North America.


Prairie Fairies: A History of Queer Communities and People in Western Canada, 1930-1985

Prairie Fairies draws upon a wealth of oral, archival, and cultural histories to recover the experiences of queer urban and rural people in the prairies. Focusing on five major urban centres (Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Regina, Edmonton, and Calgary), Prairie Fairies explores the regional experiences and activism of queer men and women by looking at the community centres, newsletters, magazines, and organizations that they created from 1930 to 1985.

  • Winner of the CHA 2019 Clio Prairies Book Award
  • Winner of the Jennifer Welsh Scholarly Writing Award (Saskatchewan Book Awards)

 

Course

Canadian Women’s and Gender History (HI 397), Wilfrid Laurier University, Brantford, ON

Professor Tarah Brookfield lists Prairie Fairies as one out of three options for a book review assignment.

“This course explores the history of Canadian women from the colonial period until the end of the twentieth century. It compares women’s diverse historic experiences in the workplace, family, community, and nation, and how women’s and men’s identities and paths were shaped by social constructions of gender, race, sexuality, and class. The course also considers how historians have developed the field of women’s and gender history and how this has reshaped understandings of Canadian history.”


Queering Urban Justice: Queer of Colour Formations in Toronto

Queering Urban Justice foregrounds visions of urban justice that are critical of racial and colonial capitalism, and asks: What would it mean to map space in ways that address very real histories of displacement and erasure? What would it mean to regard Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (QTBIPOC) as geographic subjects who model different ways of inhabiting and sharing space?

Course

Urban Politics (PO 412), John Carroll University, University Heights, OH

Professor Elizabeth A. Stiles recommends Queering Urban Justice to students in this course.

“Most Americans live in metropolitan areas—either in a city or in a suburb based in relation to a city. The city is often the background for the American dream as opportunities for social mobility and wealth are present there. It is also the site for some of our sharpest failures as a nation—rising inequality, urban riots, and environmental problems. In this course, we will begin with various theories and evidence about urban politics and their surrounding suburbs. We will then analyze links between urban institutions and national politics, as well as issues of race, class, health disparities, and environmental issues.”


Sex and the Weimar Republic: German Homosexual Emancipation and the Rise of the Nazis

Liberated, licentious, or merely liberal, the sexual freedoms of Germany’s Weimar Republic have become legendary. The home of the world’s first gay rights movement, the republic embodied a progressive, secular vision of sexual liberation. Sex and the Weimar Republic examines the rise of sexual tolerance through the debates which surrounded “immoral” sexuality: obscenity, male homosexuality, lesbianism, transgender identity, heterosexual promiscuity, and prostitution.

Course

Modern German History – The Weimar Years (HIST 196G), University of California, Santa Cruz, CA

Professor Edward Kehler teaches this course and each week students are asked to discuss a particular reading. In Week 7, students focus on Sex and the Weimar Republic.

“The class is designed as a small-group discussion course providing a broad overview of some of the major historiographical debates concerning the Weimar period. Through the readings we will analyze modern Germany’s experiment with democracy and its failure. Subjects of study will include the foundation and development of the Weimar Republic, the political and economic challenges it faced, and its ultimate collapse. Aspects of Weimar culture, including gender politics and homosexual emancipation, and the factors that enabled Adolf Hitler’s seizure of power will also be covered in depth.”


Consider adding these titles to your course syllabi:

VIVA M•A•C: AIDS, Fashion, and the Philanthropic Practices of M•A•C Cosmetics

The first cultural history of the iconic brand M·A·C Cosmetics, VIVA M·A·C charts the evolution of M·A·C’s revolutionary corporate philanthropy around HIV/AIDS awareness. Drawing upon exclusive interviews with M·A·C co-founder Frank Toskan, key journalists, and fashion insiders, Andrea Benoit tells the fascinating story of how M·A·C’s unique style of corporate social responsibility emerged from specific cultural practices, rather than being part of a strategic marketing plan.


Amplify: Graphic Narratives of Feminist Resistance

In this highly original text—a collaboration between a college professor, a playwright, and an artist—graphic storytelling offers an emotionally resonant way for readers to understand and engage with feminism and resistance.

“This is the book for you if you have ever struggled to reconcile the academic, artistic, and activist sides of yourself: it combines feminist analysis and history with compelling discussion questions and striking illustrations of recent political struggles. This is the book for you if you are ready to learn about social justice in a fresh way that engages multiple learning styles and modes of expression: lead a class or a discussion group by showing an image, posing a debate question, reading an excerpt, or pursuing one of the research activities provided. This is the rare book that treats its readers as equals by showing us all how we can join the conversation and take up the struggle.”

Lucas Crawford, Department of English, University of New Brunswick


Growing into Resilience: Sexual and Gender Minority Youth in Canada

Despite recent progress in civil rights for sexual and gender minorities (SGM), ensuring SGM youth experience fairness, justice, inclusion, safety, and security in their schools and communities remains an ongoing challenge. In Growing into Resilience, André P. Grace and Kristopher Wells investigate how teachers, healthcare workers, and other professionals can help SGM youth build the human and material assets that will empower them to be happy, healthy, and resilient.


Homophobia in the Hallways: Heterosexism and Transphobia in Canadian Catholic Schools

In Homophobia in the Hallways, Tonya D. Callaghan interrogates institutionalized homophobia and transphobia in the publicly-funded Catholic school systems of Ontario and Alberta. Featuring twenty interviews with students and teachers who have faced overt discrimination in Catholic schools, the book blends theoretical inquiry and real-world case study, making Callaghan’s study a unique insight into religiously-inspired heterosexism and genderism. She uncovers the causes and effects of the long-standing disconnect between Canadian Catholic schools and the Charter by comparing the treatment of and attitudes towards lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer teachers and students in these publicly-funded systems.


Pink Blood: Homophobic Violence in Canada

Pink Blood is the first book to analyze homophobic violence on a national scale. Douglas Victor Janoff uses social theory, legal analysis, descriptive case studies, and interviews with victims, activists, and police officers from thirty cities to convey the shattering impact this violence has had on queer Canadians and on the communities they inhabit.

Drawing from a wide range of scholarship—law, criminology, sociology, psychology, philosophy, and social work—Pink Blood is an important addition to the literature on queer life in Canada from a respected researcher and community activist.

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