32601

SoSe 22: Reimagining and Reframing the Social World: (Queer)feminist Sociological Theories and Practices

Alexander Niessen

Kommentar

While sociology as a discipline is uniquely designed to analyze and represent a variety of forms of inequality, both theoretically and empirically, the underlying discourses and assumptions are often merely taken for granted. Moreover, the theoretical underpinnings of sociological research are often formulated from a dominant, hegemonic perspective, and critical theories are too often only read in their immediate historical contexts. This course serves to counteract this problematic phenomenon by targeting exactly those theoretical underpinnings by analyzing in depth feminist and queer theories of the social world. (Queer)feminist sociological theories not only question concrete social structures but they offer important formulations about the social world at-large. Whenever such theories are read, however, the reception too often scratches on the surface and uncritically integrates it into the discourses the theories originally sought to interrupt. We will read and dissect relevant works of sociological theory and research from and about the United States and develop strategies for analyzing these theories. The goal is to establish a coherent and critical narrative of the social world outside of hegemonic discourses, including an intersectional perspective of race, class, and gender. Understanding feminist and queer formulations of the social world will not only contextualize the gaps in classical sociological research and extend sociological framings, but also help us formulate critical and inclusive research questions in the future which deal with oppressive social structures without merely reproducing them. Schließen