This course explores Jewish understandings and practices of sexuality and sex/gender from antiquity to the present. We will consider how different concepts of gender – masculine, feminine, nonbinary, queer, and more – interacted with sexual practices and ideas in a variety of religious, social, and political contexts. And we’ll not only trace shifting notions of sexuality and gender but also examine how these notions shored up differing ways of being and doing Jewishness.

We will study ancient and medieval traditions (Bible, Talmud, Kabbalah) and their transformations in early modern Jewish communities through contemporary Jewish movements, medieval Jewish practices and imaginaries in Christian and Islamicate worlds, and the complexities of modern Jewish formations in the US and Israel/Palestine, and the present. Our source materials will range across the ritual, legal, ethical, and visual-material, from the philosophical to the everyday. A recurring difficulty we’ll have to grapple with is how we can study cultures in different times and places using present-day categories and identities (e.g. heterosexuality and LGBTQ history). We will try to approach this problem through creative projects and experimental writing. Those interested in the study of religion, sexuality, gender, and history and who enjoy reading and talking about these topics are encouraged to sign up!

Intended Audience:

This course would appeal to students who are interested in the study of religion, sexuality, gender, and history.