How do physical bodies influence the ways we perceive, understand, and engage with the world? How are bodies utilised to represent and experience our own and others' gender and/or sexuality? How do these factors change how we are perceived, understood, and treated within society? Everyone has a meaty, fleshy, breathing body; so everything we experience is by definition embodied. Yet bodies and gender are socially constructed and embodiment is a contested term. Embodiment can describe how we represent ourselves at an individual or societal level: through the clothes we wear; whether we have tattoos; the way we use makeup; or how we 'discipline’ ourselves through diet and exercise. Embodiment also describes a process of becoming and state of being more self-aware and conscious of the feelings, sensations, perceptions, judgements, and emotions that arise from, within, and about our bodies. This module will introduce you to ways in which bodies can be researched and become tools for research. We will learn how bodies are a means of developing awareness and reflexivity. We will explore topics such as: hierarchies of oppression; gendered constructions of identity and sexuality; moving bodies; dis-abled bodies; and how certain bodies feel they do or do not belong.
Lecture 16
Studio workshop (1 hour session in a studio space) 8
Seminar 8
Reflective essay (500 words) Worth 20% of the total marks for the module
Embodied response to literature/scholarship (1000 words) Worth 30% of the total marks for the module
2500 words Essay (2500 words) Worth 50% of the total marks for the module.
Reassessment Method: Single instrument100% written assessment (3,500 words)
For reading lists see the detailed module information on moodle
On successfully completing the module, students will be able to:
1) Critically analyse how bodies can be researched or used as a tool for research
2) Use a sociological lens to critically evaluate and analyse how bodies can be used to represent gender and identity in society
3) Reflect on and analyse their own experiences of their moving body and how it has shaped their identity and experiences of gender in society
4) Critically engage with scholarship and literature on gender, bodies, and embodiment within society from a range of international sociological perspectives
5) Communicate results academically, with well structured, coherent arguments supported by evidence and autoethnographic data.
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