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240521 SE MM3 Capitalism and Sexuality (2026S)
Continuous assessment of course work
Labels
Participation at first session is obligatory!The lecturer can invite students to a grade-relevant discussion about partial achievements. Partial achievements that are obtained by fraud or plagiarized result in the non-evaluation of the course (entry 'X' in certificate). The plagiarism software 'Turnitin' will be used.
The use of AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT) for the attainment of partial achievements is only allowed if explicitly requested by the course instructor.
The use of AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT) for the attainment of partial achievements is only allowed if explicitly requested by the course instructor.
Registration/Deregistration
Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).
- Registration is open from Mo 02.02.2026 17:00 to Mo 23.02.2026 23:59
- Deregistration possible until Fr 27.03.2026 23:59
Details
max. 25 participants
Language: English
Lecturers
Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N
- Wednesday 25.03. 09:45 - 13:00 Seminarraum A, NIG 4. Stock
- Wednesday 15.04. 09:45 - 13:00 Seminarraum A, NIG 4. Stock
- Wednesday 22.04. 09:45 - 13:00 Seminarraum A, NIG 4. Stock
- Wednesday 06.05. 09:45 - 13:00 Übungsraum (A414) NIG 4. Stock
- Wednesday 20.05. 09:45 - 13:00 Seminarraum A, NIG 4. Stock
- Wednesday 03.06. 09:45 - 13:00 Seminarraum D, NIG 4. Stock
- Wednesday 17.06. 09:45 - 13:00 Seminarraum A, NIG 4. Stock
Information
Aims, contents and method of the course
Assessment and permitted materials
Active participation in the course – research exercises, group discussions, etc. (25%)
Presentations – present a text and observations from own research projects in class (25%)
Learning journal – four reflection essays of up to 500 words on learning (25%)
Short seminar paper (2.000 words) (25% of the performance assessment)Students are required to submit all partial assignments within the specified deadlines. All aids are permitted for the provision of all partial services that comply a) with the basic principles of good scientific practice, b) pass the plagiarism check, and c) comply with the AI guidelines of the department.
Presentations – present a text and observations from own research projects in class (25%)
Learning journal – four reflection essays of up to 500 words on learning (25%)
Short seminar paper (2.000 words) (25% of the performance assessment)Students are required to submit all partial assignments within the specified deadlines. All aids are permitted for the provision of all partial services that comply a) with the basic principles of good scientific practice, b) pass the plagiarism check, and c) comply with the AI guidelines of the department.
Minimum requirements and assessment criteria
Participation and preparation of classes is compulsory. A total of two classes may be missed and students who don’t attend the first class will be deregistered. Up to two replacement exercises can be taken to account for further missed classes.
All modalities of examination (active participation, presentations, learning journal, seminar paper) must be completed positively to pass the course.
Highest achievable score: 100 points; 0-60 points: Not sufficient; 61-70 points: Sufficient; 71-80 points: Satisfactory; 81-90 points: Good; 91-100 points: Very Good
All modalities of examination (active participation, presentations, learning journal, seminar paper) must be completed positively to pass the course.
Highest achievable score: 100 points; 0-60 points: Not sufficient; 61-70 points: Sufficient; 71-80 points: Satisfactory; 81-90 points: Good; 91-100 points: Very Good
Examination topics
Active participation in the course – research exercises, group discussions, etc. (25%)
Presentations – present a text and observations from own research projects in class (25%)
Learning journal – four reflection essays of up to 500 words on learning (25%)
Short seminar paper (2.000 words) (25% of the performance assessment)
Presentations – present a text and observations from own research projects in class (25%)
Learning journal – four reflection essays of up to 500 words on learning (25%)
Short seminar paper (2.000 words) (25% of the performance assessment)
Reading list
References
Binnie, Jon, and Christian Klesse. 2013. “The Politics of Age, Temporality and Intergenerationality in Transnational Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Activist Networks.” Sociology 47 (3): 580–95. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038512453792.
Bjork‐James, Sophie. 2020. “White Sexual Politics: The Patriarchal Family in White Nationalism and the Religious Right.” Transform Anthropol 28 (1): 58–73. https://doi.org/10.1111/traa.12167.
Boyce, Paul, Elisabeth L. Engebretsen, and Silvia Posocco. 2018. “Introduction: Anthropology’s Queer Sensibilities.” Sexualities 21 (5-6): 843–52. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460717706667.
Brim, Matt. 2020. Poor Queer Studies: Confronting Elitism in the University. Durham: Duke University Press.
Chalkidou, Aspa. 2022. “Vanilla Democracy: Sexuality, Parenthood, and Kinship in Greece.” Sexualities 25 (5-6): 563–80. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460720978611.
Cohen, Cathy J. 1997. “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics?” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian & Gay Studies 3: 437–65.
Curtis, Debra. 2004. “Commodities and Sexual Subjectivities: A Look at Capitalism and Its Desires.” Cultural Anthropology 19 (1): 95–121. https://doi.org/10.1525/can.2004.19.1.95.
Freeman, Carla. 2020. “Feeling Neoliberal.” Feminist Anthropology 1 (1): 71–88. https://doi.org/10.1002/fea2.12010.
Hennessy, Rosemary. 2013. Fires on the Border: The Passionate Politics of Labor Organizing on the Mexican Frontera. Minneapolis, London: Univ Of Minnesota Press.
Hong, Grace Kyungwon, and Roderick A. Ferguson. 2011. Strange Affinities: The Gender and Sexual Politics of Comparative Racialization. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Jackson, Stevi. 2011. “Heterosexual Hierarchies: A Commentary on Class and Sexuality.” Sexualities 14 (1): 12–20. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460710390572.
Jin Haritaworn, Adi Kuntsman, Silvia Posocco, ed. 2014. Queer Necropolitics. New York: Routledge.
Puar, Jasbir K. 2007. Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times. Durham, London: Duke University Press.
Puar, Jasbir K. 2013. “Rethinking Homonationalism.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 45 (2): 336–39.
Rao, Rahul. 2020. Out of Time: The Queer Politics of Postcoloniality. Oxford Studies in Gender and International Relations. New York: Oxford University Press.
Rexhepi, Piro. 2023. White Enclosures: Racial Capitalism & Coloniality Along the Balkan Route. Durham, London: Duke University Press.
Rubin, Gayle. 1984. “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality.” In Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality, edited by Carole S. Vance, 143–78. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Sampethai, Valentini. 2022. “Workers, Migrants, and Queers: The Political Economy of Community Among Illegalised Sex Workers in Athens.” Anti-Trafficking Review, no. 19: 28–46. https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.201222193.
Schnepf, Max. 2025. “Care, and the Less of It: Haunted Gestures and the Affective Economy of Pharmaceutical HIV Prevention.” Feminist Anthropology 6 (1): 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1002/fea2.70001.
Shahani, Nishant. 2021. Pink Revolutions: Globalization, Hindutva, and Queer Triangles in Contemporary India. ed. Critical Insurgencies Series. Chicago: Northwestern University Press.
Streinzer, Andreas, and Ryan Davey. 2024. “Queer-Marxian Modalities of Critique in Anthropology: Generations, Approaches, Ends.” Public Anthropologist 6 (Forum: Critical Ethnography): 156–63.
Visweswaran, Kamala. 1997. “Histories of Feminist Ethnography.” Annual Review of Anthropology 26: 591–621.
Weiss, Margot. “Techniques of Pleasure: BDSM and the Circuits of Sexuality.”.
Weiss, Margot. 2022. “Queer Theory from Elsewhere and the Im/Proper Objects of Queer Anthropology.” Feminist Anthropology 3 (2): 315–35. https://doi.org/10.1002/fea2.12084.
Binnie, Jon, and Christian Klesse. 2013. “The Politics of Age, Temporality and Intergenerationality in Transnational Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Activist Networks.” Sociology 47 (3): 580–95. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038512453792.
Bjork‐James, Sophie. 2020. “White Sexual Politics: The Patriarchal Family in White Nationalism and the Religious Right.” Transform Anthropol 28 (1): 58–73. https://doi.org/10.1111/traa.12167.
Boyce, Paul, Elisabeth L. Engebretsen, and Silvia Posocco. 2018. “Introduction: Anthropology’s Queer Sensibilities.” Sexualities 21 (5-6): 843–52. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460717706667.
Brim, Matt. 2020. Poor Queer Studies: Confronting Elitism in the University. Durham: Duke University Press.
Chalkidou, Aspa. 2022. “Vanilla Democracy: Sexuality, Parenthood, and Kinship in Greece.” Sexualities 25 (5-6): 563–80. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460720978611.
Cohen, Cathy J. 1997. “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics?” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian & Gay Studies 3: 437–65.
Curtis, Debra. 2004. “Commodities and Sexual Subjectivities: A Look at Capitalism and Its Desires.” Cultural Anthropology 19 (1): 95–121. https://doi.org/10.1525/can.2004.19.1.95.
Freeman, Carla. 2020. “Feeling Neoliberal.” Feminist Anthropology 1 (1): 71–88. https://doi.org/10.1002/fea2.12010.
Hennessy, Rosemary. 2013. Fires on the Border: The Passionate Politics of Labor Organizing on the Mexican Frontera. Minneapolis, London: Univ Of Minnesota Press.
Hong, Grace Kyungwon, and Roderick A. Ferguson. 2011. Strange Affinities: The Gender and Sexual Politics of Comparative Racialization. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Jackson, Stevi. 2011. “Heterosexual Hierarchies: A Commentary on Class and Sexuality.” Sexualities 14 (1): 12–20. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460710390572.
Jin Haritaworn, Adi Kuntsman, Silvia Posocco, ed. 2014. Queer Necropolitics. New York: Routledge.
Puar, Jasbir K. 2007. Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times. Durham, London: Duke University Press.
Puar, Jasbir K. 2013. “Rethinking Homonationalism.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 45 (2): 336–39.
Rao, Rahul. 2020. Out of Time: The Queer Politics of Postcoloniality. Oxford Studies in Gender and International Relations. New York: Oxford University Press.
Rexhepi, Piro. 2023. White Enclosures: Racial Capitalism & Coloniality Along the Balkan Route. Durham, London: Duke University Press.
Rubin, Gayle. 1984. “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality.” In Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality, edited by Carole S. Vance, 143–78. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Sampethai, Valentini. 2022. “Workers, Migrants, and Queers: The Political Economy of Community Among Illegalised Sex Workers in Athens.” Anti-Trafficking Review, no. 19: 28–46. https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.201222193.
Schnepf, Max. 2025. “Care, and the Less of It: Haunted Gestures and the Affective Economy of Pharmaceutical HIV Prevention.” Feminist Anthropology 6 (1): 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1002/fea2.70001.
Shahani, Nishant. 2021. Pink Revolutions: Globalization, Hindutva, and Queer Triangles in Contemporary India. ed. Critical Insurgencies Series. Chicago: Northwestern University Press.
Streinzer, Andreas, and Ryan Davey. 2024. “Queer-Marxian Modalities of Critique in Anthropology: Generations, Approaches, Ends.” Public Anthropologist 6 (Forum: Critical Ethnography): 156–63.
Visweswaran, Kamala. 1997. “Histories of Feminist Ethnography.” Annual Review of Anthropology 26: 591–621.
Weiss, Margot. “Techniques of Pleasure: BDSM and the Circuits of Sexuality.”.
Weiss, Margot. 2022. “Queer Theory from Elsewhere and the Im/Proper Objects of Queer Anthropology.” Feminist Anthropology 3 (2): 315–35. https://doi.org/10.1002/fea2.12084.
Association in the course directory
Last modified: Tu 03.03.2026 09:07
Themes: This course explores the intersections of capitalism and sexuality, revealing how intimate desires, gendered identities, and racialized bodies are shaped, exploited, and contested in economic systems, politics, and governance.
Central themes include
- sexual and emotional labor in service industries, intimate arrangements, and the commodification of bodies in platform economies from trad-wives to OnlyFans.
- sexualized bodies and the lifecourse, critiquing youthism, the medicalization of ageing and intersex/trans bodies, and what they reveal about the governance of populations.
- desire's entanglements with authoritarian neoliberalism and the complex coincidence of anti-gender and anti-trans mobilizations with homonationalism, racial capitalism, and militarism.
Moving beyond binaries of resistance versus dominance, we will trace complex entanglements of coercion, complicity, and compulsion with flourishing, joy, and abundance: resistance intertwined with social reproduction, coercion meeting pragmatic survival, and compulsion coexisting with forms of collective thriving amid late capitalism's constraints.
Methods: Reading contemporary literature, discussions, presentations, learning journals. Students can choose from the themes of the course and develop their own small research projects. The course employs a range of research exercises to develop the arts of noticing, observing, and analysing with an ethnographic orientation and social and cultural theory. In observation exercises, we will generate observations, fieldnotes, and ethnographic texts that engage clear analyses and complex arguments about the relationship between agency and structure, resistance and hegemony.