This course is designed to introduce students to the intellectual frameworks that shape thoughts about gender and sexuality. The Netherlands, and especially Amsterdam, is a particularly appropriate location for such a course. The liberal atmosphere and the small scale of the city allow familiar perspectives to be challenged.
The study of sexuality and gender offers a fascinating cross-section of Amsterdam culture and this programme gives the participants ample opportunity to explore some specific aspects of Dutch culture. Students will be taught interview techniques and will have to present and write a paper on a topic related to the course.
The themes to be covered are: adolescent sexuality, sex education, transgender issues, sex work, the
Red Light District, trafficking and GLBT Amsterdam.
Prerequisites:
None
Attendance policy:
All students are required to attend all classes and students will automatically be downgraded for non- attendance. Class will meet once a week for 3 or 4 hours (depending weekly focus). Students are required to undertake a significant amount of independent work.
Students are also advised to attend any additional study trips which are arranged, to make comparisons with the class trips, and to make their own trips to additional sites.
Learning outcomes:
Students will have gained knowledge of concepts in sexuality and gender studies
Students will have gained knowledge of Amsterdam, Amsterdam sexual cultures and Dutch policies
Students will have learned basic interview techniques and gained insight in the sensitive aspects of sexuality research and how to conduct research in a safe and responsible manner
Students will have gained insight in their capacities of conducting sexuality research
Method of presentation:
Lectures, discussions and fieldstudy
LANGUAGE OF PRESENTATION:
English
Required work and form of assessment:
• Active class participation 20%
• Diary 15%
• Interview 30% (midterm evaluation)
• Final Paper & presentation 35%
content:
Part 1. INTRODUCTION
• Introduction to the programme, its participants and lecturers
• Lecture : Dutch Culture and Society
• Individual meetings
• Assignment: instructions to keeping a sexual diary
Required reading
• Chapter from the Lonely planet: Facts about Amsterdam
• Thomas R. Rochon, The Netherlands, Negotiating Sovereignty in an Interdependent World,
Boulder 1999. Pp 272-285
• Ulf Hannerz Cities as windows of the world, from Understanding Amsterdam, essays on economic vitality, city life and urban form, Het Spinhuis, 2000
Websites
• http://os.webtic.com/english/
• http://www.economist.com/countries/Netherlands
Part 2. INTRODUCTION INTO SEXUALITY AND GENDER
• Lecture: The meanings of sexuality and gender in a cultural, social and individual context
• Assignment: to write a narrative account of the diary
Required reading
• Jeffrey Weeks, Sexuality, Tavistock Publicatons, New York, 1986, Chapters 1-4
Part 3. LECTURE ON INTERVIEW TECHNIQUES
• Discussion of the narrative account of the diary
• Interview techniques (on sexuality or a sexual life history)
• Interview assignment (to be handed in/distributed before class 5)
Required reading
• Gilbert Herdt and Robert J. Stoller, 1990. Intimate Communications,: erotics and the study of culture. Preface and Chapter 1. Pp 1-50
• Elliot G. Mishler, Research Interviewing, Context and Narrative, 1991. Pp 1-60
Part 4. TRANSGENDER
• Visit to the Gender clinic at the Vrije Universiteit
• Cultural and biomedical views on transgender: What it is and what it is not?
• Explanation by Jos Megens on the clinic and the biomedical model; opportunity to have Q&A
session with two transsexuals/transgender people
Required reading
• Billings, Dwight B. and Urban, Thomas. 1996. The socio-medical construction of transsexualism: an interpretation and critique. In: Richard Etkins and Dave King, editors. Blending Genders. London: Routledge.
• Orobio de Castro, Ines Introduction pp 1-15 from Made to Order: Sex/Gender in a Transsexual
Perspective, 1993, Het Spinhuis
Part 5. REFLECTION ON THE VISIT TO THE GENDER CLINIC
• Reflection & discussion: Did the visit to the gender clinic change your view on transsexuality or transgender people?
• Lecture: Transgender and our understanding of gender
• Presentation & discussion: interview assignments (week 3)
Required reading
• David Valentine, Imagining Transgender: An Ethnography of a Category, Duke University Press, Durham, 2007, chapters 1 & 2.
Part 6. SEX EDUCATION IN THE NETHERLANDS
• Visit the Rutgers/Netherlands Institute for Social Sexoulogical Research (NISSO): tour of the NISSO library and lecture on sex education in Dutch schools and a review of the Dutch material that is used in sex education
• Assigmnent: to decide with instrudtors on final paper/research topic
Part 7. ADOLESCENT SEXUALITY, TEENAGE PREGNANCIES AND STDS IN THE NETHERLANDS
• Guest lecture: Presentation of the Dutch STD campaigns focused on adolescents
• To submit outline final paper (1 page)
Required reading
• Schalet, Amy T.- Raging Hormones, Regulated Love: Adolescent Sexuality and the Constitution of the Modern Individual in the United States and the Netherlands Body & Society, Vol. 6(l): 75-105
Part 8. SEX WORK
• Guest lecture: Petra Timmerman (International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in
Europe) on prostitution in the Netherlands
• Visit Prostitution Information Centre or tour of the red light district)
• Approval of first draft, keep reading and writing
Required reading
• Marjan Wijers & Margreet de Boer, Fact sheet trafficking and prostitution, Dutch CEDAW Network
& NJCM, 22 January 2007
Website
• http://www.nswp.org/
Part 9. THE CHANGING CITY, SEXUALITY AS A CONTESTED AREA
• Lecture
Changed policy, red light district, Islam, ethnic minorities and (im)migration
Required reading
• Ian Buruma, Murder in Amsterdam : Liberal Europe, Islam, and the Limits of Tolerence, Penguin, New York, 2007. 2 chapters.
• Chrisje Brants
• The Fine Art of Regulated Tolerance: Prostitution in Amsterdam, Journal of Law and Society, volume 25, number 4, December 1998, pp 621-35.
Part 10. QUEER ISSUES, PAST AND PRESENT
• Lecture: An historical overview of the relationship between Amsterdam and homosexuality: from the sodomy trials in the 17th century to gay marriage
• To submit fiorst draft of final paper
Required reading
• Theo van der Meer,“Tribades on Trial. Female same-sex offenders in late eighteenth century Amsterdam,” in John Fout (ed.), Forbidden History. The State, Society and the Regulation of Sexuality in Modern Europe, Chicago/London: The University of Chicago Press, 1992, pp. 189-210.
• Theo van der Meer, “The persecutions of sodomites in eighteenth century Amsterdam: changing perceptions of sodomy,” in Kent Gerard & Gert Hekma (eds.), The Pursuit of Sodomy. Male Homosexuality in Renaissance and Enlightenment Europe. New York & London: Haworth Press,
1988, pp. 245-285.
• Gert Hekma, Amsterdam, in David Higgs (ed.), Queer sitings. Gay urban cultures since 1600, London, Routldge, 1996, pp. 61-88.
Part 11. EXCURSION: GAY AMSTERDAM
• Tour of gay 'sites' (both historical and contemporary), visit Schorer stichting, (or Dutch Society
for the integration of Homosexuality, COC) and International Gay Lesbian Informatiion Centre and
Archives (IHLIA)
Required reading
• David Greenberg, The construction of modern homosexuality, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, London, 1989, chapers 7, 9.
Part 12. TUTORIALS
• Individual feedback on papers
Required reading
Part 13. REPRESENTATION AND GENDER
• Video and film session to compare and contrast different views in different media
Required reading
• Sexuality, Gender and Rights: Exploring Theory and Practice in South and Southeast Asia, ed G.
Mishra, R. Chandiramani, Sage publications India, 2005. Chapter 1 Looking in Horror and
Fascination, Shohini Gosh pp 29-46.
Part 14 FINAL PAPER PRESENTATIONS
Part 15: FINAL PAPER PRESENTATIONS AND CLOSING EXCURSION: GAY TOUR OF ARTIS
(AMSTERDAM ZOO)
Recommended readings:
• Richard Godbeer, Sexual revolution in Early America , The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2002.
• George Chauncey, Gay New York, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-
1940, Basic Books, 1995.
• Emma Donoghue, Passions between women. British lesbian culture 1668-1801, HarperCollins
Publishers, New York, 1995.
• David Valentine, Imagining Transgender: An Ethnography of a Category, Duke University Press, Durham, 2007, chapters 1 & 2.
Brief Biography of Instructor:
Theo van der Meer (1950) studied Dutch language and literature at the University of Amsterdam. In
1995 he got his PhD at the Faculty of Law of the Free University in Amsterdam. He has published three books on the history of homosexuality in Holland and many articles. One of his books was awarded a prestigious award of the Premium Erasmianum Foundation for exceptional studies in the humanities. He
received a two year postdoc research grant, affiliated to the University of Chicago and San Francisco
State University, from the Sexuality Fellowship Research Program of the Social Science Research Council. He has taught international classes at both the University of Amsterdam and San Francisco State University. Currently he is a researcher at the Meertens Institute for Ethnology in Amsterdam, writing
the biography of its founder, P.J. Meertens.
Mirjam Schieveld (1959) received her MA in anthropology from the University of Amsterdam. Her research interests are sex work, adolescent sexuality and addiction. She has been working with her mentors Han ten Brummelhuis and Gilbert Herdt on the conference Culture, Sexual Behavior, and AIDS. This cooperation led to the to founding of the Summer Institute on Sexuality, Culture and Society at the
International School for Humanities and Social Studies. She has been a faculty member as well as programme coordinator for the Summer Institute since its start. She currently develops new summer programmes for the International School for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
This course is designed to introduce students to the intellectual frameworks that shape thoughts about gender and sexuality. The Netherlands, and especially Amsterdam, is a particularly appropriate location for such a course. The liberal atmosphere and the small scale of the city allow familiar perspectives to be challenged.
The study of sexuality and gender offers a fascinating cross-section of Amsterdam culture and this programme gives the participants ample opportunity to explore some specific aspects of Dutch culture. Students will be taught interview techniques and will have to present and write a paper on a topic related to the course.
The themes to be covered are: adolescent sexuality, sex education, transgender issues, sex work, the
Red Light District, trafficking and GLBT Amsterdam.
None
All students are required to attend all classes and students will automatically be downgraded for non- attendance. Class will meet once a week for 3 or 4 hours (depending weekly focus). Students are required to undertake a significant amount of independent work.
Students are also advised to attend any additional study trips which are arranged, to make comparisons with the class trips, and to make their own trips to additional sites.
Lectures, discussions and fieldstudy
LANGUAGE OF PRESENTATION:
English
• Active class participation 20%
• Diary 15%
• Interview 30% (midterm evaluation)
• Final Paper & presentation 35%
Part 1. INTRODUCTION
• Introduction to the programme, its participants and lecturers
• Lecture : Dutch Culture and Society
• Individual meetings
• Assignment: instructions to keeping a sexual diary
Required reading
• Chapter from the Lonely planet: Facts about Amsterdam
• Thomas R. Rochon, The Netherlands, Negotiating Sovereignty in an Interdependent World,
Boulder 1999. Pp 272-285
• Ulf Hannerz Cities as windows of the world, from Understanding Amsterdam, essays on economic vitality, city life and urban form, Het Spinhuis, 2000
Websites
• http://os.webtic.com/english/
• http://www.economist.com/countries/Netherlands
Part 2. INTRODUCTION INTO SEXUALITY AND GENDER
• Lecture: The meanings of sexuality and gender in a cultural, social and individual context
• Assignment: to write a narrative account of the diary
Required reading
• Jeffrey Weeks, Sexuality, Tavistock Publicatons, New York, 1986, Chapters 1-4
Part 3. LECTURE ON INTERVIEW TECHNIQUES
• Discussion of the narrative account of the diary
• Interview techniques (on sexuality or a sexual life history)
• Interview assignment (to be handed in/distributed before class 5)
Required reading
• Gilbert Herdt and Robert J. Stoller, 1990. Intimate Communications,: erotics and the study of culture. Preface and Chapter 1. Pp 1-50
• Elliot G. Mishler, Research Interviewing, Context and Narrative, 1991. Pp 1-60
Part 4. TRANSGENDER
• Visit to the Gender clinic at the Vrije Universiteit
• Cultural and biomedical views on transgender: What it is and what it is not?
• Explanation by Jos Megens on the clinic and the biomedical model; opportunity to have Q&A
session with two transsexuals/transgender people
Required reading
• Billings, Dwight B. and Urban, Thomas. 1996. The socio-medical construction of transsexualism: an interpretation and critique. In: Richard Etkins and Dave King, editors. Blending Genders. London: Routledge.
• Orobio de Castro, Ines Introduction pp 1-15 from Made to Order: Sex/Gender in a Transsexual
Perspective, 1993, Het Spinhuis
Part 5. REFLECTION ON THE VISIT TO THE GENDER CLINIC
• Reflection & discussion: Did the visit to the gender clinic change your view on transsexuality or transgender people?
• Lecture: Transgender and our understanding of gender
• Presentation & discussion: interview assignments (week 3)
Required reading
• David Valentine, Imagining Transgender: An Ethnography of a Category, Duke University Press, Durham, 2007, chapters 1 & 2.
Part 6. SEX EDUCATION IN THE NETHERLANDS
• Visit the Rutgers/Netherlands Institute for Social Sexoulogical Research (NISSO): tour of the NISSO library and lecture on sex education in Dutch schools and a review of the Dutch material that is used in sex education
• Assigmnent: to decide with instrudtors on final paper/research topic
Required reading
• Rutgers Nisso Groep, the Dutch Expert Centre on Sexuality, Sex under 25. Summary Pp 187-199
Websites
• http://www.vrijlekker.nl
• http://www.rutgersnissogroep.nl/English
Part 7. ADOLESCENT SEXUALITY, TEENAGE PREGNANCIES AND STDS IN THE NETHERLANDS
• Guest lecture: Presentation of the Dutch STD campaigns focused on adolescents
• To submit outline final paper (1 page)
Required reading
• Schalet, Amy T.- Raging Hormones, Regulated Love: Adolescent Sexuality and the Constitution of the Modern Individual in the United States and the Netherlands Body & Society, Vol. 6(l): 75-105
Part 8. SEX WORK
• Guest lecture: Petra Timmerman (International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in
Europe) on prostitution in the Netherlands
• Visit Prostitution Information Centre or tour of the red light district)
• Approval of first draft, keep reading and writing
Required reading
• Marjan Wijers & Margreet de Boer, Fact sheet trafficking and prostitution, Dutch CEDAW Network
& NJCM, 22 January 2007
Website
• http://www.nswp.org/
Part 9. THE CHANGING CITY, SEXUALITY AS A CONTESTED AREA
• Lecture
Changed policy, red light district, Islam, ethnic minorities and (im)migration
Required reading
• Ian Buruma, Murder in Amsterdam : Liberal Europe, Islam, and the Limits of Tolerence, Penguin, New York, 2007. 2 chapters.
• Chrisje Brants
• The Fine Art of Regulated Tolerance: Prostitution in Amsterdam, Journal of Law and Society, volume 25, number 4, December 1998, pp 621-35.
Part 10. QUEER ISSUES, PAST AND PRESENT
• Lecture: An historical overview of the relationship between Amsterdam and homosexuality: from the sodomy trials in the 17th century to gay marriage
• To submit fiorst draft of final paper
Required reading
• Theo van der Meer,“Tribades on Trial. Female same-sex offenders in late eighteenth century Amsterdam,” in John Fout (ed.), Forbidden History. The State, Society and the Regulation of Sexuality in Modern Europe, Chicago/London: The University of Chicago Press, 1992, pp. 189-210.
• Theo van der Meer, “The persecutions of sodomites in eighteenth century Amsterdam: changing perceptions of sodomy,” in Kent Gerard & Gert Hekma (eds.), The Pursuit of Sodomy. Male Homosexuality in Renaissance and Enlightenment Europe. New York & London: Haworth Press,
1988, pp. 245-285.
• Gert Hekma, Amsterdam, in David Higgs (ed.), Queer sitings. Gay urban cultures since 1600, London, Routldge, 1996, pp. 61-88.
Part 11. EXCURSION: GAY AMSTERDAM
• Tour of gay 'sites' (both historical and contemporary), visit Schorer stichting, (or Dutch Society
for the integration of Homosexuality, COC) and International Gay Lesbian Informatiion Centre and
Archives (IHLIA)
Required reading
• David Greenberg, The construction of modern homosexuality, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, London, 1989, chapers 7, 9.
Part 12. TUTORIALS
• Individual feedback on papers
Required reading
Part 13. REPRESENTATION AND GENDER
• Video and film session to compare and contrast different views in different media
Required reading
• Sexuality, Gender and Rights: Exploring Theory and Practice in South and Southeast Asia, ed G.
Mishra, R. Chandiramani, Sage publications India, 2005. Chapter 1 Looking in Horror and
Fascination, Shohini Gosh pp 29-46.
Part 14 FINAL PAPER PRESENTATIONS
Part 15: FINAL PAPER PRESENTATIONS AND CLOSING EXCURSION: GAY TOUR OF ARTIS
(AMSTERDAM ZOO)
• Richard Godbeer, Sexual revolution in Early America , The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2002.
• George Chauncey, Gay New York, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-
1940, Basic Books, 1995.
• Emma Donoghue, Passions between women. British lesbian culture 1668-1801, HarperCollins
Publishers, New York, 1995.
• David Valentine, Imagining Transgender: An Ethnography of a Category, Duke University Press, Durham, 2007, chapters 1 & 2.
Theo van der Meer (1950) studied Dutch language and literature at the University of Amsterdam. In
1995 he got his PhD at the Faculty of Law of the Free University in Amsterdam. He has published three books on the history of homosexuality in Holland and many articles. One of his books was awarded a prestigious award of the Premium Erasmianum Foundation for exceptional studies in the humanities. He
received a two year postdoc research grant, affiliated to the University of Chicago and San Francisco
State University, from the Sexuality Fellowship Research Program of the Social Science Research Council. He has taught international classes at both the University of Amsterdam and San Francisco State University. Currently he is a researcher at the Meertens Institute for Ethnology in Amsterdam, writing
the biography of its founder, P.J. Meertens.
Mirjam Schieveld (1959) received her MA in anthropology from the University of Amsterdam. Her research interests are sex work, adolescent sexuality and addiction. She has been working with her mentors Han ten Brummelhuis and Gilbert Herdt on the conference Culture, Sexual Behavior, and AIDS. This cooperation led to the to founding of the Summer Institute on Sexuality, Culture and Society at the
International School for Humanities and Social Studies. She has been a faculty member as well as programme coordinator for the Summer Institute since its start. She currently develops new summer programmes for the International School for the Humanities and Social Sciences.