Sex, Bodies, and Power

In our world, bodies and sexual acts have become linked to political power in terms of pleasure, reproduction, identity, and even basic bodily functions such as urination and defecation. How has something so basic as one's body become so closely associated with power? Sex, Bodies, and Power engages in an interdisciplinary examination of written and visual texts to examine the way bodies have been linked to sex and power. How do we understand our own bodies? How do we develop sexual fantasies, and how are those fantasies regulated by the state and other actors and institutions? Do bodies and sex become regulated differently depending on race, ethnicity, nationality, and gender? How does this change in different times and places? How is all of this altered by global pandemics, anti-racist movements, reproductive justice, and queer embodiment? What does it mean to engage in a historical analysis of these questions?