Sex and politics in a global perspective
In spring 2025, SKOK, LawTransform and Skeivforsk will organize a cross-disciplinary, combined master and PhD course about the dynamics between sex and politics in a global perspective.
Main content
We invite PhD and master students in Bergen to a cross-disciplinary course on dynamics between sex and politics in a global perspective.
The main focus will be on how LGBTQ issues are used for political purposes around the globe.
The course will run throughout the 2025 spring semester. There will be both regular lectures and a 3-day gathering in May (see dates under Course dates).
The regular lectures are public, but registration is required and attendance is mandatory for students interested in completing the course with credits.
See more information about course dates, registration, credits, and course organizers under the headings on red background (on your computer: to the right, on your mobile: below).
More information about the course content, literature, three-day gathering and essay:
About the course
Sexuality, LGBTQ issues in particular, have become a politically hot topic across the globe. Queer and trans rights and the LGBTQ movement are increasingly instrumentalized or co-opted towards various political ends. In this course, we are particularly interested in how the divisive "pink line", as South-African journalist and writer Mark Gevisser calls it, functions in different geographical and political contexts.
The "pink line" points to how queer and trans issues are being weaponized in the new cultural wars, dividing those clamping down on LGBT rights and freedoms on the one hand, and those accepting or even priding themselves on sexual and gender diversity on the other.
The "pink line" serves geopolitical purposes, as well as dividing domestic politics and polarizing public debates, often with devastating consequences for those at the receiving end of the cultural wars.
The course focuses mainly, but not exclusively, on dynamics of polarization and how queer and trans issues are used as pretext for violence, either by pursuing a strategy of homonationalism, pinkwashing and civilizing mission that sanitizes Islamophobia, or by accusing gender and sexual minorities and LGBT legislations for threatening the natural, national and civilizational order.
Either way, the "pink line" is part of bigger political projects, most often authoritarian projects of consolidating power. And in many cases, the aim is not merely to limit various minority peoples’ equal access to rights, but to dismantle or capture democratic institutions and set up new forms of authoritarian democracy – what Kim Scheppele aptly calls the "Frankenstate".
At the same time, there are modes of political activism and movements that keep focusing on radical-progressive coalition politics, politics of hope and politics of queer joy – indicative of the co-constitutive relationship between sex and politics.
We encourage students to contribute with theoretical or empirically based analyses related to the overall course description and literature.
Each student must familiarise themselves with the course literature and take active part in discussions and attend at least 75 percent of regular lectures/seminars and the whole 3-day gathering, including parallel sessions with student presentations.
The course programme will be available in January, prior to the deadline for registration.
Course literature
The reading list consists of mandatory and recommended readings. It includes literature from various academic disciplines and research fields, catering to a wide range of interests. The mandatory readings are selected by the instructors and will form the basis for the teaching. Among the recommended readings, we encourage students to select the literature they find most helpful when preparing mandatory presentations and, for those who choose to submit, final essays. We also encourage students to include other relevant literature in the course work.
The reading list will be available for registered students only and will be available shortly after the course registration. The students must be prepared to buy some books which are not available through the library.
Lectures/seminars
The series of lectures/seminars will take place at UiB Global on Tuesdays 14:15–16:00 the following dates (changes to the schedule might occur):
18th February (week 8); 4th March (week 10); 18th March (week 12); 1st April (week 14); 22nd April (week 17); 6th May (week 19).
Three-day gathering
Before the final three-day gathering 21-23 May, each student must prepare a presentation for pre-circulation.
Deadline for submission of presentation is Monday 5th of May. There are two options:
1. Make a discipline-specific course plan on the topic "sex and politics", with selected readings from one’s own discipline/area of research; OR
2. Make a paper draft addressing the course theme and literature (recommended option for those planning to submit an essay).
The programme for the three-day gathering is designed to alternate between lectures and student presentations/discussions. A detailed schedule, including a list of titled lectures and slots for student presentations, will be assembled closer to the date.
The slots for student presentations will be organized as parallel sessions. Each student must be prepared to comment on the other presentations in the same session and will be asked to comment on one of the other presentations specifically.
Each student will be allotted 30 minutes, with 10–15-minute presentations followed by short commentary from another student as well as one of the instructors (selected in advance).
Full essay (10 ETCS)
The deadline for submission of full essay, 3000-6000 words – depending on disciplinary standards – is Monday 9th of June. To be accepted, the essay must engage actively with a selection of the course literature.
