How did empire shape experiences of sexuality? How did sexuality shape empire?
This paper offers the chance to examine in detail global experiences of colonial sexuality under European imperialism. We will ask major questions about how empire changed how colonised and coloniser understood gender and sexuality, as well as what this meant in practice.
Throughout these sessions we will examine colonial pornographic depictions of colonised people as hypersexual and eroticised, consider how sex work was regulated under colonial rule through legalised sex work systems at the heart of empire, and evaluate different methodologies to ethically navigate many of these difficult historic sources. We will also look at how European empires policed and regulated gender binaries, as well as how they shaped norms around masculinity whilst, at the same time, many European men were drawn to empire for the possibility of exploitative sexual opportunity.
This module will provide the opportunity for global perspectives on race and empire to scholars of gender and sexuality, and offer an in-depth study of lived experiences of empire for students of history. We will focus primarily on the British and French Empire, with comparisons with Italian, Belgian, Spanish and Ottoman examples. All disciplines are welcome. No language skills are necessary.
