26th July – 7th August 2027
The Queer Studies course explores the writing of Queer writers from the UK and USA from the twentieth-century to the present, featuring works by acclaimed authors such as Tabby Lamb, Alison Bechdel, Travis Alabanza, Tasha Dowd, Emma Frankland, and Ali Smith, Queer theorists such as Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and Jose Esteban Muñoz, and writers of gay and lesbian pulp fiction from the 1950s and 1960s such as Ann Bannon and Harrison Dowd.
Beyond the classroom, the programme includes lively cultural activities such as a traditional Ceilidh dance and author readings by some of the UK’s leading contemporary writers.
Students are strongly encouraged to read as many of the set texts as possible before arriving in Edinburgh, as the intensive schedule allows little time for catch-up. Lectures are pitched at an advanced level, with the expectation that participants will already be familiar with the material under discussion.
Core texts for the Summer School, on which the tuition will be based, are listed below.
Essential reading (in order of teaching schedule):
Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain (2020)
Tabby Lamb, Happy Meal (2022)*
Tasha Dowd, Tell Me How It Ends (2024)*
Ali Smith: selection of short stories*
Emma Frankland and Subira Joy, Galatea (2023)*
Travis Alabanza, extracts from None of the Above (2022)*
Harry Josephine Giles, Drone (2019)*
Alison Bechdel, Fun Home (2006)
Ann Bannon, Lonnie Coleman, Harrison Dowd: selection of pulp fiction stories (1950s; 1960s)*
Further primary reading (Queer theory):
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick (1994), ‘Queer and Now’, in Sedgwick, Tendencies (Durham, NC: Duke University Press), pp.1-20.
Paula A. Treichler (1987), ‘AIDS, Homophobia, and Biomedical Discourse: An Epidemic of Signification’, Cultural Studies Vol 1 No 3, pp.263-305.
Maria Lugones (2007). ‘Heterosexualism and the Colonial / Modern Gender System.’ Hypatia 22:1, pp.186-209.
Lisa Duggan. (2002). ‘The New Homonormativity: The Sexual Politics of Neoliberalism.’ In D. D. Nelson & R. Castronovo (Eds.), Materializing Democracy (p. 175). Duke University Press
Jose Esteban Munoz (2009), ‘Queerness as Horizon: Utopian Hermeneutics in the Face of Gay Pragmatism’, in Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity (New York: New York University Press), pp.19-32
Suggested secondary reading:
Jeanette Winterson, Frankissstein: A Love Story (2019)
Trap Door, edited by Che Gossett et al. (2017)
The Transgender Reader Volume 1, edited by Susan Stryker & Stephen Whittle (2006)
The Transgender Reader Volume 2, edited by Susan Stryker & Aren Aizura (2013)
Alan Hollinghurst The Line of Beauty (2004)
Alan Moore, Fashion Beast (2013)
Paul Preciado, An Apartment on Uranus (2019)
Elliot Page, Page Boy
*NB: Students are not required to purchase these specific volumes of poetry and/or short stories. These will be distributed to all students in advance of lecture and seminar.
**Students are not required to purchase or read texts listed in ‘further reading/viewing’. However, if you are interested in complementary material, these texts will expand your knowledge and discussion of the essential reading list. All of the further reading is available to loan from the University of Edinburgh library or the SUISS library.
If you struggle to obtain any of the texts, please contact suissdir@ed.ac.uk. For more information on the course, see our Sample Queer Studies Syllabus .