DIVSM300 Queer Attractors
FALL 2012

Diversity Studies Seminars are in-depth experiences in the study of multiculturalism and cultural diversity in American society and in societies that have impacted American society. Courses expose students to and inform students about the contributions of African Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans and Latinos to American culture, history, and society.

'The universe is not only queerer than we suppose, it is queerer that we can suppose,' (evolutionary biologist JBS Haldane.) "In Anger they are all separate but they come together in Love and yearn for one another. From these come all things that were and are and will be in the future." (Empedocles 450 BC.) Even earlier the Hindu and the Chinese spoke of Brahma Days and Nights, of Yins and Yangs, to express what today Chaos Theory calls "Strange Attractors." In 2001 the ekpyrotic model of quantum cosmology theorized giant parallel universes, "mem-branes," ever attracting and distancing themselves in a dance of Big-Bangs and cosmic breaths. Cultural historian Theodore Roszak suggested that science down to the atom was "suffused with sexual politics." Is this hermeneutics of desire, exuberance and complexity telling us something about our so-called culture wars? Might not physics and biology, history and anthropology, relational aesthetics, queer theory and psychoanalysis shed some light about gender and sexuality, sexism and homophobia, and other seemingly intractable issues of power and difference? Drawing from a range of accessible documents and films we will explore in a novel way some of these questions.