I taught this course (Übung) in Wintersemester 2023/24 at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
Description: For sexual minorities, the 20th century was a period of constant change and frequent contradiction: it witnessed the formation of queer identities, struggles for rights and recognition, but also violent repression, pathologization, and social exclusion. At the same time, countless people who came to identify as “lesbian,” “gay,” “transgender,” or otherwise queer went about their daily lives in myriad constellations, whether under the radar or out in the open, in urban centers or rural areas, as members of privileged groups or people facing complex challenges at different intersections of gender, race, and class. This course will explore queer history in Europe and North America, focusing on change over time in the organization and identities of sexual minorities as well as on the activities and everyday lives of different kinds of queer people. The course will be taught in English.