Module manager: Dr Brenda Hollweg
Email: B.Hollweg@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2025/26
This module is approved as a discovery module
This module offers you the opportunity to explore a range of feminist, postcolonial and queer theories and cultural practices that think about the body, embodiment, and difference in all its intersectional complexity. Structured as a journey through the body, we address questions such as: What is a body? How are bodies marked as different, why and with what effect? How is subjectivity embodied? How can embodiment be figured and reconfigured in representation and cultural practices? How does difference structure both embodiment and subjectivity? How do concepts and practices address embodiment across interlocking axes of gender, ‘race’, class, sexuality, (dis)ability, language, location, ethnicity, and other unseen axes? Please note this is an optional module and runs subject to enrolments. If a low number of students choose this module, then the module may not run and you may be asked to choose another module.
This module introduces you to a variety of feminist, postcolonial and queer theories exploring embodiment and difference. You will make use of and become familiar with a range of cultural practices that address the body in different ways. Through lectures, portfolios, in-class discussion and a final essay, the module will enhance your capacity for articulating the complexities and dynamics of embodiment and difference in theory and visual culture.
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following learning outcomes relevant to the subject:
1. Analyse images, texts, and cultural practices.
2. Apply theories of gender, difference and the body to close visual analyses.
3. Examine and assess the significance of feminist, queer and postcolonial critiques of visual culture.
4. Demonstrate an understanding of the methodologies that have been developed to analyse the ‘work’ of gender, sexuality, disability, and race in visual culture.
Skills Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module students will be able to:
5. Argue effectively using evidence drawn from image archives and visual online databases of primary sources.
6. Communicate critically and persuasively in multiple modes, engaging with primary and secondary sources of art historical material and visual cultural analysis.
7. Co-ordinate and disseminate a range of historical, contextual visual information.
Details of the syllabus will be provided on the Minerva organisation (or equivalent) for the module.
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lecture | 10 | 1 | 10 |
| Seminar | 10 | 1 | 10 |
| Private study hours | 180 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 20 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 200 | ||
The in-class discussions allow ongoing monitoring of student progress. The weekly portfolio tasks are to encourage a level of critical reflection on students’ own work that develops across the weeks. It includes a ‘critical reflection’ which acts as a statement on their learning and research. There will be a formative review of the portfolio tasks mid-way through the module to offer feedback.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Coursework | Portfolio | 40 |
| Coursework | Written | 60 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
The reading list is available from the Library website
Last updated: 14/04/2025
Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team