We will encounter texts and visual materials that touch on difficult topics—topics to which you all will have individual relationships and responses. This particular course will also read and view sexually explicit material. I will do my best to flag sensitive topics where I am able, but I will not be able to anticipate every instance where they might appear. I welcome you to share your personal orientations to these works and topics and use these as points of entry into the material, as is comfortable for you. We will also hold a certain intellectual distance from these topics—we will contextualize, historicize, and analyze their wider social, historical, and cultural impacts beyond the personal. I expect each of you to navigate this dance to the best of your ability and be thoughtful and gentle in your approaches.
