Course Review: Neoliberalism and Sexuality

by Isaac Spanjer

To teach a first-year seminar covering neoliberalism and sexuality in tandem is ambitious. Professor Savci, Evren to her students, not only guides first years on an engaging exploration of critical thought, she does so in a way that sets a remarkably high standard for the quality of teaching students can expect as undergraduates at Yale.

The curriculum of WGSS 030 comprises three segments. First, students are introduced to concepts that reappear throughout the course: neoliberalism, sexuality as a field of power, and modernity’s production of subjects. These first three weeks, with readings of Michel Foucault, David Harvey, and Inderpal Grewal, set the pace for the complexity of ideas that will define the semester. The next nine weeks are an analysis of case studies that embody the intersection of these three concepts. Everything from tourism to adoption is critically analyzed as students are pushed to question the very foundation of the social structures that define society. The semester finishes with two weeks dedicated to resistance and social justice, asking students to partake in the vital act of imagining a world radically different from the present.

While perusing a copy of Foucault during an inaugural shopping period at Yale may seem intimidating, time in seminar with Evren will certainty assuage concerns. The professor truly shines as she breaks down remarkably complex ideas into understandable terms by engaging in meaningful discussion with students, embodying the spirit of a seminar. Students find themselves participating in nuanced interchanges about both deeply personal and immensely abstract topics, while carefully guided by the professor to cover that week’s material. For evaluation, students are invited to synthesize weeks of reading in their papers, which are returned with generous amounts of constructive feedback.