This course examines theories of gender and sexuality in relation to performance art, both female and male. The focus will be on artists who emerged in the 70s and 80s and whose work intersected with cultural phenomena and movements such as, feminism, environmentalism, Marxism, materialism, psychoanalytic theory, queer theory, and decolonialism. The foregrounded issues include: the body in pain, trauma, masculinity, the image, spectatorship, voyeurism, the gaze, the artist’s role, intersectionality, gender identity, dualistic thought, embodiment, race, binary structures, desire, temporality/space, objectification, trans-studies, identity politics, masculinity, technology, rape, prostitution, violence, disability, maternity, beauty, representation, and forms of protest. Within these parameters it will explore questions of self, authenticity, performing difference and identities in transition. Students will be able to analyse performance using a range of theoret:ical approaches drawn from gender and sexuality studies.