Courses 2025/2026

Queer Biology

We invite you to the  Capita Selecta Course (3ECTS): Queer Biology held in period 3 and 4 

 

Overview of the course

Queer biology is an interdisciplinary approach that applies notions from queer theory and queer ecology to biology. It aims at deconstructing the binary, heteronormative, and anthropocentric narratives that have shaped and prejudiced the teaching of the natural world. In that sense, behaviors that do not conform to our societal conventions are termed abnormal and directly excluded from research, relentlessly conforming nature to patriarchal values. Altogether these outdated research frameworks fail to explore the importance of queer behavior and how such interaction shapes the ecology around us and within us. 
 

 

 

This course aims at dismantling many preconceived ideas from the hetero-dominated world of science by putting the spotlight on the overlooked, marginalized, and misunderstood living organisms around us. How remarkable are female Laysan albatrosses, which enter homosocial relationships to raise and defend their chicks or even protandrous hermaphrodite clown fish, which are born males but can become females upon changing environment.
 
During this 3 ECTS capita selecta course, we will attempt to redefine sex and to understand its fluidity using teaching from the queerness of the natural world, from animals and fungi, to plants and lichens. 

 

 

Art by Pine Bones/High Country News