“From a biological perspective, nothing can be against nature; everything that occurs is, by definition, natural.” 

This course aims to dismantle 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, the fact that some fungal species can have as many as twenty-three thousand “biological sexes”, or even protandrous hermaphrodite clown fish, which are born males but when facing a changing social environment can become females. 

The core structure of the course relies on redefining sex and understanding its fluidity using teaching from the queerness of the natural world, from animals to fungi, passing by plants and lichens. 

 The course will begin with an introduction to different concepts of queer theory, following some deeper ecological themes that we will collectively address.

• How gender/sex exists interconnected across biology, sociology, and psychology.
• Breaking down sexual selection theories and understanding the creation of the binary.
• How does sex work in a Queer world: sex-reversal, intersex and same-sex relationship?
• Queer ecologies. Moving beyond anthropocentric boundaries questioning separation of the human and more-than-human through a lichen embodiment workshop.
• How can we connect to queer nature around us.

This course emphasizes on using different learning methods to establish a more hands-on learning environment. In parallel to lectures and post-lectures discussion and debates, this course will include alternative education methods, such as lectures from diverse disciplines, creative learning, and queer nature guided walk.