The three terms that this course organizes itself around – “queer” and “performance” and “history” – tend to undo or spill over themselves as much as they demarcate a clear terrain of meaning. What is queer? A state of being, a kind of relation, or a practice? A broad category that encompasses multiple forms of sexual deviance and gender non-conformity or an even broader relation to transgression? Something of the past, the present, the future? What is performance? Another word for everyday behavior or a specific set of bodily behaviors that are bracketed as artistic or theatrical? Something that happens on stages? Or in boardrooms? Or in bedrooms? What is history? A narrative of progress or an accumulation of violence? Something of the past or something of the present? Large-scale events or everyday habits? The lives of leaders or subaltern struggles? Archival documents or that which refuses archival logics? By positioning these terms alongside one another, this course forestalls attempts to pin them down and instead aims to track and explore the multiple and historically specific practices and significances that erupt at their encounter. The readings, performances, films, and activities that make up this course will allow us to meditate critically on questions about the body, politics, race, gender, sexuality, artmaking, and world-making. The course focuses on art, politics, and theory from the 1950s to the present in New York City and assignments are both creative and critical, including performance-making and scholarly writing.