Have gender equality and sexuality undergone global transformations under secularism? If so, how do we characterize those transformations? What or who has altered? What are the specific catalysts of change? This graduate-level course examines the comparative methods of anthropologists and historians who view gender and sexuality as fundamental to secular forms of power, politics and governance.  It also probes the key questions facing the study of sex and secularism, primarily in the context of the Middle East, North Africa and Islamic traditions.  Has the study of gender and sexuality inherited a paradoxical legacy from secularism, as some scholars suggest? If so, is it possible or desirable to disinvest analytically from this legacy? What approaches are possible for the study of sexuality and gender beyond a secular paradigm?