Subscribe to Breaking NewsRuby-Sachs: LGBT Studies Soars at Harvard
CAMBRIDGE, MA - JUNE 5: Graduating Harvard University students attend commencement ceremonies June 5, 2008, in Cambridge, Massachusetts
I’ve spent a lot of my life in academic settings and have yet to be convinced that scholarship is as dynamic as agitation and activism. However, I couldn’t help but be pleased when I read about Harvard establishing an endowed professorship in LGBT studies.
Sure, part of the pleasure comes from the fact that it’s Harvard – and who doesn’t enjoy recognition from an Ivy. But more importantly, the notion of an endowed chair denotes a sense of permanence and commitment to the lives of LGBT people and students on campus.
For many, college is still the moment when sexuality is discovered. Without parents, outside of small towns or small high schools, kids are able to figure out who they really are and, for many, that includes experimenting with same-sex relationships and gender identity.
Those that do settle into the LGBT community will be hungry for information and recognition. Most likely they will be reading all the gay and trans fiction they can get their hands on and some older, wiser friend will slip them the “must see” gay movie list. They’ll get a thrill from watching cheesy films because the people on screen will be like them or how they now see themselves.
For kids at Harvard, this process of discovery will be much richer. They can take LGBT studies classes, from people trained in that specialty, and learn about their own history, the struggles of people like them, the social forces influencing their development. They will do this with the guidance of professors who take LGBT studies far beyond what is common in regular women studies programs.
So, I know New Hampshire passed gay marriage yesterday and UAFA had its first hearing and Obama is still failing the LGBT community, but let’s take a moment to celebrate Harvard and the graduates who got together to create the LGBT professorship.
The University of Toronto has the Mark S. Bonham Sexual Diversities Studies Centre which has been offering both undergraduate and graduate degree programs in the study of sexual diversity (law, literature, medicine, history, etc)for about 10 years now. Congratulations to Harvard for taking steps in the same direction. I blv it is critical to have both academic research in the area, and to offer accredited coursework for study to the next generation of bright minds that are going to lead our countries forward toward equality. A learned and educated population is an important ingredient to an enlightened and democratic society.
“and some older, wiser friend will slip them the “must see” gay movie list. They’ll get a thrill from watching cheesy films because the people on screen will be like them or how they now see themselves.”
I laughed when I read this, because this is exactly what I did (very recently even). I watched these movies, which had they been your average movie, I would have found to be “eh.” But I loved them more since they were more in tune to what I wanted to see.
Thanks for the article and I enjoy reading the news here!
“For kids at Harvard, this process of discovery will be much richer. They can take LGBT studies classes, from people trained in that specialty, and learn about their own history, the struggles of people like them, the social forces influencing their development. They will do this with the guidance of professors who take LGBT studies far beyond what is common in regular women studies programs.”
Uh, I think this kind of thing has been going on for quite some time. An endowed chair is great — whatever — it doesn’t mean that Harvard and hundreds of other universities aren’t already doing this.
Those who, not those “that”: One once expected at least respectable grammar and usage from Ivy League folks.
And so goes further stability on making the LGBT community foundation all that much more stronger. This is good news and a lifeline to those students looking for answers.
Sorry, but I (as an academic) find such things as Gay and Lesbian studies, Women’s studies, sports studies, gender studies etc etc horrifying. While all of these are worthwhile subdisciplines WITHIN a traditional discipline, by themselves they are have contributed to the demise of academic studies generally, and have simply provided a place for empire building. I am constantly amazed at the intellectual ignorance of people working in these `finge’ areas. They seem to know no history, no philosophy, no science, no mathematics, read no languages and speak in a post-modernest jargon which is both impenetrable and vacuous. People specialising in gay literature should belong to an English department, gay history to a History department, gay subculture to a Sociology department. In that way, people would have a lot more respect for them and perhaps they might be become a little more erudite.
Anyone else think that those flags were Nazi Flags before ya made em big? Hmmm.
Getting a degree in GLBT studies must be like getting a degree in Greek Mythology or Pakistani Literature…what can you do with that?…get a job at Starbucks?
I bet they have a special course in HRC Dinner Party Planning!