Education Commons^™

Politics Of Refusal: Justice And Liberation For Black Trans Lives, Quincy Smith

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis investigates the challenges faced by Black trans people. In this thesis, I will explore how protest is used to highlight and confront the obstacles faced by the Black trans community. I will also examine the cultural work of Black trans people and what they teach us. The Brooklyn Liberation march and the TV show Pose is an important part of Black trans legacy. They both look at the complications surrounding Black trans lives and contributes to Black trans representation in protesting and fighting marginalization. This thesis will argue the importance of allyship to create safe space for Black …

Spa203. ¿Qué Hacemos Con La Lengua? Lenguaje, Diversidad Y Derechos Humanos, Juan Jesús Payán

Open Educational Resources

Descripción del curso

SPA203 - (For native or near-native speakers.) The grammatical structure of today's standard Spanish. Intensive practice in reading, speaking, and elementary composition.

En SPA203 vamos a explorar la relación entre el lenguaje y la diversidad en el marco de los derechos humanos fundamentales. El título del curso, “¿qué hacemos con la lengua?”, nos pregunta dos cosas: qué tipo de prejuicios perpetuamos por medio del lenguaje y cómo hacer para que la lengua albergue de manera efectiva la diversidad de nuestra sociedad. En un contexto actual, sorprendente estancado en la indiferencia, la ignorancia, el prejuicio y estigmatización de …

Visual Diaries: Towards Art History As Storytelling, Alpesh Kantilal Patel

Art History Pedagogy & Practice

This essay examines variants of what I refer to as “visual diaries” – or thinking through images and written or oral language – as important “worldmaking” exercises, essential for students of color, women, sexual minorities, or other marginalized subjects. I provide my reflections on assigning this dynamic and student-centered, practice-based assignment in my contemporary art courses at a Hispanic-serving institution (HSI) of higher education and a summer art residency program unaffiliated with a university. Besides my reflections on my pedagogy, I also share student feedback from unsolicited testimonials and answers to questionnaires. I argue that visual diaries transform students into …

Cracks In The Bathroom Stall: A Discourse Analysis On Transgender Bathroom Usage At Garden Spot High School, Kirsten D. Corneilson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In recent years, high schools across the country have seen the concern around transgender students using gendered facilities, such as bathrooms and locker rooms, come to the forefront. Often, dissenters raise worries of privacy and of “catering to a minority,” no matter what decision is reached. At Garden Spot High School in New Holland, Pennsylvania, the site of this research, one such concern has led to a district-wide decision to eliminate gendered facilities and move to single-use facilities, in the name of preserving student privacy. Through the examination of historical precedent and discourse analysis, this paper examines how transgender surveillance …

Dance Of Exile: The Sakharoffs’ Visual Performances In Montevideo (1935–1948), Pablo Munoz Ponzo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis explores the life-work chronology of the dancers and choreographers Clotilde von Derp (whose surname then was Sakharoff) and Alexander Sakharoff, who were exiled in Montevideo, Uruguay, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, between 1941 and 1948. During their stay in the Rio de la Plata region, the Sakharoffs stirred up the art scene by performing extremely detailed dances with great attention to costume design. This thesis begins with a review of the reception of the dancers’ performances by the artistic and cultural circles in Montevideo, arguing that the Sakharoffs’ “queer” trajectory resonated with the Uruguayan artistic community, influencing the creation …

Poor Queer Studies: Class, Race, And The Field, Matt Brim

Publications and Research

This study asks, What are the material conditions under which queer studies is done in the academy? It finds a longstanding association of queer studies with the well-resourced, selective colleges and flagship campuses that are the drivers of class and race stratification in higher education in the U.S. That is, the field of queer studies, as a recognizable academic formation, has been structured by the material and intellectual resources of precisely those institutions that most steadfastly refuse to adequately serve poor and minority students, including poor and minority queer students. In response, “poor queer studies” calls for a critical reorientation …

Fragmentation And Multiplicity In Cuban-American Identity: In Cuba I Was A German Shepherd By Ana Menéndez And Memory Mambo By Achy Obejas, Daimys E. Garcia

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Maria Lugones offers a new way of perceiving the world, which makes visible that fragmentation is not a valuable and transgressive understanding of identity, as Western philosophy and some political theory suggests. What Lugones believes in, as a strategy of resistance to the dominant gaze, is multiplicity – mestizaje. Using Lugones’s framework, this thesis will look at the different aspects of Cuban-American characters in In Cuba I was a German Shepherd by Ana Menéndez and Memory Mambo by Achy Obejas. Each novel offers insight into how characters develop and understand themselves (and others) when they use language that shows that …

Queer Pedagogical Desire: A Study Guide, Matt Brim

Publications and Research

This essay explores the queer pedagogical desires that attended my writing of the Study Guide for the documentary film United in Anger: A History of ACT UP (Jim Hubbard, 2012). The analysis takes up Robyn Wiegman’s central question in Object Lessons, “What is it we expect our relationship to our objects of study to do?”, which is of particular importance to the discipline of queer studies insofar as the field is oriented around the desire to meld social justice with critical pedagogy. The queer professor’s desire in the case of the Study Guide-as-object was to create a text that …

Clags Fellowships And Awards, Noam Parness

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

This past fall, CLAGS awarded two fellowships: The Paul Monette-Roger Horwitz Dissertation Prize, and the CLAGS Fellowship Award. Our fantastic fellowship winners are profiled in this newsletter, and on our website. Please check out our current winners to read more about their scholarly endeavors! Additionally, we are excited by all of the applications that we have received for the three fellowships that CLAGS will be awarding this spring: The Martin Duberman Fellowship, The Robert Giard Fellowship and the Joan Heller–Diane Bernard Fellowship in Lesbian and Gay Studies.

Study Guide For United In Anger: A History Of Act Up, Matt Brim

Open Educational Resources

The United in Anger Study Guide facilitates classroom and activist engagement with Jim Hubbard’s 2012 documentary, United in Anger: A History of ACT UP. The Study Guide contains discussion sections, projects and exercises, and resources for further research about the activism of the New York chapter of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power). The Study Guide is a free, interactive, multimedia resource for understanding the legacy of ACT UP, the film’s role in preserving that legacy, and its meaning for viewers' lives.

Fellowship Winners 2010, Lolan Sevilla

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

The Martin Duberman Fellowship: An endowed fellowship named for CLAGS founder and first executive director, this award is given to a senior scholar from any country doing research on the LGBTQ experience. The 2010 Duberman fellowship was awarded to Ellen Lewin for "Out in Spirit: An Ethnography of an LGBT African American Pentecostal Church." This project is a study of the Fellowship, a coalition of about 100 churches and ministries that serves a predominantly African American LGBT population across the US. Lewin is Professor of Gender, Women's and Sexuality Studies and Anthropology at the University of Iowa, and is a …

Clags Awards And Guidelines, Lolan Sevilla

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

The Martin Duberman Fellowship— An endowed fellowship named for CLAGS founder and first executive director, Martin Duberman, this fellowship is awarded to a senior scholar (tenured university professor or advanced independent scholar) from any country doing scholarly research on the lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender/queer (LGBTQ) experience. University affiliation is not necessary. All applicants must be able to show a prior contribution to the field of LGBTQ studies.

Brooklyn College To Offer Minor In Lgbtq Studies, Jesse Bayker

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

Brooklyn College became the first CUNY school to offer undergraduates a minor in LGBTQ Studies when college faculty approved the proposal in December.

Director's Letter, Sarah Chinn

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

Dear Friends: We all have guilty pleasures, and one of mine is the end-of-year top ten list. I love the condensing of the past twelve months in digestible morsels of best, worst, most important, most outrageous; it's as though I can live the year about to expire all over again from the comfort of my own home and in record time. This past year, though, resists easy summing-up.

Letter From Sarah E. Chinn, Incoming Executive Director, Sarah Chinn

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

I'm not the kind of person who procrastinates — I'd rather do something right away than worry and further feed the procrastination. But I have been putting off writing this inaugural column as the new executive director of CLAGS. The challenge, I think, has been where to begin: taking on a position that has been so magnificently filled by Paisley Currah, Alisa Solomon, Jill Dolan, and Martin Duberman is already such a challenge that contemplating actually writing about it seems even more insuperable.

Lessons In Sex And Fascism: Dagmar Herzog's Pedagogy Workshop, Megan Jenkins

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

On December 4, 2006 Dagmar Herzog, Professor of History at the CUNY Graduate Center, led a lively workshop titled "What's So Sexy about Fascism? And Why is it Important to Think About it in the Classroom?" as part of the CLAGS/CSGS LGBTQ Plans Pedagogy Workshop.

The New Face Of Queer, The New Face Of Cuny, Shawn(Ta) Smith-Cruz

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

The seventh Queer CUNY conference for LGBT students, staff, faculty, and alumni, took place at Brooklyn College on April 1, 2006. Students from all over the CUNY system of schools gathered to discuss, debate, and deconstruct what LGBT community is and what it might be.

Reflections From A Former Executive Director, Jill Dolan

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

I joined CLAGS as a board member in 1994, at a transitional moment in its history. The grassroots activist project that Marty Duberman had started in his living room had been recognized as one of CUNY's Research Centers for only a short time at that point, and many people on the board struggled with what it meant to be institutionally affiliated. The board had grown from people Marty knew personally to a broader group of gay and lesbian scholars (or simply scholars working on gay and lesbian issues) recommended by others. For example, I was brought to the board by …

Capital Campaign To Mark Clags's 15th Anniversary, Paisley Currah

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

It may seem hard to believe, but when the new year rolled in, CLAGS turned 15. In 1991, CLAGS opened as the first university-based research center for what was then called "lesbian and gay studies" in the US. It's been a heady, infectiously exciting, and sometimes contentious 15 years.

Queer Cuny V Conference, Leonard Vogt, J. Elizabeth Clark

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

The date May 1 means different things to different people. Historically, May 1 is May Day, an international day of solidarity for workers. For Roman Catholics, May 1 is the opening day of the Month of the Virgin Mary. For queers at CUNY, May 1 was the date of the fifth annual Queer CUNY conference.

Changing Of The Guard, Alisa Solomon

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

After four gratifying years, i have decided to step down as the executive director of CLAGS to focus again on research, writing, and teaching. As much as I have enjoyed the position and as proud as I am of all we have accomplished, the truth is, I don't have the temperament of an administrator. I'm yearning to teach graduate students again, to be more available to my undergraduate students at Baruch, and eager to jump back into the scholarship that I've had to put aside since 1999.

Minding Our Q'S, Paisley Currah

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

A personal admission first—it's a scary thing to be stepping in as executive director, following in the very large footsteps of Alisa Solomon, Jill Dolan, and CLAGS's founder and first executive director, Martin Duberman, who have all worked so hard and accomplished so much to make CLAGS a major center for gay and lesbian studies. But, with the support of Alisa, the tremendous CLAGS board, its exceptional staff, and the many others who participate in its work, I am also looking forward to the challenge of building on their work.

Vigorous Debate And Rigorous Inquiry, Alisa Solomon

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

Our newsletter goes to press on the eve of President Bush's State of the Union address, in which he is expected to argue for going to war against Iraq. By the time this newsletter reaches you, the war may already have started. It's a frightening moment, to say the least. Meanwhile free speech and civil liberties are being curtailed in the name of security and scholars and researchers have special reasons to be wary: Archives are shutting off access; the Freedom of Information Act is being gutted; new laws are demanding that when asked by government officials, librarians must turn …

The Coolest Month, Alisa Solomon

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

If you hung around CLAGS during Spring semester, you ran into a lot of fruitfully provocative contradictions. Take late April, for instance. On the 24th, Marcia Gallo presented her work-in-progress -- a dissertation on the Daughters of Bilitis -- in our Colloquium Series and noted how many of the lesbians who were active in the organization since its founding in 1955 disavowed any serious political aims. "We just wanted to have fun," Gallo reported them saying to her in the extensive interviews she has been doing as part of her research.

The Perils Of Queering The Curriculum, David William Foster

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

A student came into my office the other day who provided a direct challenge to my efforts to queer the curriculum. Let me say first that, although I respect the value of teaching courses on topics that are presented as queer-marked — indeed, I teach graduate courses in English on Queer Theory and Queer Filmmaking - my ideological preference in the courses I teach in both Spanish and Portuguese is to engage in queer readings across the canon, toward demonstrating that 1) sexual/gender identity is problematic in all texts, and any facile or obvious attribution is likely to be the …

Expanding Horizons, Alisa Solomon

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

Happy New Year! Welcome to the new semester! Welcome to CLAGS's second decade! Such greetings would be heartfelt under any circumstances, but the artifices of the calendar seem especially useful now as we seek new beginnings after the trauma of the Fall.

Insisting On Inquiry, Alisa Solomon

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

This special CLAGS newsletter goes to press exactly one month after hijackers rammed jets into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and aimed for a third target before being brought down in the fields of Pennsylvania. In the days immediately following the attacks, pundits, politicians and plain folks asserted that our lives in America had been changed forever. Certainly all of us at CLAGS have been stunned and shaken. Gathering for our first board meeting of the year just days later, we expressed our grief, confusion, anxieties, and fears. Like everyone, no doubt, we questioned the meaning and purpose …

Lgbt Studies: Past, Presences And Futures, Richard M. Juang

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

When I rolled out of bed at 4 am on April 20 to make the trip to New York for "Futures of the Field: Building LGBT Studies into the 21st Century University," the idea of discussing institutionalization was less than appealing. In a time of staff cutbacks, increasing courseloads and notoriously poor job markets, going back to sleep seemed a much better idea.

Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made On, Alisa Solomon

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

I’ve just finished teaching an undergraduate Shakespeare class at Baruch College—CUNY to a class of mostly business majors. For many of the students, English is not their first language, so predictably, they had some trouble parsing Shakespeare's text. But they had no difficulty at all understanding what was going on between Patroclus and Achilles in Troilus and Cressida, or, arguably, between Antonio and Sebastian—or Olivia and Viola or Orsino and Cesario—in Twelfth Night. In general, they were not in the slightest surprised to find homoeroticism in the works of the Greatest Writer Ever. (Indeed, critically analyzing Bardolatry was …

Emerging Fields Of Study, Lesley C. Graydon

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

When I learned that CLAGS had secured an interdisciplinary program in Lesbian and Gay Studies and that the first course, An Introduction to Lesbian and Gay/Queer Studies, was to be offered in the Fall, I knew that I wanted to be in what I conceived as the first step in a much larger offering and celebration of critical ideas and counter-hegemonic discourse. I thought: finally, I won't be the only student reading and thinking from a radically left, feminist, lesbian, perspective - not that all of these four leanings must in any way accompany the position of lesbian, gay or …