Posted on 03/07/2006 9:53:55 AM PST by presidio9
Students at DePaul University in Chicago, the largest Catholic university in the United States, can minor in Queer Studies through their College of Liberal Arts and Sciences as of this year. While DePaul has set an example for other Catholic institutions, administration and students say this minor probably won't appear at Marquette.
"The minor is in response to student demand and also because of an increase in academic demand from faculty to teach the subject," said Gary Cestaro, assistant professor of modern languages at DePaul. He is the program director of the new minor and was part of the six-person faculty group that spearheaded the minor's creation.
Cestaro said that Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, Bisexual, Queer (LGTBQ) Studies is a grounded interdisciplinary academic field that emerged in the 1980s. DePaul has been increasingly offering individual LGTBQ courses for the last 10 years, Cestaro said.
He said this is the first year the minor is established. The only new addition is the minor's mandatory introductory course, offered for the first time this quarter, which ends next week.
Barbara Speicher, chairwoman of DePaul's communications department, said the Queer Studies minor has received a generally positive reaction. Not everyone at DePaul approves of the Queer Studies minor, however.
"It has certainly faced some disagreement, as one would expect," Speicher said. "But it hasn't been anything too awful."
Speicher said DePaul has always been open to new minors.
"We are viewing it as it is, an academic course. The university has always been open to new innovations, not putting up blocks."
Critics and supporters alike wonder what this means for other Catholic universities, such as Marquette.
Director of University Communication Brigid O'Brien Miller said she is not aware of any proposal for a Queer Studies minor at Marquette.
Heather Hathaway, associate dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, said she does not see a Queer Studies minor in Marquette's future.
"It is unlikely that Arts & Sciences would develop a major or minor in the field, but not because we see it as necessarily contradicting the message of a Catholic university," she said.
Money, not message, restricts this minor, according to Hathaway.
"We simply lack the financial resources, or the money required to hire faculty experts in the field, that would be necessary to create a cohesive and substantive major or minor," she said.
Hathaway said that because a Queer Studies field focuses on subjects such as literature and art produced by gay men and lesbian women, gay and lesbian history and the social constructions of gender, it is too broad to attempt at Marquette.
"Ignorance breeds injustice," said Jess Cushion, a junior in the College of Communication and president of Marquette's Gay/Straight Alliance. "I applaud DePaul for taking the step to fuel acceptance of the lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual community by educating people about discrimination and hate that homosexuals endure on a daily basis."
Cushion said that LGTB issues are often ignored at Marquette.
"I feel like the administration goes out of its way to come up with excuses for excluding (LGTB) issues. It's always 'We don't have the budget,' or 'It's not the right time,' when in reality it's 'This is Marquette, and if you're gay, we're going to silence you as best we can,'" she said.
Cushion said she would like to see a Queer Studies minor at Marquette.
"There might not be a demand for such a minor here, but it would be extremely beneficial," she said. "We have minors surrounding the studies of other racial, ethnic, and cultural groups. What makes (LGTB) issues any different?"
Priesthood?
Why not major in Bestiality with a minor in Abortion? This is absurd for a Catholic university. These administrators either agree with this trend or have no cojones. Either way how would they explain this to the Pope?
Seriously. How long does it take a professor at a Catholic college to wrap up the whole Queer Studies program?
Here it is:
Homosexuality is a grave, or mortal, sin for which you will be condemned to the fires of hell for all eternity.
Done.
Oh, and on a non-theological tangent, it will kill you about 40 times faster than smoking cigarettes, which you can't do in your dorm room, where we do permit you to engage in sinful, damning, illness-spreading homosexuality.
Call us confused.
I learned all I needed to know about queers at/in/when __________!
Yep.
FYI
There is nothing wrong with things like "Women's studies" or even "Queer Studies" (just not at a Catholic institution) as a minor. That's part of the experience of a liberal arts education as opposed to a University. The problem is when wingnuts make these subjects their primary course of studies.
A Queer degree prepares one for what profession?
"There is nothing wrong with things like "Women's studies" or even "Queer Studies" (just not at a Catholic institution) as a minor. That's part of the experience of a liberal arts education as opposed to a University. The problem is when wingnuts make these subjects their primary course of studies"
Good point. I was assuming a full degree.
I know in the physics department at Georgia Tech it didn't cost much for a professor to put together a new concentration or minor. usually just one or two new classes and a collection of existing classes.
Priesthood?
Thank you for perpetuating the myth that Catholic priests are perverted child molesters. Your buddies at DU must be very proud.
IMO this is much more egregious than Berkeley's curriculum.
In fact, it borders on satanic.
It's not just that it's useless, it's academic claptrap. It's not even "studies", it accepts no point of view other than the prevailing one, completely political and if yours is that point of view, no paper will ever be rejected.
It's not clear whether the course entitled "Bareback Mounting" is an elective or a required course. "Catholic" colleges, hell, "Catholic" schools in general really don't exist any more. Today, they're nothing more than expensive private schools with crucifixes out front.
Oh yes there is something wrong with it. It is academic fraud, pure and simple.
"The minor is in response to student demand and also because of an increase in academic demand from faculty to teach the subject"
Academic demand to teach a subject is such a good reason to come up with a major, isn't it? By that standard, we'll get a Liberalism major, a Communism major, well, I can't think of any more since the rest of other useless majors are already there. Do you think that if enough people want to teach anti-semitism, a major would be created?
That's just it - it's not academic but political. It's a statement made by liberal elites that they are more worldly and educated than the Church that effectively employs them. The Left continually looks for ways to attack such conservative institutions.
Grow up, jackass! Any time somebody says something you don't like, you brand them a democrat. What an A$$.
If the Catholic church would actually do something to remove pedophiles and homosexuals from the priesthood, you might have something to complain about. However, they wont get rid of them until they have multiple molestation complaints. They Catholic church is complicit in the pedophilic behavior of these perverts. Until they do something about it, you're wrong and I'm right.
Well! Not only a new minor but a new acronymn! We all know what LGBT means. But now, evidently, we have LGTBQ.
It's really a trend-breaking innovation. Notice that the new chair has shuffled the middle initials as well as added a fifth initial. Does that mean that, in his considered opinion, Transgenders are now more politically significant than Bisexuals?
You learn something new every day.
I don't even want to know what that might involve.
St. Paul would be thrilled to learn of this evolved curriculum (GAG!).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.