By Nora Houseman, Radhika Singh, and Laurel Anderson

Queer Studies is a necessity for Wesleyan. As expressed in President Bennet’s academic outline, Strategy for Wesleyan, one of our University’s principle aims is to invest in "emerging fields of knowledge" that are designed to address "major paradigms and methodologies, discussing a problem, era, event, or phenomenon" (7). Further, these goals strive for "cutting edge research that promises to challenge existing paradigms" (7). 

In concurrence with Bennet’s goals, Queer Studies is an integral part of any examination of existing cultural paradigms and the emerging critiques that challenge them. Situated within cultural theory, Queer Studies produces not just critical reasoning and analysis, but creative thinking and expression as well as familiarity with processes through which knowledge is created. These certainly qualify as the "critical capabilities" and ethical reasoning identified as priorities of Wesleyan’s curriculum.

Wesleyan has a rich history of producing knowledge in the areas of cultural theory and critique. The University maintains a commitment to an exploration of the organizing principles of society. Currently, however, we are lagging behind a great number of equally ‘prestigious’ schools that have already recognized the necessity of supporting Queer Studies. Schools such as Brown, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Smith, Princeton, Duke, Grinnell, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Cornell, and yes, even Amherst (to name only a few), have full-time Queer Studies professors and several Queer Studies courses offered every semester. Many schools now offer majors or minors in Queer Studies, and several have full departments or programs of Queer Studies.

The fight for Queer Studies is not new to Wesleyan. For the past decade, students and faculty have regularly pushed a Queer Studies line. Recently, our efforts have increased due to the administration’s promise to hire twenty additional faculty members in new areas of study over a four-year period. Several student groups have formed to demand Queer Studies courses and faculty hires, submitting petitions, adding research to the Queer Studies proposal, and meeting with administrators to express their desire for the expansion of Queer Studies on this campus. Faculty members across the spectrum of disciplines (from Economics to Art History to Women’s Studies) have spoken in support of Queer Studies; they have written letters
articulating the importance and relevance of Queer Studies to their own fields of study. Several professors have made an effort to meet with Bennet year after year arguing the necessity
of a Queer Studies line. Indeed, student and faculty support has been consistent and strong. Yet Wesleyan has made no effort to hire a professor in the line of Queer Studies.

Queer Studies has increasingly become accepted as one of the most progressive and exciting fields over the last fifteen years. More than just a recovery of Queer history and experiences, Queer Studies attempts to explore and deconstruct the multiple and intersecting ways in which notions of sex and sexuality structure world systems and our daily lives. It is an interdisciplinary field and is related to, but emphatically not congruent with, an exploration of gender, ethnicity, race and class in society. We ask for Queer Studies because any study and investigation of the world at-large is incomplete and insufficient if it ignores sexuality – a major element in the exchange of power, the investment of meaning, and a tool for the organization of societies across the world. 

The Academic Affairs and Education Policy Committees agree; they have not disputed Queer Studies’ legitimacy or academic merit as an important field of study. However, Wesleyan’s administration has not prioritized Queer Studies as a worthwhile investment. 

Wesleyan students do not have the option of a Queer Studies major. We do not even offer enough courses to legitimately fulfill the ‘concentration’ in Queer Studies within the American Studies and Women’s Studies Programs. Wesleyan only provides one core Queer Studies class taught once every two years, and there is no guarantee that this class will continue. Other Queer Studies courses are rarely and inconsistently offered, and the demand for these classes exceeds the number of seats available. Wesleyan has recognized the importance and merit of Queer Studies by developing the concentration; however, without a full-time, tenure-track professor, this concentration is not a viable option. 

As students involved in this battle, we are angry and tired of waiting. We recognize the necessity of equitable distribution of the University’s resources across the academic spectrum; we are urging to do just that. If Wesleyan truly intends to be a progressive school that produces ground-breaking research, it should be among the first schools to adopt a Queer Studies line – not one of the last. 

For the third consecutive year, the American Studies department submitted a proposal for one of the five remaining faculty positions. Academic Affairs is currently deciding which lines to approve. This opportunity is maybe our last chance to gain the support and resources to begin expanding our dwindling field. 

We ask now for your support so that Queer Studies might achieve the following three goals. First, a full-time tenure-tracked faculty line devoted specifically to Queer Studies; secondly, the inclusion of at least three Queer Studies classes in the curriculum every semester; and finally, the development of a Queer Studies program and major within five years.
 

Houseman and Singh are member of the class of 2002. Anderson is a member of the class of 2001.