by Stacy Horn

      A new minor with coursework in LGBT and queer studies is in the works at UVM. The proposed minor, to be listed under the Women’s Studies program, is called Sexuality and Gender Identity Studies, and it may be available to students by the fall of 2005.
      Though the process of getting the minor in place has been slow, Assistant Professor Valerie Rohy expects the proposal will be approved once all the administrative requirements have been met. She does not expect opposition to the content of the minor from the administration. Student activist Adam Dubin adds that the remaining work now is just “hammering out logistics.”
      The proposal Rohy has drafted asks for no new courses and no extra funding but instead identifies existing courses that will fulfill the program. The only course in the proposal that has not yet been taught is “Introduction to Gender and Sexuality Studies,” and the Women’s Studies department has found funding and staff to begin teaching it this fall. According to Dubin, the course is already full, with a waiting list.
      So far, 17 faculty members who either teach or are committed to teaching courses that will fulfill the minor have signed on. Some core courses for the minor will include, “Gender and Sexuality in Literary Studies,” “Advanced Topics in Space, Power and Identity,” “Sexual Identities: LGBT Identities and Development,” “Sociology of Heterosexuality.”
      Rohy began drafting the proposal for the minor this spring, based on student, faculty and staff interest that has grown steadily for the past few years. Other UVM courses that deal with queer issues have enjoyed healthy enrollments.
      According to Dorothea Brauer, coordinator of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning and Allied Services at UVM, students have begun “to expect to see this issue addressed in the classroom.” Brauer has been sounding out faculty, staff and students on the topic of a queer studies program since 2001.
      Despite widespread interest, Brauer learned, “every department was pulling back, struggling to cover courses.” In the fall of 2002, however, Dubin, an LGBT ally who will be a senior this fall, approached both Brauer and Rohy about creating a queer studies minor.
      Dubin became interested in establishing a queer studies program when he met with the student organization “Free to Be LGBTQA” during his (unsuccessful) run for student government president. Brauer credits Dubin with “making sure that this project didn’t lose momentum,” and adds, “He doesn’t quit. He keeps working at it.”
      Among the project’s most persistent individuals are Rohy, Brauer, Dubin, Glen Elder (Associate Professor of Geography), Helga Schreckenberger (chair of Women’s Studies) and UVM student Caitlin Daniel-McCarter. Daniel-McCarter, president of Free to Be, has chosen queer studies as the concentration of her Women’s Studies major, which she will complete in the Spring of 2004.
      She explains, “My part was letting people know what’s out there, what’s missing.” While many courses deal with LGBT issues, “the concentration of LGBT content in my classes has not been really high.” Courses tend to look at gender through a traditional male-female binary lens and in the context of heterosexual relationships. Students like Daniel-McCarter require a more overt emphasis on LGBT issues and deconstruction of gender norms to fulfill their program of study.
      In the fall of 2002, when Dubin approached the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences about the possibility of an LGBT Studies minor, he was told that the college was open to a minor that could be launched using only existing resources.
      According to Rohy and Brauer, Schreckenberger’s work in providing this course through the Women’s Studies department has also been essential.
      The placement of the Sexuality and Gender Identity Studies minor under Women’s Studies is intentional. Brauer notes that historically Women’s Studies has relied on a binary gender opposition to define the category “women” and fight for the rights of that group. However, deconstructing the system of gender is the current focus of many Women’s Studies and Gender Studies programs throughout the nation.
      By naming the minor Sexuality and Gender Identity Studies rather than “LGBT Studies” or “Queer Studies,” the committee intended to invite students who may not identify as LGBT or allies. According to Daniel-McCarter, about half of the students in her “Queer American Literature” class were not active in the LGBT community at UVM, and were “so excited to learn” about the course’s material. Dubin, who also took the class, stresses that coursework in queer studies “is not limited to queer people.”
      When asked what she plans to do with her queer studies concentration, Daniel-McCarter replies, “That’s the million-dollar question.” She says she’d like to “remain an activist professionally” and has been investigating law school. In particular, she’s interested in pursuing transgender rights. She adds, “It would be cool if we could take over and have this whole slew of LGBT lawyers and politicians.”
      The proposal acknowledges that some students who complete the Sexuality and Gender Identity Studies minor may go on to pursue law, while others might pursue careers related to psychology or social work and still others may go on to the growing number of graduate programs related to queer studies. Dubin hopes that UVM “will see this as something intrinsic to a liberal arts education,” and that “other schools use our model to build LGBT programs.”