Although students and faculty have made progress in expanding opportunities to study LGBT issues in Tufts classrooms, plans for the creation of a queer studies program have been put on hold due to the current economic crisis.
Tufts currently offers "Introduction to Queer Studies," a course in the women's studies program, but many would like to see the class expanded into a larger program. Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senators Ryan Heman, a sophomore, and Joel Greenberg, a freshman, have strongly advocated for the establishment of a queer studies program.
Both senators said that if such a program were established, it would likely be interdisciplinary rather than serve as its own academic department.
Tufts took a step toward the creation of a queer studies program in 2003 with the inauguration of the Queer Studies Scholar Series to "expose people to different leading scholars in the field and drum up interest and knowledge," Dona Yarbrough, former director of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Center, told the Daily.
Yarbrough started teaching Intro to Queer Studies in 2005, and the course was integrated into the women's studies program. "To me, that was the first step in building something bigger, and I'm glad it sounds like it [might] go to the next level," said Yarbrough, who recently left Tufts to serve as the director of the Center for Women at Emory University.
Senior Sofia Nelson, who works at the LGBT Center, has pushed for more queer studies courses since her sophomore year. After taking Intro to Queer Studies, she began to wish that Tufts offered an advanced queer studies course. Nelson put forth the idea of expanding queer studies in an op-ed published in the Daily last year.
"The university called on us to put an academic lens on diversity issues that we've been struggling with in our community, … which is a great suggestion," Nelson told the Daily. "Not that you can completely remove the emotional, but one of the things the university needs to do is provide the courses and professors needed so that students can turn an academic lens to these issues."
The current economic crisis has meant that plans for a queer studies program have been put on hold indefinitely. According to Heman, right now is likely "the worst time in the world" to talk about starting a new academic program.
Nelson agreed. "I completely understand the financial situation the university is currently in and that no action on this [can be taken] in the near future until the financial situation improves. And while I want it to remain on the radar screen of those in charge of this … until funds become available, I don't expect any action to take place," she said.
There are some possible courses of action, however, that could hasten the creation of a queer studies program. One option is to change Tufts' major in women's studies to one in women, gender and sexuality studies. "[This] is a model that many other schools have taken," Nelson said. Replicating this would mean Tufts could offer "more queer studies courses under that major that you could de facto concentrate in," she said.
Yarbrough recommended that the university hire professors for its other academic departments who can teach courses in the queer studies program. "You can always work to see if there are other departments who are looking for something specific and would look for a queer studies person as well," she said.
Greenberg said that the program would shine light on an under-addressed subject.
"I think that's something Tufts really needs," Greenberg said. "Part of the mission of Tufts is to give its students a world perspective and a diverse perspective, and I think we normally think of those words to mean different places, different countries, different colors of skin, but not different sexual orientation."
He continued, "I think there is an aspect of diversity that is covered in that field that is glazed over at the university level."
