Mission Statement
The minor in Queer Studies is designed to create a space and a curriculum in which the stories, accomplishments, and perspectives of LGBTQ+ people are told, not as marginal side notes, but in all their dynamic, world-changing complexity.
Goals
The goals of the Queer Studies minor include:
- Educate students about the major concepts that organize the field of LGBTQ+ and Queer Studies as an academic discipline and a mode of analysis.
- Educate students about LGBTQ+ identities and experiences to increase diversity awareness and competence, and to understand the complex ways that race, class, and nationality intersect with sexuality in the contemporary world.
- Interrogate the ways that culture regulates sexuality and the ways in which sexuality influences social institutions, political discourses, and artistic expressions.
- Explore the institutional and cultural factors that create and maintain systems of oppression.
- Center academic knowledge and promote greater inclusion of LGBTQ+ perspectives on campus and in the community.
Origins
Nationally, LGBT/Queer Studies programs have existed for over twenty-five years, and degrees are currently being awarded at the levels of the B.A., M.A., and Ph.D.1
At JMU, this academic discipline has been reflected primarily in courses in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) curriculum. Pioneering faculty have offered a handful of LGBTQ+ centric courses: SOCI 347: Queer Theories of Gender and Inequality; ENG 370: Queer Literature; WGSS 300: Queer Families; JUST 386: Sexual Orientation, Law and Justice. Such slim offerings would not have been problematic if LGBTQ+ content, scholarship, and methodology were integrated across the disciplines and interspersed throughout individual courses. Unfortunately, this is not the case and, in fact, even in courses where LGBTQ+ content and/or queer scholarship could easily be integrated, it is often relegated to one week in the semester or to “a single lecture in which LGBTQ+ individuals and families are simply described as alternatives to the norm.”2 Although WGSS and Queer Studies are complementary, Queer Studies has its own unique concerns that merit full representation at JMU.
In support of the proposal effort, Dr. Molly Merryman, Kent State University Faculty and founder of their LGBTQ+ Center in 2001, visited JMU’s campus to meet with students, faculty, administrators and community members. Funded by a 2021-2022 Provost Faculty Diversity Curruculum Grant, Dr. Merryman’s visit culminated in a feasibility report in support of JMU offering a Queer Studies minor. Faculty and students participated in surveys and focus groups to determine interest and viability. The Office of Inclusive Strategies and Equity Initiatives awarded a 2023 grant to develop the proposal. CAL awarded a 2023 Course Development Summer Grant to support developing the Intro to Queer Studies required course. With support of Interim CAL Dean Traci Zimmerman, Drs. Goode and Thompson (ENG) and Kristen Kelley (Learning Centers) formally proposed the Queer Studies Minor in fall 2023. Approved and entered into the 24-25 JMU Course Catalog in spring 2024, the Queer Studies minor is open for enrollment.
An interdisicplinary minor, the curriculum is supported by courses across the university, including Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, English, Justice Studies, Sociology, College of Education, Geography, Latin American, Latinx, and Caribbean Studies, Political Science, Philosphy and Religion, School of Communication Studies, School of Theater and Dance, and Writing, Rhetoric and Technical Communication. As the Queer Studies minor emerges and develops, reach and scope will expand.
1 Younger, John. University LGBT/Queer Programs.
2 Kuvalanka, K., Goldberg, A., & Oswald, R. (2013). Incorporating LGBTQ issues into family courses: Instructor challenges and strategies relative to perceived teaching climate. Family Relations, 62, 699-713.
