Developing and Expanding LGBTQ
Courses, Concentrations, and
Programs
CIIS Expanding the Circle Summer Institute
26 June 2013 | San Francisco CA
Molly Merryman, Kent State University
Associate Professor & Associate Chair of Sociology
Co-coordinator of LGBT Studies
mmerryma@kent.edu
Kenneth G Valente, Colgate University
Professor of Mathematics and LGBTQ Studies
Director of the Division of Interdisciplinary Studies
kvalente@colgate.edu
Introductory comments
Our experiences with ETCSI 2012 shaped this year’s
workshop
2012: Developing programs > Charting and sharing our
experiences in establishing programs > Roadmaps
2013: Developing and expanding programs > The variety of
curricular structures we’re creating > Homebuilding
Above all, we want to acknowledge the importance of coming
together to share our aspirations, anxieties, and achievements
Workshop overview | Morning session
Blueprints and floor plans
An opportunity for dialogue around our curricular structures
Designing a dream home
Our notions of an ideal curricular structure will vary but we may
share particular aspirations
Lunch
Workshop overview | Afternoon session
Financing and contracting the build
Our structures are subject to various financial and staffing constraints
Space for living well
Our structures support and are shaped by various student, curricular,
and institutional needs
Remodeling and refitting
Our programs need to respond to realities as they present themselves
within and outside of the institution
Being neighborly
Our programs intersect with various scholarly, curricular, and
institutional initiatives
Collective living
We should endeavor to support each other beyond ETCSI
Blueprints and floor plans
The workshop is an opportunity for dialogue dedicated to our
curricular structures. These are the spaces we inhabit
through courses, concentrations and programs committed to
LGBTQ and Sexuality Studies. It’s also a chance to reflect on
their relationship to our institutions as well as our aspirations
for them.
Blueprints and floor plans (continued)
 Your name, institution and affiliation
 Type of institution
 Curricular structure dedicated to LGBTQ / Queer / Sexuality
Studies
 Courses across the curriculum without a dedicated program
 Academic concentration within another department / program or
as part of general education requirements
 Department/program offering an academic certificate, minor, or
major
 Title of the concentration, certificate, or program
Designing a dream home
Our notions of an ideal curricular structure will vary but we
may share particular aspirations.
 What is your ideal structure?
 Do our ideal structures share basic features?
 Can we identify aspects of effective or successful structures
for providing meaningful engagements with LGBTQ Studies?
Notable structures in small or liberal arts
institutions
Bates College (ME)
Queer Studies | Concentration within General Education requirements
Napa Valley College (CA)
LGBT Studies | Program within Child & Family Studies offering a certificate
Denison University (OH)
Queer Studies | Program offering a minor
Hobart & William Smith Colleges (NY)
LGBT Studies | Program offering a major and a minor
Macalester College (MN)
WGS Studies | Program offering a major and a minor
Notable structures in large public or research
institutions
City College of San Francisco
LGBT Studies | Program offering a major
University of Maryland
LGBT Studies | Program offering a certificate and a minor
San Diego State University
LGBT Studies | Program offering a major and a minor
Notable structures in large public or research
institutions (continued)
San Francisco State University
LGBT Studies | Program within Sexuality Studies offering a minor
Sexuality Studies | Program offering a minor and a Masters
New York University
Gender & Sexuality Studies | Program offering a major and a minor
Ohio State University
Sexuality Studies | Program offering a major, a minor, and a Graduate
Interdisciplinary Specialization
Financing & contracting the build
Our curricular structures are subject to various financial and
staffing constraints.
 How are we funding our curricular structures?
 How are we staffing our structures?
 Is this Habitat for Humanity or Custom Building?
Spaces for living well
Our curricular structures support and are shaped by various
student, curricular, and institutional needs.
 Can we have too many ala carte courses within our
curricular structures?
 Where appropriate, what guidelines frame our inclusion of
contributing courses?
 To what extent do our structures work with or support
campus-life initiatives? Can this create stress?
Remodeling and refitting
Our curricular structures need to respond to realities as they
present themselves within and outside of the institution.
 How do we adapt structures to fit new realities (when
institutional policies may hinder us in keeping apace with
scholarly/societal/political change)?
 What particular challenges bear on our structures and how
are we negotiating them? What transformations might be on
the horizon?
Being neighborly
Our curricular structures intersect with various scholarly,
curricular, and institutional initiatives.
 Can/should we develop linkages with other areas to form new
interdisciplinary structures (African American Studies, Chicana/o
Studies, Asian American Studies, Jewish Studies, Middle Eastern Studies,
etc)?
 To what extent do our structures contribute to institution-wide
curricular requirements?
 To what extent do our structures instigate institutional transformations
that affect students, curricula, and disciplines? That is, in what ways do
our structures queer normative dynamics within our institutions?
Collective living
How should we endeavor to support each other beyond
ETCSI?
 Would a census or benchmarking of existing curricular
structures be a useful exercise? If so, in what ways? What
objectives might frame the exercise?
 To what extent do we believe that established and
developing structures would benefit from a national
organization such as the NWSA or any of those associated
with African American, Asian American, Chicana/o Studies,
etc?