For Benjamin Mather, Queer Theory wasn’t a special interest or elective course taken for a fun break from the norm.
Mather, interdisciplinary perspectives on the environment junior, said it was a change of world view and new outlook for his desired field of study.
“It shouldn’t be seen as a special interest class, as so many women’s and gender studies classes are,” Mather said. “This information is widely relevant and it gives students an analytical lens to understand so many other fields of study.”
The Queer Theory course was introduced by the OU Department of Women’s and Gender Studies in 2009 and has only been offered three times since, but Queer Theory instructor Richard Davis said he looks forward to the course becoming a regular fixture at OU.
The class is an upper division credit, but it is not required to complete any degree program. However, Davis said the course continues to fill every semester it is offered, and he receives numerous inquiries from students wanting to take the course.
“I think because people are very hungry for this information, and interested in whether or not what they view as their sexuality or gender expression is represented on campus,” Davis said. “Not everyone on campus is straight, and not everyone is either male or female, and to have one class out of thousands on campus is something that people with different sexualities or different gender expressions are very hungry for.”
The class looks at the queer theory body of literature that focuses on how sexuality is socially constructed within society, how that social construction creates structures of power and who benefits from that power, Davis said.
While OU has jumped on board with this expanding field, students may not hear the words “queer theory” at other universities.
Oklahoma State University offers a sexuality theory course but only a minor in gender and women’s studies.
“Dealing or talking with sexualities, with gender differences, gender expressions is something that a lot of people aren’t really comfortable with because it’s tied in with things like religion; it’s tied in with things like interpersonal relations, maintaining power and control, and with morality,” Davis said.
Mather said the course helped him to challenge and understand the pattern of privilege and oppression in his own life and community, allowing him to go into other classes with a different perspective on why the world functions the way it does.
Women’s and gender studies junior Carly Palans said she plans to take the class in the spring after hearing her friends’ reviews of the course and its relevancy to her everyday life.
“I feel like that’s a subject that’s really been lacking from my education,” Palans said. “I want to study more about gender and sexuality. I feel like it’s something you don’t go into enough.”
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eerucker 5 months, 3 weeks ago
I so wish I had space for this course in my degree program. I have learned a little bit about queer theory on my own and it is such a revolutionary way to look at the world - I'm so excited this is offered at OU.