'Angry White Male Studies' course comes to campus this fall

For the Fall 2022 semester, the history department at the University of Kansas is offering Angry White Male Studies as a course that will explore the “prominent figure” that is “the angry white male.” 

“This course charts the rise of the ‘angry white male’ in America and Britain since the 1950s, exploring the deeper sources of this emotional state while evaluating recent manifestations of male anger,” the course description reads.  

“Employing interdisciplinary perspectives this course examines how both dominant and subordinate masculinities are represented and experienced in cultures undergoing periods of rapid change connected to modernity as well as to rights-based movements of women, people of color, homosexuals and trans individuals,” it continues. 

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The instructor Christopher Forth writes in the description that the class will ask the following questions: “Where does he come from? What’s he angry about? Is his anger misplaced? Is he blaming the right people? How long has this been going on? Is he a global phenomenon? And how do we move forward?“ 

Forth is a professor of history and the Dean’s Professor of Humanities, serving in the departments of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and American Studies.

He and his class drew significant criticism from Kansas Congressman Ron Estes in 2019. Campus Reform previously reported on Estes’s comments regarding the course’s possible violation of Title IX.

[RELATED: Kansas congressman slams ‘Angry White Male’ course at KU]

In an April 3, 2019, tweet, the Congressman condemned the class, saying that “[i]nstead of a course to unite people and empower women, KU has decided to offer a class that divides the student population and could pose a Title IX violation by creating a hostile campus environment based on gender.”

Instead of a course to unite people and empower women, KU has decided to offer a class that divides the student population and could pose a Title IX violation by creating a hostile campus environment based on gender. #ksleg https://t.co/XhUNfpFUcW

— Rep. Ron Estes (@RepRonEstes) April 3, 2019

Title IX states that “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

Campus Reform reached out to Forth and the history department for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.