Brown offers ‘Teaching LGBTQIA History’ course this fall

Brown University in Rhode Island is offering a “Teaching LGBTQIA History” course in their Education Department this fall semester, preparing educators to teach LGBTQ history in social studies classrooms across the country. 

According to the course description, “[s]tudents will...create their own unit plans on a topic in LGBTQIA history that could be taught to local Providence high school students.”

Students will also ask, “What could a high school U.S. history class look, sound, and feel like when taught through the experiences of LGBTQIA people and communities?”

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They “will answer this question by engaging with the theories and practices of teaching LGBTQIA history in secondary social studies and humanities classrooms.”

The course will be taught by Professor John Palella.

“His research and teaching interests are in histories of race, gender, and sexuality; promoting antiracism through storytelling, role playing, and process drama; toxic masculinity and multiple masculinities in social studies curricula and educational contexts; and teaching LGBTQIAA+ history in social studies classrooms,” according to Mr. Palella’s campus profile.

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When asked by Campus Reform if students will learn to teach current LGBTQIA issues such as youth transgender athletic participation and sex-change surgery, Palella confirmed  that “students will be encouraged to do research and teach on all of the important issues that [were] mention[ed], which are critical to supporting LGBTQIA students and their families.”

Campus Reform also contacted Brown University’s media relations regarding the course, but has not yet received a response. This article will be updated accordingly.