Columbia offers ‘Trans History’ of US by instructor who researched ‘Radical Faeries’
The course examines ‘the diversity of gendered experiences across the history of the United States with an emphasis on the individuals, communities, and movements that have been interpreted as trans.’
The course instructor previously researched ‘Radical Faeries,’ a group of people who get together to ‘dance naked,’ ‘commit heresies,’ and ‘cover each other with mud.’
Columbia University is offering a course titled “A Trans History of the United States.”
The class covers “the diversity of gendered experiences across the history of the United States with an emphasis on the individuals, communities, and movements that have been interpreted as trans,” and aims to “offer an in-depth survey of the history of trans and gender nonconforming experiences across the history of the United States.”
The “key themes” to be examined include the “experiences of trans/gender in relation to race and colonialism, labor, migration, medicine, kinship and sexuality, legal and carceral systems, activism, performance, media, and technology,” as well as “the political stakes of trans history during times of backlash and hostility towards trans communities.”
The class instructor, Nikita Shephard, who goes by “they/them” pronouns, is currently working on a doctoral dissertation that “documents a political history of the public bathroom in modern America.” His work focuses on “histories of LGBTQ communities, gender/sexuality and race, social movements, data and surveillance, and radical politics in the twentieth century United States and beyond.”
His past work included research on “Radical Faeries,” a group that includes “drag queens, leatherfolk, political activists, witches, [and] magicians,” who get together to “do drag,” “make love,” “dance naked,” “cry, sing, laugh, argue,” “sew,” “commit heresies,” and “cover each other with mud.”
Shepard has previously acted as teaching assistant for other classes, including “US Lesbian and Gay History” and “Introduction to Sexuality Studies.”
Columbia is also offering other classes promoting gender ideology, including a “Gender & Power Transnational Perspective” class that examines “gender, sexuality, and power as they circulate transnationally, as well as transnational feminist and queer movements that have emerged to address contemporary gendered and sexual inequalities.”
[RELATED: Western Washington U holding ‘Queerientation’ for incoming students]
Students can also take classes on “Gender and Sexuality in Yiddish Literature” and “Queer/Trans Holocaust History.”
Other colleges and universities also offer courses focused on gender and sexuality. Barnard College in New York has a “Queer Caribbean Critique” class that teaches students about “same-sex desire in the Caribbean region,” and the University of New Mexico offers a class on “Queer Cinema” that covers “Lesbian Vampires,” among other things.
Campus Reform has reached out to Columbia University and Professor Nikita Shephard for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
