MA students can obtain LGBT certificate through courses like 'Transgender Literature'
The Five College Consortium has released a list of courses for this upcoming semester that qualify students for the 'Queer, Trans, and Sexuality Studies' certificate.
The certificate requirements can be met through courses like 'Gendered Violence in Spain,' 'Nonbinary Romanticism,' and 'Transgender Literature.'
The Five College Consortium — a group of higher education institutions in Massachusetts — has released a list of courses for this upcoming semester that qualify students for the “Queer, Trans, and Sexuality Studies” certificate.
The certificate’s central focus is gender, but it also incorporates other identities, such as race and ethnicity. The Five College Consortium comprises Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Students can earn the certificate by completing “[o]ne intro/survey/topics/foundational course in queer/trans/sexuality studies,” “[o]ne intro/survey/topics/foundational course in critical race/transnational studies,” and “[f]ive courses that demonstrate study in more than one of the following areas: the Fine Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Engineering,” according to the certificate’s description page.
The page stipulates additional requirements, such as that all of the courses must have “[s]ignificant queer/trans/sexuality studies content” and should “challenge the assumption that heterosexuality is natural and normal.” These courses should not use “gender” for “women” or “women and men,” which the page clarifies to mean that they should not be “treating gender as a binary.”
The Consortium recently made a list of courses that fulfill the requirements, which includes “Gendered Violence in Spain,” “Nonbinary Romanticism,” and “Transgender Literature.”
“With the onslaught of American, French, Haitian, and South American revolts and revolutions, the Atlantic world, much of Europe, and its colonial/industrial empire were thrown into a period of refiguring the concept of the raced, national, and gendered subject,” the description for Nonbinary Romanticism says. “This course considers what new forms of gender, sex, sexuality, and being were created, practiced, or thought, however momentarily, in this tumultuous age.”
[RELATED: Anti-racism certificate helps graduates ‘center equity’ in K-12, higher education]
As Campus Reform has previously reported, many colleges and universities have been advancing “queer studies” and “trans studies” in recent years. Campus Reform reported on this trend last year, which included schools such as Southern Oregon University and the University of Minnesota.
Campus Reform contacted the Five Colleges Consortium and the Queer, Trans, and Sexuality Studies certificate co-chairs for comment. This story will be updated accordingly.
