Top 5 crazy courses of 2023
A course offered at UChicago teaches students that God is a 'queer' ally.
This year, many universities drew attention for certain courses that were being offered on their campuses. From a course in transgender oppression to whether or not God is “queer,” universities have offered a wide variety of eyebrow-raising courses.
Campus Reform has compiled a list of the top 5 craziest courses offered by colleges in 2023.
5. UMich Law’s Progressive Prosecutor course explores ‘eliminating racial and socioeconomic inequity’
A course at the University of Michigan Law School, “Progressive Prosecution: Law and Policy” is teaching students to look past “tough-on-crime” policies in favor of a more “progressive” approach that prioritizes “combatting overincarceration” and “eliminating racial and socioeconomic inequity.”
The University of California, Berkeley recently released its list of Gender and Women’s Studies (GWS) courses for the upcoming fall semester that will teach students through intersectional approaches to topics like abortion and feminism.
Among the courses that the university is set to offer is a special topics course titled “Reproductive Liberty and Justice,” which will examine “how the history of slavery, settler colonialism, racism, eugenics, and pronatalism have influenced the fights over control of fertility in the US.”
3. ’Queer Russia’ and ‘Bad Sex’ among courses offered by Wesleyan University for upcoming school year
“Queer Russia” and “Bad Sex” are among the courses that Wesleyan University in Connecticut plans to offer its undergraduate students this fall.
“The current ongoing war in Ukraine has resurrected the Cold War-era narratives about Russia as a dark, aggressive, and ruthless military power,” the course description for “Queer Russia” reads. “This course focuses on gender and sexuality in exploring an alternative cultural history of Russia, which highlights its queer legacy from the nineteenth century to the present.”
2. Massachusetts university offers free ‘Trans 101’ course
The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst)’s Stonewall Center offers a free “LGBTQIA+ Foundations and Allyship” web course, and other LGBTQ-based workshops and resources, for faculty, staff, and students.
Allyship is a social justice term referring to one social identity group assisting another. The Stonewall Center is a UMass Amherst-run LGBTQ support group.
1. ’Is God Queer?’ - UChicago Religious Studies course examines God as ‘an ally in queer worldmaking’
The University of Chicago is introducing “Queering God” to its Religious Studies course offerings for this fall. The class, RLST 26105, will incorporate “foundational concepts in queer and trans studies by focusing on queer Jewish, Christian, and Islamic theologies.”
According to the school’s course catalog, Queering God will seek to answer “Can God be an ally in queer worldmaking?,” and “Is God queer?”