Contributed by Christi Boggs

“Scars” Shaylee N Connely, Spring 2020

I chose to illustrate the labels we receive at birth and throughout our lives, and the scars we receive to deny them. Despite being damaged, the character is clearly happy with their decision and doesn’t care how others perceive these wounds and the rejection they represent. Similarly, those who are part of the Queer community are willing and capable of doing whatever they can, to make others aware of their existence and aware that despite their differences, they will continue to strive for acceptance regardless of the wounds they receive along the way.

Two years ago I was sitting at my computer getting ready to update a course I was teaching in the next semester. I had taught this course once before and although the student evaluations were relatively good I personally felt the class needed a complete overhaul. The source of my discomfort was the fact that I had inherited an iconic course from a legendary professor and was tasked with putting it online – a rough place to start teaching a new class. Despite my knowledge and instincts the first semester I basically just took the content and moved it to an online format without front lining anything of myself or my own knowledge. In online teaching it can be extremely seductive to teach a course that is already built, making minor changes.

challenge

I have been an online instructor and a faculty developer for 20 years and I have told countless faculty to ‘make the course your own’ but failed to follow my own advice. I had experienced firsthand exactly why this is so important.

dismantle

After a great deal of reflection and examination of the class I realized that in order to actually teach my topic, Queer Theory, I needed to “queer” the classroom. I couldn’t just teach queer theory using traditional/normative methods. I needed a complete course overhaul but what did that mean?

disrupt

Step into the dissonance, step into queer theory. In doing so you recognize that queer theory exposes how we all dis-align from norm. Queer theory questions a normal that affords membership to certain privileged identities while actively excluding other identities (Gunckel, 2009). David Halperin believes, “Queer is by definition whatever is at odds with the normal, the legitimate, the dominant. There is nothing in particular to which it necessarily refers. It is an identity without an essence”

This is the background from which I approach the idea of ‘queering’ the classroom. Dis-alignment with the norm, the legitimate, the dominant.

The traditional idea of a classroom invokes images of an instructor, behind a podium, imparting the wisdom of the ages to his students (I use ‘his’ purposefully as the typical image of a college professor is of a white, male). As white, queer-identified, able-bodied, and female-presenting my journey into the classroom already challenges this norm but if I do nothing to challenge, dismantle, and disrupt I am doing a disservice to both my students and myself.

explore

As I explored what queering the classroom might mean, an unexpected gift arrived in the form of a grant proposal for Open Education Resources (OER) presented by the University of Wyoming Libraries. The basic idea of OER challenges the norm in that the information used in a class is not locked behind a paywall by a textbook company. Instead, it is based on the idea that information should be free to swim around, floating into spaces where people can adapt, create, and make new knowledge outside the gatekeeping of companies and educational institutions. OER also greatly benefits students who may struggle to purchase multiple $300+ textbooks. The idea of OER fits perfectly into the idea of queer theory as it challenges the status quo, it dismantles a system of oppression, and disrupts a process that is rarely challenged. 

So an OER textbook is a great place to start BUT why just recreate the paradigm of instructors as the keepers and creators of knowledge? Could there be a different way to disperse the collective knowledge of our class, instructors and students together.

create

“Universal Family” by Mikkael Chick, Spring 2021

My design for a sculpture includes four pillars in a ring circumscribing a central pillar, which features water trickling down from the top into a pool within the ring. All the pillars are partly sculpted blocks, which represents that we are all works in progress, and the water trickling down the central block represents that we are continuously being shaped and changed because water has the power to erode stone. The four exterior pillars represent the four cardinal directions, because UW is a place for people from all over the world to come together to learn. The pillars connect in the center to form a shelter, a safe space, which is what we want our university to be. The connections between the pillars also represent a network because there is a network of support available to members of the UW family. The colors I chose were a combination of neutral tones, from light tan to dark brown, representing different skin tones. I also included vibrant colors because all the primary and secondary colors can and do exist in different skin tones and I wanted the sculpture to be a symbol of inclusion for people of color and queer people.

The idea came to me as I graded the final project for the Queer Theory course that showcases student learning.  This assignment is one of the pieces of the original course that was so impactful for students and I adapted it to fit both the online format and my own style but I honor my predecessor for such a fantastic activity. For this assignment, students became a curator for “the queer museum”: an imaginary museum dedicated to historical and contemporary queerness. Their task is to choose an artifact that they believe should be included in the museum’s collection and prepare an argument for the artifact’s relevance and importance to the museum. The students present or create the artifact to the class as if he/she/they were an artist presenting or a curator unveiling it for the museum’s board. In reading the submissions I realized that everything someone who is beginning to delve into Queer Theory would need to know was demonstrated in these presentations. A collaboration of faculty and student that is student-driven–this was the way to truly queer a textbook!

Thus began what has been three semesters of exploration and learning as I have collected student artwork, music, dance, poetry, creative writing, movies, digital presentations, reports, thoughts, and dreams. We are together building a truly queer space where all student work can be heard and celebrated. It is my dream to complete and grow this project to megaphone the voices of my students. 

References

Gunckel, K. L. (2009). Queering Science for All: Probing Queer Theory in Science Education. Journal of Curriculum Theorizing,25(2), 62-75. Retrieved July 16, 2021, from https://journal.jctonline.org/index.php/jct/article/view/GUNQU.

This post is by Christi Boggs and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, except where otherwise indicated. Please reference OER and Beyond and use this URL when attributing this work; for more information on licensing, see our Open Access Policy.