Texas A&M’s Women’s & Gender Studies program offers courses this fall promoting feminism, LGBT ideology, and a class using a textbook that features writings by Karl Marx and Mao Tse-tung.
The university describes the Women’s & Gender Studies program as “devoted to the critical analysis of gender and the pursuit of knowledge about women” historically and globally.
“Our courses yield fresh perspectives on the nature of gender as it intersects with race, ethnicity, class, religion, and nation,” the description continues.
One course in the catalog is “Introduction to LGBTQ Studies,” taught by Koyel Khan. The syllabus states the course will study the “histories of and theories regarding Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ+) identities and communities,” and “the institutional ways in which homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia are systematically deployed.”
Another core curriculum course, Intro to Women’s and Gender Studies, is taught by Dr. James Francis. He lists questions like “What are your pronouns?” as class topics in the syllabus.
Course outcomes include understanding power dynamics, privilege, and discrimination within organizations, and valuing diverse, global perspectives.
Students are encouraged to engage with local events in Bryan-College Station and reflect on these experiences to connect them to women’s and gender studies.
Week two topics include gender, sex, and sexuality.
Students are assigned homework readings from The Gendered Society by Michael S. Kimmel. According to Kimmel, “only white people in our society have the luxury not to think about race every minute of their lives. And only men have the luxury to pretend that gender does not matter.”
Throughout the course, students will absorb popular culture as a way “to gain a critical understanding” of Women’s & Gender Studies. Week 12’s topic is “Queer Film.”
According to instructor Marian Eide’s syllabus for Feminist Theory, this course is “designed to engage students in the intricacies of contemporary feminist theory” while allowing them to “construct their own theoretical framework” as they conduct research.
Learning outcomes for students include mastering advanced feminist theory concepts, examining gender expression in historical and cultural contexts, and applying feminist analysis methods.
In the Psychology of Women syllabus, Dr. Pamela Stanush Edens describes this honors course as “an introduction to the psychological issues that affect women.”
Course outcomes include “identify[ing] ways in which gender is a social construct,” comparing and contrasting women’s experiences across “race, ethnicity, and class,” and understanding “biological and socially constructed factors” contributing to “gender differences.”
“Gender stereotypes and other gender biases” is one of the course discussion topics.
On September 24, a “menstruation party” is scheduled, and on November 12, a “Celebration of Reproduction/Sexuality” is on the calendar.
The course textbook is Gender: The Basics by Hillary M. Lips.
Lips starts the first chapter by referencing Ursula LeGuin’s idea of a fictional world where no one is classified by sex except during a woman’s monthly cycle or when “sexual desires become insistent and individuals became ‘female’ or ‘male’ for the time it took to establish a sexual relationship.”
Lips adds that “most [of my students] react with similar perplexity and stubbornness when I ask them to ‘imagine yourself as still “you,” but as a different gender.’”
Introduction to Gender and Society, part of the TAMU core curriculum, is taught by two instructors this fall.
One section is taught by Dr. Joan Wolf, whose syllabus describes the class as an introduction “to the study of gender in society.”
Students will focus on “how ideas about gender are produced by social structures and social institutions, and intersectionality, or how experiences of sex and gender are informed by other social structures, including race, class, sexuality, and religion.”
According to the syllabus, upon completing this course, students will understand and analyze the exercise of power and authority in social organizations like government, schools, families, businesses, and media, while recognizing “privilege, implicit bias, and discrimination.”
Juan Quiroz teaches the other section. His syllabus explains that students will learn how gender and society interact in different contexts.
The textbook for this course is Social Theory: The Multicultural, Global, and Classic Readings by Charles Lemert. It contains essays by Winston Churchill and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—but also multiple writings by communists.
The book includes seven pieces by Karl Marx, the architect of communist ideology; one, “The Manifesto of Class Struggle,” was co-written with Friedrich Engels. Lemert included another Engels piece titled “The Patriarchal Family.”
Lemert also included one piece each by Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Soviet Union, and Chinese Communist revolutionary Mao Tse-tung. These are titled “What Is To Be Done?” and “Identity, Struggle, Contradiction,” respectively.
In an apparent endorsement of the works in his book, Lemert wrote in the preface that authors included in earlier editions were dropped from this one because “their theories have not endured the test of time.”
He added that, with regard to social theory, “[F]ew answers are completely right or wrong.”
The Women’s & Gender Studies program is housed within the College of Arts & Sciences under interim Dean Simon North.
After revelations of a Texas A&M instructor throwing a student out of class for objecting to promoting transgenderism to minors, the Texas A&M University System’s board of regents stated that Chancellor Glenn Hegar will “audit every course and ensure full compliance with all applicable laws.”
Neither Texas A&M nor its parent, the Texas A&M University System, responded to a request for comment before publication.
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