by Alexa Schwerha
Colleges offered students the opportunity to enroll in unique courses during the 2022 semesters, the Daily Caller News Foundation found.
These courses tackled a variety of topics including “whiteness” and queerness, while others focused on subjects such as pornography and pop culture. Some of the courses sparked national backlash, forcing the schools to either defend or reconsider what they teach students in the classroom.
For example, the University of Chicago was forced to postpone its anticipated “The Problem Of Whiteness” course after it received blowback from national media attention this fall. The course, which was supposed to be available to students during the winter quarter, claimed that “whiteness has resurfaced as a conspicuous problem within liberal political discourse.”
“This seminar examines the problem of whiteness through an anthropological lens, drawing from classic and contemporary works of critical race theory,” the course description reads. “Attending to the ways in which various forms of social positioning and historical phenomena intersect in the formation of racial hierarchy, we will approach whiteness as a ‘pigment of the imagination’ with worldmaking (and razing) effects.”
The course will now be offered this spring, according to the university catalog.
Keeping on the whiteness trend, the University of Kansas offered a course called Angry White Male Studies during the fall 2022 semester. The course was offered in the history department and sought to answer questions about angry white men.
“It’s sometimes said that white men are the angriest of all, that they feel aggrieved and unable to adjust to changing realities of gender and race for fear of losing their privilege,” the course description reads. “Like it or not, ‘the angry white male’ is a prominent figure in our cultural imagination and, as such, a phenomenon worthy of study.”
“Where does he come from? What’s he angry about? Is his anger misplaced? Is he blaming the right people? How long has this been going on? Is he a global phenomenon? And how do we move forward?” the description continued. “This course seeks to answer these and other questions by exploring the historical background to white male anger in modern America and how it is manifested in the wider world today.”
It further claimed that the course “does not shrink from ambiguity and paradox” and “resists the polarizing tendencies of so much that passes for ‘debate’ these days.” It warned that the course is not for students who “can’t deal with that.”
The course is not on the schedule for the 2023 spring semester, according to the course catalog.
Other courses explored sex and queerness. A film studies course at Westminster College in Utah titled “Porn” invited students to “watch pornographic films together and discuss the sexualization of race, class, and gender and as an experimental, radical art form.”
“Hard core pornography is as American as apple pie and more popular than Sunday night football,” the course descriptionreads. “Our approach to this billion-dollar industry is as both a cultural phenomenon that reflects and reinforces sexual inequalities (but holds the potential to challenge sexual and gender norms) and as an art form that requires serious contemplation.”
It is not currently listed on the spring 2023 catalog.
The University of Hawai’i at Mānoa launched a “queer dance” course in fall 2022 which was taught by a local drag queen.
“Queer theory and queer studies are emerging in university curriculums across the nation,” University of Hawai’i News reported. “UH Mānoa is one of the first higher education institutions in the country to offer a full-semester, three-credit performing arts practice based course in queer dance.”
“The flagship campus of the UH 10-campus system consists of 14 colleges and schools with 100 bachelor degree programs, 89 master programs and 57 doctoral programs,” the university told the DCNF in a prepared statement. “The dance class elective is one of about 5,000 courses offered in the fall 202[2] semester.”
Courses across the country also revolved around pop culture. New York University offered a spring semester course on Taylor Swift while the University of South Florida offered a course titled “Disney and the Politics of Pop Culture.”
“Using in-class screenings, discussions, readings, and writing, students will examine a wide variety of Disney media, looking at global representation, production, and audiences through an intersectional lens,” the course description reads.
Lawrence University in Wisconsin offered its students the chance to de-stress in a one-credit course titled “Doing Nothing” during the fall semester. Students were taught to relax and invited to practice mindfulness, poetry and knitting.
The course quickly gained popularity and enrolled 52 students during the fall 2022 semester, and the professor hopes the course will be offered regularly. It is currently listed on the 2022-2023 course catalog.
Students preparing to return to campus for the 2023-2024 academic year will have no shortcoming of courses to choose from.
Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts will offer a course titled “Black + Queer in Leather: Black Leather/BDSM Material Culture” which “will consider the fragility of archival engagement with [black queer] communities by surveying existing BDSM archives in research libraries, community groups, and individuals and their personal ephemera.”
“Black Queer BDSM material culture resists contextualization in relationship to biographical narratives because of the underground elements of the community,” its description reads.
The University of Chicago, the University of Kansas, Westminster College, New York University, University of South Florida, Lawrence University and Princeton University did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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Alexa Schwerha is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “University of Chicago” by The University of Chicago.
