Queer Theory & Women’s Studies Programs at Risk in Georgia & Florida

Sorted under GLBTQ, education on February 15, 2009

Republican Georgia state Representatives Charlice Byrd and Calvin Hill recently announced their own “grassroots” effort to get rid of professors with expertise in a variety of different subjects, such as male prostitution, oral sex and queer theory. The two representatives have said they will team up with the Christian Coalition and other religious groups to pressure lawmakers as well as the University System Board of Regents to eliminate the jobs of these professors.

Byrd said:

This is not considered higher education. If legislators are going to dole out the dollars, we should have a say-so in where they go.”

Hill added his own condescending insult, saying that their job is to educate “their people” in sciences, business and math and that professors aren’t going to meet those needs by teaching a class in queer theory.

These two representatives have also claimed (and displayed publicly on their website) that a University of Georgia professor is “actively recruiting young teenage gays to accompany him on international trips,” even though UGA investigators have concluded that their argument is false.

Georgia has one of the country’s highest rate of sexually transmitted disease and the research of these experts has been geared towards reducing that number. Last Tuesday, at a meeting of the state House Higher Education Committee, two of the Georgia State University experts that Byrd and Hill are trying to get ousted won praise for their research and have spoken out about their expertise as well as the work they are proud to have accomplished. While these experts have been publicly praised by their superiors and their peers, Byrd and Hill said that they are going to continue to investigate as well as continue to ask their constituents to investigate and refuse to back down.

In Florida, Florida Atlantic University officials have proposed a suspension of their entire Women, Gender and Sexuality department as well as their master’s degree program in women’s studies. The reason behind the proposed suspension is said to be for fiscal reasons.

The Women’s Studies Center and the M.A. program is said to use a combined .00025% of the university’s total education budget, so naturally the FAU’s Women’s Studies department rejects the idea that the decision is about budget cuts, saying:

“At a university where the average salary of a male professor is $16, 000 higher than the average salary of a female professor, how else are we to interpret the proposed suspension of the Women’s Studies Center and M.A. program than as an attack on women?”

FAU is one of only several dozen universities that offer an advanced degree in Women’s Studies and is one of the fewer women’s studies departments to hold an annual symposium attended by other universities. If these proposed budget cuts are approved, the suspension will begin in the fall of 2010 and while officials say the suspension will be short term, no information regarding a time frame has been released by the university.

FAU’s women’s studies department has launched an internet campaign to battle the budget cuts. Sign the petition and join the Facebook group to write letters of protest to be delivered directly to the university president.

The fact that queer theory and women’s studies programs are even at risk in the first place of being declared obsolete shows the true ignorance, bigotry and most of all, fear coming from the Republican representatives urging these changes to be made. They are basically saying that people in college do not have the right to be educated in these important and cultural subjects. I hope that lawmakers in both Georgia and Florida are not in the business of making clones, which is what the Republican, religious right wants–Republican and religious fresh out of college drones that will continue the dishonest and close-minded work of those who came before them.



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  • Mark
    This is Georgia, the state that as recently as 1995 still had laws that made oral and anal sex illegal, even between consenting adults. This is not the state to be proud of in any way shape or form.
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