In their second survey, the authors found that the majority of students felt that PROJECT 10 had been positive and beneficial - not merely for LGBT students, but for the overall educational environment.
This resonates with one of the conclusions reached by Sedgwick (1993) when she offered her first class in gay and lesbian studies at Amherst College in 1986. While she initially designed the course for the five to six students she believed would show up, she was quite shocked when, on the first day of class, sixty-five students showed up, most of whom identified as straight. While Sedgwick is writing as a literary scholar, rather than a social scientist, her comments on pedagogy, as one of the most important proponents of queer theory since its emergence in the academy in the 1980s, are pertinent here. Sedgwick notes that it is fairly common in the United States for teachers...
[ View Full Essay]