HARD COPY: Endangered knowledges: sexuality studies on the chopping block
Check out what faculty and students from women’s, gender, and sexuality studies (and over a dozen other programs including indigenous studies) are facing at Canada’s third-largest university in this interview from Toronto Life with Frances Latchford, the chair of the school of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies. Latchford admits that she “can’t blame everything on the university administration—they’re operating in a context created by a succession of governments that have dismantled what a university is supposed to be.” She continues, “when I went to university back in the ’80s, a post-secondary education was considered a social good in and of itself—not just something that will help you get a job.” Sure, funding has been and continues to be a very real problem where Canadian and American universities are concerned, but those teachers and students pushing back – and there’s been LOTS of pushback – are also grilling York University’s administration for capitulating to xenophobic politics being pedaled by the tyrant with tiny hands from south of the border.
What York University *could* have done is rose to the occasion and been a hero of higher education! The administration *could* have taken a courageous stance of “NOT HERE!” by protecting their programs, their students, their teachers, and their integrity. Many academics are hopeful for a policy reversal, but in the meantime, the protests continue. Allyson Mitchell, an assistant professor of gender, sexuality, and studies, posted this bit of hope after a recent rally:
“Another day at work and another day of action with students and colleagues to voice concern about the pause on our programs. They say they are not cuts but no amount of gas lighting can give me a false sense of security for Gender Studies and Indigenous Studies at York. They call us hysterical in the newspaper but you can bet we have a feminist analysis of that!!! They say our courses are basket weaving and again we come at it with an intersectional analysis that sees the value of Indigenous knowledge related to baskets and weaving (not to mention feminist textile craft). These insults are low hanging fruit and really demonstrate the need for liberal arts education to teach critical analysis of the views expressed by sexist racist men like Doug Ford and Peter MacKinnon in the National Post today. That’s what they are so scared of. I love being with pals and students at these events. They energize me to keep going.”