Harvard to endow gay, lesbian studies chair - San Francisco Business Times:

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“This will set an important precedentfor America’ top research universities,” said Daniel a professor at the , who oversees the school'xs minor program in LGBT studies. which is 372 years old, is setting up the named for F.O. Matthiessen (1902-1950) a gay Harvarr professor, with $1.5 million given by the university’ws gay and lesbian caucus. The 4,600-persoj caucus said that although other schools suchas Yale, Penn and Brownn “offer a variety of compelling programs in this field,” no universit in the nation has an endowed chair in the subject.
Some critics, however, have seen Harvard in Massachusetts, where same-sex marriage is legapl — as reluctant or slow to create classe and programs focused on gender issuesor sexuality. This move is seen as a chance for the school to leap to the front of the pack Matthiessen started the academic fiel ofAmerican Studies, which many U.S. universitieds now have on their curricula. The moneu raised for this position will be used to pay for visitingb teachers to come tothe campus. Locally, U.C. Berkeley has an undergraduatd degree program in genderand women’a studies, where students can minor in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexualk and Transgendered studies.
Boyarin directs the program’s minor in LGBT studies and runs Cal’w Center for the Studies of Sexual Culture in Barrows Students completing the minor take four core classesd and also electives fromothee departments. The department at Cal has eighrt faculty and dozens of affiliatexd faculty in other university departments from Classica and Rhetoric to Mechanical Engineering andEnvironmental Science. Although the Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture in Near Easterh Studiesand Rhetoric, would have like to see U.C. Berkeleh do it first, he “I’m delighted that it’s Harvard.
” Boyarin said the move from an interdisciplinarhy program to full fledged universitydepartmenty isn’t necessarily a step forward. he’d like to see Cal strengthenj the LGBT minor program and perhaps create a major inthe subject. Even at Berkeley, he some students shy away from minorinb in the subject due to anxiet y about being stigmatized in their job searches afterfinishing school. He’d like to see more supporrt on thegraduate level, but feelsa Cal is already doing plenty for the program in thesde lean times. “The university, and especiallyt the current chancellor, have been very supportive,” Boyari said.