Kenyon regularly offers a number of permanent courses and special topics courses with a specific and explicit focus on the LGBTQ+ community and/or queer issues. Below, we’ve listed courses that are currently featured in the course catalog, along with additional information about LGBTQ+ focused courses at the college.

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Permanent LGBTQ+ Courses

The following are permanent courses that have an explicit focus on LGBTQ+ or queer issues.

  • AMST 102D: United States History, 1865-Present
  • ENGL 214: Gender Benders
  • ENGL 389: Gender and Sexuality in Native American Literature
  • FILM 291: Queer Cinema
  • FREN 365: Francophone Graphic Novels and Films
  • GERM 366: Cinema and Sexuality in German Film After 1990
  • HIST 102D: United States History, 1865-Present
  • SOCY 491: Transgender Sociology
  • SPAN 340: Latin American Cinema
  • SPAN 369: Queering Spanish American Literature and Film
  • WGS 121: Intro to Queer Studies

Other Courses

In addition to having numerous classes with a specific and explicit focus on the LGBTQ+ community, a number of our classes also discuss gender and sexuality in a more holistic way. We also offer special topics courses that have a specific focus on queer and/or transgender issues. The following represent some of these courses, which have been recently offered.

  • ANTH 350: Human Sexuality and Culture
  • ENGL 212: Introduction to Literary Theory
  • ENGL 280: American Literary Modernism
  • ENGL 284: Demons, Great Whites and Aliens
  • ENGL 358: Victorian Ghosts
  • DRAM 291: LGBTQ Theater History
  • HIST 291: Global History of HIV/AIDS
  • HIST 391: The History of Sexuality
  • PHIL 308: Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy
  • PSYC 328: Latino Psychology
  • SOCY 250: Systems of Stratification
  • SOCY 421: Gender Stratification
  • WGS 111: Intro to Women’s and Gender Studies
  • WGS 150: Gender and Popular Culture
  • WGS 232: Topics in Masculinity
  • WGS 491: Transgender Social Movements

What LGBTQ+ Courses Do You Want?

The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is invested in supporting all aspects of our queer and transgender students’ lives at Kenyon College. The ODEI actively performs outreach to faculty who are interested in incorporating more LGBTQ+ topics into their curriculum.

If you don’t see a LGBTQ+ course that you find interesting, please let us what type of class you’d like to see offered in the future. You can do this by arranging a meeting with ODEI Associate Director Dorian Rhea Debussy who will communicate with the relevant department.

Other LGBTQ+ Focused Academic Projects

In addition to working with faculty to offer more LGBTQ+ content in their courses, the ODEI also regularly partners with other campus departments to provide academic resources that can help to enrich the academic lives of our LGBTQ+ students.

For instance, the ODEI and WGS Program secured a grant from the Center for Innovative Pedagogy’s Digital Storytelling Initiative in spring 2019. This project, “Transforming Digital Storytelling: How to Frame, Share, and Discuss Transgender Narratives" (PDF), facilitated three events on transgender digital stories that semester, while also allowing Kenyon College to host staff from the National Center for Transgender Equality on campus.

Through funding from the Center for Innovative Pedagogy’s Digital Storytelling Initiative, the ODEI also created course materials for a LGBTQ+ digital storytelling course in spring 2020. Additionally, these materials, including the syllabus, reading schedule and associated projects, are available for faculty to use in their existing courses.