Panel talks sexuality, teaching

Students, faculty, and staff gathered on Monday night for an interdisciplinary panel discussion surrounding issues of GLBTQ sexuality in the classroom. The panel, "GLBT Issues in the Classroom: How Sexual Orientation Affects Teaching and Learning," was sponsored by the Lesbian, Gay Faculty, Staff and Administrators Association at Boston College (LGFSAA) and the Lynch School of Education (LSOE). The panel featured BC faculty and staff from a range of different academic backgrounds and perspectives. Panelists included Kevin Ohi, professor in the English department; Kevin Mahoney and Susan Tohn, both professors in the Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW); Manuel Vasquez, resident director; Paul Poteat, professor in LSOE; and Paul Breines, professor in the history department. The panel afforded the opportunity for an open discussion that bridged the gap between students and administrators. "These kinds of panel discussions are important because they allow for public and open discussion that deepens peoples' engagement with issues on campus," said Charles Morris, professor in the communications department and member of the executive board of LGFSAA. "These kinds of events help build community for GLBTQ people on campus and cement a feeling of welcome," said Scott Molony, director of communications for the GLBTQ Leadership Council (GLC) and A&S '11. "We hear a lot about the student experience at BC but hardly anything about the other side, and what it feels like to be GLBTQ for a faculty or staff member." "Sexual being and sexual knowing are deeply forged by pedagogical experience," said Morris before introducing the panelists. "In more recent years, sexuality has often become explicit in the classroom - spoken, respected, wrangled over in all its thrilling and vexing means and motives." Mahoney said the GSSW's focus on GLBTQ issues dates back to October 2005, when the GSSW passed a resolution to form a group to research the effects of same sex relationships on children after Boston Catholic Charities banned gay adoption. Around the same time the GSSW, through strategic planning, decided to concentrate on issues of diversity in its curriculum. All faculty members were surveyed and asked to rate the importance of teaching certain diversity issues like age, race, and class, and also to rate their confidence in teaching diversity issues in the classroom. The area with the biggest disparity between the rankings of importance and confidence was in the area of GLBTQ issues. Tohn said students are the best resource for educating professors on the role sexuality plays in a student's learning experience. Calling on students to help professors understand the breadth of the issue, she encouraged students to speak up in the classroom setting and call for the inclusion of GLBTQ examples to be infused in classroom discussions and syllabi. Panelists and audience members shared stories of heteronormatively oriented classroom situations in which GLBTQ sexuality was either ignored or not considered. One student shared an experience she had in a language class. Unable to avoid the issue of sexuality through ambiguous pronoun use, the student was faced with an awkward situation when asked about her "ideal husband." Breines, described by Morris at the start of the event as a "queer pioneer at BC," taught the course Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual History in the West from the mid-1990's until his retirement this past December. Breines proposed a thought experiment: in examining the title and subtitle of the event, Breines pointed out that "GLBTQ" and "sexual orientation" seem to be synonyms. "This is patently absurd because heterosexuality is also a sexual orientation," Breines said. He called on those present to challenge their own basic assumptions about sexuality. Vasquez said he gained a perspective on the student experience from outside of the classroom from working in student residence halls. Vasquez said that a holistic approach to student development is important. "Although there seems to be support in terms of gender issues, like through the WRC, there is no centralized center for GLBTQ students," Vasquez said. "The resounding answer I get from students is that it would be great to have one central location to go to and feel like they are supported. A lot of the time faculty advisors who are allies are not always easy to find. A lot of people who talk about GLBTQ issues talk about either gay or straight students but there is no middle ground for the bisexual or transgender population." Members of the GLC also expressed their interest in the construction of a GLBTQ student center and the introduction of a queer theories major at BC. Poteat also recognized the importance of taking topics that interest students outside the classroom - like sexuality - and bringing the discussion into an academic setting. In his interpersonal relationships course, Poteat makes an effort to integrate GLBTQ issues throughout the entire course. "Students talk about these issues outside of the classroom, so why can't we connect it to what we're doing in the classroom?" Poteat said.