Tulane University hosts summer program teaching 'queer theory' and 'black feminism' to high schoolers
High school students are learning about 'queer theory,' 'Black feminism,' and 'gender equity' at a Tulane University summer program this month.
The New Orleans-based university’s Newcomb Summer Session describes itself as a 'selective pre-college program designed to educate students for gender equity.'
High school students will learn about “queer theory,” “Black feminism,” and “gender equity” at a Tulane University summer program this month.
The New Orleans-based university’s Newcomb Summer Session describes itself as a “selective pre-college program designed to educate students for gender equity.”
“High school students will get a preview of the college classroom while forming a strong community centered on exploring gender issues and social change,” the description continues.
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The program schedule includes June 16-20, and again from June 30-July 3. The courses are limited to high school students although “[a]ll gender identities are welcome.”
The university’s central focus in offering the camp is to target societal gender inequality. “Become a changemaker and mobilize your community through gender equity,” the program’s web page reads.
“With more students joining the public conversation on how gender affects our world—from the ‘confidence gap’ to the #MeToo Movement—Newcomb Summer Session empowers you to put feminist ideas into social action,” it concludes.
Students in the program take two courses during their stay on campus, “Music, Gender, and Sexuality in New Orleans” and “Women’s Advocacy.”
In Music, Gender, and Sexuality in New Orleans, the high schoolers will study how music, such as “bounce, brass band, Black Masking Indian funk, hip-hop, and R&B” express gender identity.
To accomplish this goal, faculty will guide discussions using the lenses of “Black feminism and queer theory.”
Ultimately, the course “makes a case for the intimate and inseparable relationship between gender performance and sexual expression in contemporary and historical music in New Orleans.”
According to his faculty profile, course instructor Kyle DeCoste is a visiting assistant professor in Gender and Sexuality Studies and Music at Tulane.
Meanwhile, Women’s Advocacy will teach students to practice social justice ideas in the real world to bring about change. The class’s professor, Aidan Smith, has written a book on “Gender, Heteronormativity, and the American Presidency.”
Tulane University has previously hosted the Newcomb Summer Session for high schoolers. Some of the session’s 2023 courses included “Decolonizing Feminisms,” “Dismantling Rape Cultures,” and “Media and Reproductive Rights.”
“Although #MeToo has shed new light on the issue,” a description for “Dismantling Rape Cultures” said, “there is much work left to do in order to dismantle a culture that normalizes, excuses, and enables gender-based violence.”
Campus Reform contacted Tulane University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
