The program will expose students to a range of theories and perspectives while also providing them with hands-on advocacy experience
Beginning in fall 2022, students will be able to enroll in the new Sexualities, Genders, and Social Change (SXGN) degree program at the University of Guelph.
The program will examine issues of sexuality and gender in relation to the various social, cultural, and political structures that make up modern Western society.
SXGN, which is a collaborative project between several different departments in the College of Arts, will incorporate theories and methodologies from a vast range of disciplines, including the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Students enrolled in the program can expect to study topics such as feminist theory, queer theory, decolonialism, Indigeneity, and transnationalism.
By exposing students to a broad array of ideas and perspectives, the program seeks to provide them with the knowledge and tools necessary to deconstruct and critically engage with dominant Western understandings of gender and sexuality.
Scholars who worked on the development of the program see its introduction in fall 2022 as particularly timely given the heightened social and political climate that currently surrounds LGBTQ2IA+ issues.
“Everyone was in agreement that [SXGN] is a necessity and is long overdue,” said Dr. Adam Davies, a professor in the College of Arts who aided in the development of the program.
“Given the current political climate and the importance of having these critical conversations, it was agreed upon that this program is needed,” they said. “It’s important for students, especially LGBT students, to have a space where they can learn about theory that really speaks to them and their lived experiences.”
Contemporary social justice movements such as Black Lives Matter and LandBack were also taken into consideration during the development of the program. SXGN will encourage students to consider how gender and sexuality intersect with issues such as Black liberation and decolonization.
Dr. Karyn Freedman, a professor in the College of Arts who also worked on the development of the program, explains that taking an intersectional approach to the topics of gender and sexuality is vital.
Intersectionality is the theory that when social identities (such as race, gender, class, sexuality, and physical ability) overlap, individuals whose identities fall within that overlap are subjected to multiple forms of oppression and marginalization. For example, although a straight cisgender white woman can face oppression due to her gender, a Black transgender lesbian faces oppression not only because of her gender, but also because of her race, sexuality, and status as a trans person.
In Freedman’s view, SXGN would be incomplete as a program if it failed to consider how inter- sectionality impacts LGBTQ2IA+ individuals.
“Systems of domination tend to impact people on multiple axes of their identities,” said Freedman. “It makes sense then to study how people are treated as less than along multiple lines.”
Incorporating topics such as race and Indigeneity into the program will also provide instructors with the opportunity to teach students about non-Western ways of understanding of gender and sexuality.
Jarred Sanchez-Cacnio, U of G’s sexual and gender diversity advisor, said that incorporating diverse cultural teachings about gender and sexuality into the program is vital, especially for non- white students.
“When I speak with BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, and people of colour] students within the queer and trans community, there is a huge desire to be able to explore non-Western and precolonial understandings of sexuality and gender,” they said.
“It’s important for students, especially LGBT students, to have a space where they can learn about theory that really speaks to them and their lived experiences.”
— Adam Davies
“Across the world, colonization has erased a lot of the knowledge and understanding that exists outside of heteronormativity. BIPOC students want to be able to understand diverse cultural perspectives—and, ideally, their own cultural perspectives—about gender and sexuality.”
However, discussing marginalized identities and experiences can be tricky in academia, given that it continues to be a space dominated by cis-hetero and Caucasian scholars. Both Davies and Freedman say it is vital that LGBTQ2IA+ and BIPOC individuals are able to tell their own stories in academic spaces, rather than allowing scholars who belong to the dominant culture to speak on their behalf.
Thus, SXGN was designed with this in mind. Freedman says that one of the committee’s main priorities was to ensure that the program’s faculty “are representative of the various social identities that will be focused on in SXGN.”
In other words, courses in SXGN that explore marginalized identities and experiences will be taught by BIPOC and LGBTQ2IA+ instructors as frequently as possible.
Although there are already a number of LGBTQ2IA+ and BIPOC scholars working at the university, there are plans to do additional hiring to ensure that the program is adequately staffed with faculty from a diverse range of backgrounds, LGBTQ2IA+ or otherwise.
The program’s mission to amplify marginalized voices will also be reflected in its course content. In particular, the content will focus heavily on stories about the lived experiences of BIPOC and LGBTQ2IA+ individuals rather than conventional sources of academic knowledge. Students will be encouraged to engage with ideas and perspectives beyond just those found in books and journals.
“Often in the academy there are certain ideas about what counts as academic knowledge,” Davies said. “It might be what you encounter in a textbook or the definitions that you memorize for a social science exam.”
“But stories are also a very valid source of knowledge, and stories from marginalized communities are empowering to share with others … What we’re trying to do in this program is really centralize that kind of subjugated and marginalized knowledge and put it at the forefront.”
This focus on personal stories and lived experiences will be further cemented into the program through its experiential learning elements. As students approach the end of the four-year program, they will have the opportunity to work with community partners and gain hands-on experience in outreach and advocacy work.
“It’s going to be a really good opportunity for students to partner with stakeholders, nonprofits, and NGOs in the community, and to see how the theoretical work that they’ve been doing in the classroom can be turned into something practical,” said Freedman.
The hope is that, by providing students with hands-on experience, SXGN will equip them with the practical skills needed to tackle social justice issues outside of the classroom.
“Ideally students will graduate from the program with academic knowledge while also being able to speak to working directly with community members and doing advocacy work,” said Sanchez-Cacnio. “Ultimately those are the pieces that students will need to graduate from the program and be prepared to do that work in their careers.”
According to U of G’s admissions website, these careers could include political activism, rights advocacy, policy development, public health, and education, to name a few.
As for the U of G community’s reaction to SXGN, both Freedman and Davies say that SXGN has been fully embraced by university faculty and staff. “We’ve had a tremendous amount of support from all levels of the university,” said Davies. “It’s been heartening for sure.”
A version of this article appeared in print in The Ontarion issue 192.1 on Jan. 4, 2022.
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