Will a Bachelor's in "Queer Studies" Be Viewed Unfavorably? Forum

[jtabustos]

Note: My degrees aren't in this field, but I know two people who did major in Queer Studies.

Additionally, a good number of dormmates and friends/acquaintances I've had through UG took on Ethnic Studies as either a major or minor.

Curious to know if admissions would possibly think less of these types of degrees?

[nickb285]

.

[A. Nony Mouse]

If you have a good GPA, they don't care at all what it's in. Don't care don't care don't care.

If the adcomms are weighing two candidates with the EXACT SAME qualifications* except one has a ---- Studies major and one doesn't, they might care. But you can't say which way they'd go - maybe they'd pick an engineering major over the ------ Studies major, in that situation, but if they had a zillion engineering majors (unlikely, I realize), they might take the ---- Studies person for variety. It would depend on who else they had in the class, I think (and it might depend on who is on the adcomm and their background. If you get the local Critical Studies prof reviewing apps, they'd love those majors).

*and really, I don't think this ever really happens.

[Ludo!]

Probably out at Regent

[nickb285]

.

[jtabustos]

Yeah, I've been reading that pretty much admissions is a numbers game (mostly....with some exceptions).

So, I'm not terribly surprised.

Thanks.

(p.s. They also have "Fat Studies" classes now in universities. It's not a major from what I can tell. Maybe it is at one or two universities. But they seem mostly individual classes so far. But I had just always wondered if graduate schools and/or employers possibly looked down on these majors, due to perceptions about their quality and rigor.)

[Mal Reynolds]

Only insofar as all liberal arts degrees are viewed: worthless and shitty. But don't worry it won't affect your admissions chances.

[A. Nony Mouse]

Yeah, I've been reading that pretty much admissions is a numbers game (mostly....with some exceptions).

So, I'm not terribly surprised.

Thanks.

(p.s. They also have "Fat Studies" classes now in universities. It's not a major from what I can tell. Maybe it is at one or two universities. But they seem mostly individual classes so far. But I had just always wondered if graduate schools and/or employers possibly looked down on these majors, due to perceptions about their quality and rigor.)

Depends who's doing the perceiving. Some of the profs in law schools probably majored in some of these things. And Campos would love Fat Studies.

[Beercules]

Who knew that even with the increased stigma of Liberal Arts degrees, Universities were hard at work creating new ones that sound even more ridiculous and have even less value.

[09042014]

I honestly don't know if this will help you with firms or hurt you.

[Shmoopy]

-

[RhymesLikeDimes]

Even theoretically speaking, what the heck could you do with that degree?

[Gunnar Stahl]

Even theoretically speaking, what the heck could you do with that degree?

Same stuff as any other lib arts degree.... go to law school.

[ManOfTheMinute]

not as unfavorably as a masters in queer studies

[prezidentv8]

p.s. They also have "Fat Studies" classes now in universities

wat

[PRgradBYU]

p.s. They also have "Fat Studies" classes now in universities

wat

'Merica.

[stillwater]

p.s. They also have "Fat Studies" classes now in universities

wat

'Merica.

I was denied access to a restaurant recently because I wasn't fat.

[guano]

Note: My degrees aren't in this field, but I know two people who did major in Queer Studies.

Additionally, a good number of dormmates and friends/acquaintances I've had through UG took on Ethnic Studies as either a major or minor.

Curious to know if admissions would possibly think less of these types of degrees?

depends on whether you're applying to berkeley or regent

[Gunnar Stahl]

wtf is this shit
http://admissions.uoregon.edu/majors/queer%20studies

[nickb285]

.

[Gunnar Stahl]

wtf is this shit
http://admissions.uoregon.edu/majors/queer%20studies

If I had to guess, I'd say it's a minor within the Department of Women's and Gender Studies.

look at the FEATURED FACULTY and CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

[LeDique]

My UG thesis was queer theory. It doesn't matter for admissions. I left it on my resume and I got asked about it by *every* firm I interviewed with at OCI. There is no way it helped at OCI.

ETA: I'm cis and hetero so things might be different for it being a positive depending on your identity.

[jtabustos]

wtf is this shit
http://admissions.uoregon.edu/majors/queer%20studies

I haven't really taken the time to look into the origins, agenda, content, and meaning of Queer Studies, but I had taken it to be a kind of sub-category of "Minority Studies" (similar to "African-American Studies, Latino Studies, Women's Studies, and the like).

These are fields - with majors and minors - that study topically the eponymous groups' history, literature, social conditions, etc. often with an eye towards understanding their marginalization and oppression in society. They are interdisciplinary fields when it comes to methodology, so you get classes utilizing or blending literary criticism/theory, historiography, social scientific methods, and so on.

The two major academic knocks on minority studies by some, however, are that: a.) they often blur the distinctions between neutral and objective research and political indoctrination (some programs are outright labeled pure political programs by critics); and b.) they lack rigor.

To be fair, this accusation of political indoctrination is kind of relevant to non-Minority Studies classes and professors too. I've had some history and sociology professors hold very one-sided and biased views and more nor less orient the entire class towards their views (without looking at all sides rigorously and objectively). These concerns are actually quite complex and can be argued much more in-depth, but the original point was that some people don't quite consider "Minority Studies" degrees "real" degrees.

[LeDique]

And I mean a central tenet is that "objectivity" is bullshit.

[jtabustos]

Here's part of an article discussing "Fat Studies" classes that have emerged on college campuses. They do mention what I talked about earlier about critiques of political indoctrination versus neutral scholarly research/investigation. So that is one knock that some critics have against "Minority Studies" types of programs.


Jacqueline Johnson knows what it's like to be shunned because of her weight. In the early 2000s fat activism was edging into existence, and Johnson, a weight studies scholar, was deemed too skinny to take part.

"I tried to join a fat activist group, and I was rejected because I was not of size," she remembers. The movement was gaining momentum as a response to America's growing weight paranoia, and its members, most of them frustrated, plus-size women, were skittish about admitting slender outsiders. "At the time I did understand they were apprehensive that I could be the enemy, trying to filter in and see what they were doing," she says.

Today it's a different story. Johnson, who teaches a course on weight and society at George Washington University, is currently a professor with 25 students of all heights and widths. Her Fat Studies class is one of a handful popping up on campuses across the country, teaching students to think about body size critically, politically, and regularly. But despite such courses' popularity among students, critics worry that such classes emphasize bleeding-heart politics over intellectual rigor...

But the presence of feel-good politics in college classrooms concerns some scholars, who worry about promoting acceptance and tolerance at the expense of hard academics. Anna Kirkland, an associate professor of Women's Studies and Political Science at the University of Michigan, is a supporter of Fat Studies, but fears it may lead to social proselytizing rather than serious study. "I'm not interested in areas of study whose main justification is that they're going to advance the situation of some social group," she says. "I mean, that's fine if that's part of the reason. But the main reason should be intellectual interest and energy cohering around a single topic area." - See more at: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... wdhJX.dpuf