UNC Charlotte Offers 345 Diversity and Social Justice Courses

The University of North Carolina, Charlotte, offers a staggering 345 courses on the topic of diversity and social justice.

The University of North Carolina, Charlotte released a list of their “Diversity Courses” that spans 21 pages and covers academic disciplines such as Religious Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies, Languages and Culture Studies, and Africana Studies.

Although it’s unclear why UNC Charlotte needs so many “Diversity Courses,” Associate Dean Shawn Long says that the topics discussed in such courses are beneficial to all of the members of the school’s community.

“When we consider the concept of diversity, broadly speaking, we mean that lives, perspectives and practices are enriched when we actively engage in discourse and are inclusive in our actions around complex ideas and issues,” Long explained.

A class entitled “Transfeminism,”  offers students the opportunity to explore the intersection of “trans and feminist studies” and to “explore feminist perspectives within trans studies–such as intersectionality–and consider the contours and legacy of feminist transphobia.”

Another course, “Queer Culture in America,” focuses on the liberation of queen Americans and the evolving definition of what it has meant to be queer in America over time. The course description says the course focuses on the “construction of Queer identity” in the late 20th and 21st centuries.

Queer is a word that is packed with cultural misconceptions, political discourse, and individual liberation in a time period where what used to be “Gay” is moving forward into new territories. Contemporary Queer Culture will focus on the construction of Queer identity in late 20th and 21st century American culture and how this category helps to eliminate old ideas while it simultaneously makes additional room for others. This class will look at anti-assimilationist, radical Queer activists and activism as a way to open up discussion about new social discourses and space, and as a way to critique the current state of Queer community and politics.

The list illustrates a developing trend of an excessive focus on social justice-themed courses in academia.