Roles of the RA

Roles of the RA

By Gelila Lulseged (Femi) and Taylor Prescott (Eliot)

Purpose

The theme of our project highlights the role of Residence Life and the RAs and significance of their interactions with queer students on campus. Its relation to queer theory is very simple: making sure to provide safe spaces for students, helping the general student population understand that perceptions of gender and sexuality vary, and making sure to respect the personal beliefs of individuals. By identifying the various ways in which Reslife reaches out to queer students, we connected the relationships that must be built amongst this office, the Dean of Students Office, and the Wellness Center. We are not suggesting that other offices on campus are not important in how they interact with queer students, however these offices affect students more directly. We interviewed: Kijua McMurtry, Dean of Students; Joy Griggs, Director of Residence Life; Holly Byrd, Director of Counseling and Psychological Services; as well as two resident assistants and a former resident assistant. (Dean Kijua and Holly both serve on the Safe Zone committee, which provides the LGBTQIQ advocacy training that is mandatory for Wellness Center and Reslife staff).

Roles of Reslife and RAs

The office of Residence Life and the Resident Assistants (RAs) play an important role in campus life. Their interactions with students are particularly important because they are aimed at providing safe spaces for queer students as well as a healthy campus life for all students. The interactions with the Dean of Students office and the Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) office in the Wellness Center are just as important because the three offices work together to host Safe Zone training sessions and provide health information and services for queer students.

The Wellness Center and its connection with ResLife

By restructuring the methods of counseling and treatment, the Wellness Center works with queer students to make sure that their individual needs are met such as:

- Providing support services for students who are coming out
- Providing support for students transitioning from female to male or male to female
- Providing special chiropractic support for people who choose to bind when transitioning from female to male
- Providing assistance to students seeking to start hormone therapy (though the Wellness Center does not currently prescribe hormones like testosterone, they are working with the Feminist Women’s Health Center to provide a direct connection for students, and they will assist students with injections)
- Providing information and protection for safe queer sex
- Writing letters of recommendation for students who want to undergo the actual surgery
- Helping students figure out technical issues such as arranging their financial aid situation with the college

The Wellness Center also has a bathroom for students that is gender-neutral.

Safe Zone Training and its role in making Reslife queer-friendly

Safe Zone training is mandatory for all RAs and Wellness Center staff. This session is aimed at educating the campus about LGBT issues, reconstructing language to challenge the dominant heterosexual norms, making students aware of offensive language, helping students who do not identify as queer understand the issues of coming out, and creating overall safe spaces for queer or questioning students in all aspects of campus life. The training also provides a safe space for individuals (who are not queer) to ask questions without judgement. While working on the project, I had the opportunity to go through the training and educate myself on the ways in which I can contribute to creating safe spaces.

Safe Zone training is broken up into 4 different exercises.

There is an exercises that reviews all of the letters in the "Alphabet Soup": L(Lesbian)-G(Gay)-B(Bisexual)-
T(Transgender)-Q(Questioning)-I(Intersex)-Q(Queer)-A(Androgynous)-GQ(Gender Queer)-P(Pansexual)-T(Transsexual)-DQ(Drag Queen)-DK(Drag King)-A(Asexual)

The second part of the training is an exercise that discusses gender and sexuality and how these binaries do not allow much room for understanding and accepting the queer identity. By discussing these binaries, we discuss how they perpetuate homophobia. The emphasis here is on the fluidity of gender and sexuality, which means that we do not accept the binary that there is just male and female, man and woman, but many forms of gender and sexuality in between.

With the third exercise, trainees examine the difficulty or ease of coming out on the Agnes campus. By evaluating the perceptions about different circles within and outside of the campus community, trainees are encouraged to think about the difficulties questioning students may encounter when trying to come out to friends and family.

In the last part of the training, trainees review different labels and terms that are grouped into negative and positive categories. By understanding that all queer people do not identify with one common label, there is an emphasis on asking individuals what they identify to avoid offensive labeling or generalizations.

Making Safe Zone safer

In previous years, everyone who completed Safe Zone training would get a sticker which would sometimes falsely indicate that they were "safe". This policy was changed in order to ensure that students could go to trainers who would be ready to handle a situation in the case of a crisis. Now, faculty, staff and students who receive stickers are selected based on the trainers’ own evaluation of who will make the best advocates.

Interviews with Previous and Current RAs

Unfortunately, concerns about confidentiality (because of Agnes Scott’s small campus) meant that we were unable to survey all of the current RAs. However, we did reach out to people we knew on staff for more in-depth interviews about how they felt Reslife goes about handling the unique issues of queer residents.

Interviews were with:
-CB (RA for two years, currently not working for Reslife)
-BP (second year as an RA, hoping to be an RD next year)
-MS (first year as an RA)

When asked what Reslife is doing right, everyone we interviewed quickly reiterated what we knew of Safe Zone. CB pointed out especially that Safe Zone is valuable in showing those students who may not have any experience with queer issues how it might feel to have to come out or deal with being queer in hostile surroundings, through scenarios and role-playing, by making them emotionally connect to those experiences. BP emphasized the value of SafeZone’s providing resources specifically tailored to the needs of RAs working with queer or questioning students.

CB did mention that during her time on staff, she attempted to discuss the issue of gender-neutral bathrooms with the administration. During this time she reports being told by the director of Reslife that something would happen “next semester”, but that nothing changed in that time. However, she was glad to learn that Joy Griggs is taking part in the Trans Policy group. She acknowledged that the issue is complicated, and pointed out that one alternative being considered--having one of the two restrooms on each hall designated as gender-neutral, and the other kept as a women’s room--may even create more problems by “marking” those students who go out of their way to use it as trans or genderqueer to people they may not wish to be out to. BP has served as RA of Hopkins Hall (which only has one bathroom). We asked about the reactions of her residents to Hopkins’ unique “10 Minute Rule” (which opens the bathrooms to all genders for the first ten minutes of every hour), and she said that while she never heard of negative feedback or experiences from her residents, she also thought that residents and guests rarely ended up in the small hall’s bathroom at the same time.

As far as her experiences with fellow RAs, CB felt that nobody was judgemental or insensitive to her after she came out. She stated that while she knew that some of her fellow RAs held rather conservative personal beliefs, she had never heard of homophobia or transphobia causing problems for anyone in a work setting. She did note that, from her own observation, queer students seemed most comfortable talking to RAs who were also queer when it came to personal problems or issues. MS stated that since she was currently in a heterosexual relationship, she didn’t consider her queerness something that was particularly noticed by her residents, although she did mention that her just being “alternative” was apparent and probably noticed by her residents. BP mentioned that Reslife staff currently seem to lean towards two extremes, of the very alternative student or the very rule-oriented “goody two shoes” type. She said she hoped this trend wouldn’t last, because for better or worse students who are perceived as perfectionists are sometimes more difficult to relate to, and, as she noted, it’s an RA’s job to be approachable.

When asked how or if she reached out to her queer residents in particular, CB mentioned that she always tried to signal her openness by displaying “something rainbow” on her door (RAs’ doors are frequently used to communicate their schedules and availability, as well as notices for the hall). She also mentioned that when her residents were obviously and openly queer, she made it a point to make sure they were finding a comfortable space on campus, though that was, of course, her goal in working with all of her residents.

CB did state that she was sometimes uncomfortable advertising her own queerness to her residents, however. There is a “pervasive belief” that personal life should stay personal, which was difficult to balance when bringing her off-campus girlfriend to her room. She even felt uncomfortable when just walking with a date on campus. She explained that a large part of an RA’s perceived role is to be a neutral party with whom residents can talk about anything, and that unfortunately, “neutral” is frequently conflated with “straight”. She did mention however that this was not an actual policy, and both she and BP pointed out that Reslife hires students and other staff who are visibly queer.

When asked what she wished Reslife had dealt with in a better way, CB mentioned wanting to see training or resources for helping a student whose family were cutting them off after coming out (something she had to deal with while on staff). However, everyone we spoke to felt confident recommending campus resources like CAPS, the Chaplain’s office, Public Safety and OIA for students who might be in need of assistance.
When asked if Reslife ever organized programming with clubs like Affinity and Collective (because she is a board member of Collective), CB mentioned that Reslife itself generally does not work with student organizations, but that RAs are encouraged to when making their own programming. She stated that if there is a lack of programming with these clubs, it may be because of the way that the campus can attribute a perceived political stance to these clubs, and (as stated before) most RAs try to remain neutral figures. BP again stressed the importance of keeping personal issues out of her work, although she did acknowledge that this balance can be extremely difficult for an RA because they actually live where they work. She said that while she wanted students to feel comfortable entering her space to talk to her, she was always very careful to keep the conversation focused on their issues, and not insert too much of her own opinions or thoughts.

CB noted wryly that Reslife does have one policy regarding queer students--namely, they discourage students from rooming with their romantic partners. However, this is a policy that would probably apply to coed dorms, too, and one that makes sense for the students in case of a breakup.

Interview with Joy Griggs, Director of Reslife

As Director of Reslife, Joy Griggs oversees all of the residences on campus, including Avery Glen. This includes coordinating programming, employing and managing the RAs and RDs as well as the Graduate Hall Directors, and working with facilities to maintain the residence halls and apartments. Joy stated that the biggest way administration could be there for queer students was primarily through conversations; namely, they can be supportive by communicating openly, providing a listening ear, and through the counseling and support services offered by CAPS. Joy currently serves on the Trans Policy Committee and expressed that it was important to her to continue educating herself to meet the changing needs of the student body.

In our conversation, she stated that a large issue in attempting to be supportive and welcoming to queer students was the “physicality” of the buildings, especially with bathrooms for trans or genderqueer students. She said that depending on where the student personally was (as in, if they were transitioning, or if they did not “self-identify” with any gender) they could come and speak with her about options for residence accommodations ranging from a private bathroom--some rooms come with attached, single baths, though it is not well-known or publicized on campus, and they are usually kept empty unless a special condition exists--to a single room--if they fear negative feedback from their roommates--or an apartment with roommates they choose. She mentioned that the primary delay in making gender-neutral bathrooms more widely available on campus was a lack of funding. The “10 Minute Rule” in Hopkins is reportedly being discussed as a possibility for other halls, and may be put up to a vote for students (either by hall or as a campus-wide issue) in an attempt to empower student voices (though she seemed to acknowledge that it may give more of a feeling of solidarity to trans and genderqueer students if the administration simply enacts the rule without appearing uncertain). She did say that the ultimate goal for the campus was to have completely new, gender-neutral bathroom facilities, although funding issues make that a distant possibility. She mentioned that she would be presenting about the possible options for bathrooms (along with Tim Blankenship) to the Trans Policy committee in the near future, at which point a more concrete plan for specific changes may come into effect.

The main issue that Joy mentioned specifically encountering with Reslife was that of roommate conflicts arising from homophobia due to “personal beliefs”. In those cases, Reslife frequently recommends mediation to work on making the relationship live-able, but if the student doesn’t feel safe or comfortable, they will arrange for a new roommate. This is especially a concern, Joy mentioned, for students who are preparing to transition.

As a member of Trans Policy, she noted that the administration can have an important role as a resource for transitioning students. This can include working to make sure that they are issued new student IDs with their preferred name and gender, and making sure their information is current and correct on OPD--the Online Phone Directory--as well as working through the Wellness Center to help them with the medical hurdles of transitioning. She pointed out that because Agnes Scott is a women’s college, graduates who transition may face challenges when they apply for jobs as men while listing a degree from Agnes Scott on their resume. She mentioned writing recommendation letters that avoid pronouns as an example of something faculty can do to help trans students with their future prospects. She also mentioned that the Wellness Center and other advocates on staff can help students to communicate their preferred pronouns and names to professors, if they wish, though she emphasized the importance of not outing people who aren’t ready or don’t want it.

Conclusion

By evaluating how Residence Life and other aspects of campus life are important in creating safe spaces for queer students, we hope to further the goals of queer theory by restructuring language, educating on the fluidity of gender and sexuality, and eliminating homophobia.

Queer Events and other Sightings Published in The Profile

Queer Events and other Sightings Published in The Profile is a timeline of queer related events at Agnes Scott College from the year of 1992 to 2002. It's focus is on events published in The Profile, our free bi-weekly campus newspaper. A few other queer related announcements and/or letters are also included. This timeline focuses only on Profile published events therefore it must be known that not all queer related events are included. One must assume that there is a possibility many events were excluded from these newspapers.This timeline depicts Agnes' progression and reaction to homosexuality during a short time frame. While a brief look at the 8o's illustrated a bubble of silence it can be seen that the 90's marked the beginning of queer acknowledgement. It can also be seen that queer visibility, homophobia and common myths surrounding homosexuality at Agnes did not pertain only to the world of Agnes. It reflected Agnes' issues connected to those within larger society. The creation of this timeline revealed that Agnes was more progressive than one would assume due to our religious roots. Professors not afraid to state their support for queer social issues and a campus wide mission for diversity and the eradication of discrimination are both important and profound. Dialogue is not only necessary to create a safe community but it paves a path to change. The Profile has created space for such dialogue and simply because there are two years with a lack ofqueer related events one must keep in mind that whatever is the norm will not grab so much attention.

Love,
Emily Tan and Sabrina Lopez

• Friday, October 2, 1992

Letters to the Editor

Written by Cindy Lutenbacher a newly hired part time teacher in the department of Theatre stated that she was a “feminist who purports to work against racism, sexism, homophobia, classism (etc.)”

• Friday, October 30, 1992; page 3

Committee on Diversity receives facilitator training.

Though the Committee on Community Diversity had appeared multiple times throughout this time period, this is the first time that the social issue of homophobia as explicitly been included in writing along with issues of ethnicity, class, sexism and anti-Semitism.

• Friday, October 30, 1992; page 3

“Everyone’s problem to deal with” Workshop combats homophobia on campus

The workshop was named “Homophobia: What does it have to do with me anyway?” This event was sponsored by the Lesbian/Bi-sexual Alliance and the Residence Hall Association “in effort to address homophobia on campus.” They began the workshop by asking the participants to write down something that they knew to be “absolutely true about homosexuality” Present were local therapist to speak about the fears in regards of homosexuality. Myths, stereotypes, gay bashing and rape were discussed. “The therapists also addressed the struggle against homophobia in relation to similar struggles against racism and sexism.” This homophobia workshop was hoped to be permanently incorporated into the orientation activities for first years because “it is important to address homophobia on campus…because lesbians have always been apart of the Agnes Scott community. This was the second major activity sponsored by the LBA. Earlier in the semester they had the Lesbian Film Festival (not mentioned in the Profile). LBA’S meeting times were also advertised.

• Friday, February 26, 1993; page 2

Behan rejects political correctness. Proclaims love of racism, sexism, homophobia.

Mortar Board’s third and final “Don’t Quote Me” convocation that took place on Friday, February 12 featured Dr. David Behan of the Philosophy Department. The title of his speech was “Celebrating Intolerance, or How I Learned to Love My Racism, Sexism, and Homophobia. It speech was said to allude to Peter Sellers’ early 1960’s satire Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Love the Bomb. Behan’s speech was meant to put these three terms into question about what they really mean. He stated that ‘We don’t have to approve of other beliefs’…in a pluralistic society [we must] tolerate them.” He wanted to raise awareness for the need of tolerance for all beliefs and opinions including those that are highly disagreed with. The term homophobic for example automatically applies to those who don’t agree with homosexual acts for various reasons. Instead of realizing that multiple opinions and beliefs exist in this world society often labels them as oppressive and hateful. He pointed out the current pressure to assimilate oneself with “progressive” opinions just because it is taught that they are the socially correct ones. “Those who urge us to celebrate diversity force us either to deny our own beliefs or to retain them at the price of being called intolerant.”

• Friday, February 26, 1993; page 5

Queer Cartoon

Cartoon depicting an army general speaking in front of a news camera “Gays in the Military?...PREPOSTEROUS! Women loving Women, Men loving Men…WHY…The Nation’s not ready for such a bizarre concept…” No explanation for this cartoon was included nor were there any letters to the editors.

• Friday, March 12, 1993; page 5

Letters to the Editor

In a letter to the Editor, Emma Mitchem and Mzinga Shakir wrote in regards to Agnes Scott’s Administration’s decision to change the school’s colors on official stationary due to the fact “the color purple is often associated with lesbianism.” They asked if the “administration [was] scared that Agnes Scott [would] be labeled as a ‘lesbain’ college because of the color purple.” They believed that the school should not ‘alter its school colors because of a societal stereotype”.

• Friday, April 30, 1993; page 1

Women’s Studies department undergoes change

A new course titled “Lesbian and Gay Latin American and Latino Literature was added to the course list.

• Friday, February 11, 1994; page 3

LBA sponsors bake sale to help battered women

“On Valentine’s Day the Lesbian/Bi-sexual Alliance will sponsor a bake sale in lower Alston to raise money for the Women’s Recourse Center of Dekalb County. LBA reminds everyone that each person’s support will help make safety a reality for many women.”

• April 28, 1995; page 6

People Are People

An article expressing that Agnes Scott is a diverse campus, and that we must be a community and embrace our differences and learn about one another. “We must see we are all alike, and not think that our personal group is the only important one.”

• April 28, 1995; page 7

Ideas to Show Support

The author addresses questions of what heterosexual supporters can do to support. The article mentions that many “womyn avoid attending LBA meetings” in fear that they will be labeled lesbian. The author suggests supports to:

• listen to “us” as people
• talk as friends
• base judgment on personality, rather than sexuality
• be willing to communicate
• ask questions
• attend a LBA meeting and be informed

The article ends with a powerful quote, “No one is free while others are oppressed.”

• Friday, October 4, 1996

Dear Agnes

A student wrote an anonymous letter to this advice column asking for help with her lesbian roommate who is being physically abused by her partner. In response Dear Agnes stated “Lesbian battering is not uncommon. The Dekalb Women’s Resource Center is available. The Name of the Violence Support Group for Battered Lesbians is a group of peers that have experienced domestic violence.”

• October 22, 1997

Letters to the Editor—‘Judge Not, Lest Ye Too Shall Be Judge’

A letter from a student expresses aggression for whomever anonymously “retaliated” to the LBA “Coming Out Week” sign. The student did not describe what specifically happened to the sign or make any assumptions about the campus community. This is not an event, but shows that there are homophobic beliefs on campus.

• November 7, 1997

Dessert and Discussion

A successful event hosted by Racism Free Zone. Professor MacEwen advised students to “move beyond tolerance by supporting other groups at ASC.” An example would be the recent coalition of LBA and Witkaze.

*In the 1998 edition of the profile no queer related events were found.

• February 24, 1999

Campus News

A whole page in the college’s newspaper where students of different social groups can suggest what kind of efforts that can improve communication and allow readers to learn a bit about challenges of living a different lifestyle is like.

First social group is from the “Gay, Lesbian, Bisexuals” To name a few, they asked from their allies:

• for straight girls to be comfortable in the locker rooms when changing—to not assume
• let queer people talk about their love lives
• let the other person know when you feel uncomfortable

“Perfect Agnes would look like…” The queer community of ASC asked for faculty to be out and be an ally.

Other social groups included: Differently Abled, Black Americans, International Students, White Americans, and women.

*The 2000 edition of The Profile could not be located

• Friday, October 12, 2001 page 2

Coming up: National Coming Out Week

On October 11, Collective, the lesbian, bisexual, and transgender group on campus, sponsored the 12^th annual National Coming Out Day. The president of The Collective Jamey Fisher stated “It is in support of the struggle people go through in order to come out. It’s also to reflect on what it means to be an ally (friends and supporters of people with queer sexual orientations… and why it is necessary to have the process of coming out.”

There were events held every day of the week—dinner discussion, poetry SpeakOut, movie night, information tables (Human Rights), importance of distinguishing allies and different sexual orientation, how campaign with a specific picture, importance of being an ally and how to be more supportive.

• October 30, 2001

Dean Hudson’s memo on diversity

This is an article reiterating the importance of diversity and how President Bullock was making it a priority. Dean Hudson made sure there were resources in the library on sexual orientation, race and ethnicity. Safe Zone information was being researched (e.g., A Guide to Combating Homophobia, Heterosexism on Campus). The college was actively working on the Committee on Community Diversity (which still exists today). The college also had faculty workshops: religious diversity, physically challenged students concerns, issues of sexual diversity, ethnic diversity, etc.

*In the spring of 2002 Profile number 86 no queer related events were found

Personal Reflections/Final Thoughts

Sabrina Lopez-->During the process of gathering queer related events I stumbled across interesting patterns and use of language. For example when the Racism Free Zone Pledge, as mentioned by a student in the 1992, October 15 edition of the Profile, first emerged it was soon followed by protests and actions against religious discrimination. Dealing with the social issue homophobia came after these two issues. This pattern of progression illustrated (for me personally of course) how Agnes was only able to combat one social issue at a time. Therefore making the issues of racism and religious discrimination a priority over homophobia. This singular focus on one social issue at a time phenomena even occurs within larger public organizations. An example of this is how gay marriage has become the new and only face of the pride movement because the majority always seems to override the minority when it comes to power and attention. The minority would be individuals with multiple queer identities. This relates to Jose Quiroga's article Latino Cultures, Imperial Sexualities where he briefly mentions how equal rights movements throughout history have a tendency to focus on one identity at a time. Within that one identity only one of the social issues that they face will be the main focus or the issue of the majority group of the queer community will have the power to push forward for specific forms social progression. For Agnes it appears that we have always had a desire for total equality but it still has that singular, step by step structure mentioned by Quiroga. At first the majority of the student and faculty population wanted to eradicate racism, then the next majoritarian group dealt with religious discrimination. Homophobia being the minority that it was fell into last place.

Another example of Agnes' inability to deal with multiple issues at a time is show in the social event "Everyone’s problem to deal with” Workshop combats homophobia on campus that is listed in the time line above. This also connects to Quiroga's article concerning queer identities and racial identities. As quoted from The Profile “The therapists also addressed the struggle against homophobia in relation to similar struggles against racism and sexism” But they apparently did not address the combination of these struggles and the effect it can have on a person. Quiroga emphasizes the complications that can arise when an already minoritarian person juggles multiple identities at the same time. For example being a queer black woman. Yes it was wonderful to see Agnes moving forward by doing these homophobia workshops but it also depicted their baby step like progression. Like in Quiroga's article Agnes seemed to only be able to handle one issue at a time and the next step in this processes is to discuss the combination of these identities. In modern day Agnes exists the student organization Affinity, a group that caters to the queer people of color community on campus.

I also found the use of language quite interesting when it came to how The Profile advertised and described certain play performances. In the 1992 edition of The Profile on page 11, September 18 there was an article titled "Gender Twists create humorous production of The Odd Couple". These "gender twists" were born from women playing masculine or male roles. Since it was for entertainment purposes, female students playing males roles was perfectly acceptable. It was only acting and apart of the performance so an audience seemed less inclined to critically think about why it is viewed as funny is the first place or asking questions such as why do these gender roles exist in the first place. Within these articles men who played feminine or female roles would be labeled as "effeminate male characters" that were “cheerful, comical, [and] entertaining”. The word effeminate can be taken as an offensive term used to describe a man whose behavior, appearance, or speech is considered to be similar to that traditionally associated with women or girls. This connects to the idea of performance being more acceptable than blatant "gayness" even though the performance itself might question heteronormative ideas. This relates to the drag queens mentioned in Sandeep Bakshi's article A Comparative Analysis of Hijras and Drag Queens who though in reality are making fun of female stereotypes and questioning the existence of these heteronorms, the pure performance of it makes it perfectly acceptable. It's the additive of humor that appears to cause the public to brush off what these obvious switching of gender roles could mean.

On discovery that I thoroughly appreciated was the separation between homosexuality and the AIDS epidemic throughout all of The Profile that I personally read through. In almost all of the Profiles it seemed as though the disease of AIDS was constantly being mentioned and discussed. It was obvious that there was a large amount of fear surrounding this topic but not once did it focus on or connect to homosexuals and/or their "lifestyles". It was not treated as a homosexual disease but rather as a threat to all women. I immediately thought of the concepts of the pure versus toxic body from Toxic Bodies? ACT Up's Disruption of the Heteronormatic Landscape of the Nation by Beth Berila. The idea of a toxic body was in fact mentioned in the articles relating to students fears regarding AIDS, but not once was the toxic body deemed as homosexual and the pure body heterosexual. Not only was this a large surprise for me but it was very much appreciated and I applaud Agnes Scott for this separation.

Overall Agnes has traveled far. From complete silence to outright campus wide support in the eyes of the public. Yes, prejudice in all forms will always exist due to people in general (sad but true truth) BUT as a queer and Hispanic student I can say that there is definitely a space for the queer community on Agnes Scott's campus (not speaking on whether or not that last is small or large or course). Now it's simply a matter of maintaining this safe space and further educating students who need to be educated.

Emily Tan-->One of the events I found in my research was the 12th annual Coming Out Week. LBA club members were emphasizing that it is important to be supportive and to become an ally because the process of coming out is necessary and significant for a person who identifies as queer. According to Jasbir Puar’s article, “Transnational Sexualities: Narrations of Normativity”. She says that the idea of coming out is very difficult because coming out is a uniquely Western experience. Coming out also has a connotation that it happens once and does not consider that one can be openly queer in certain situations but not others. Puar is trying to disrupt the idea that there is a path to sexual liberation, but it is not true everywhere.

Before my partner (Sabrina) and I decided to focus on the newspapers from 1992 to 2002, we saw newspapers in the mid-1980s that mentioned social events that were hosted by under represented student organizations. Most articles were enthusiastic about the “aromas of ethnic food” and the upbeat of salsa music playing in the background. Articles about racially diverse events were prominent before any mentions of sexuality diverse events. This observation is similar to what Jose Quiroga mentioned in his article, “Latino Cultures, Imperial Sexualities”. Quiroga claims there is an artificial divide between queer and racial issues. Historically, racial issues have been addressed before queer issues because it is not as ambiguous as race, which is prevalent in Agnes Scott’s newspapers.

“Taking Off the Rings” is related to our timeline. Many papers in “Taking Off the Rings” discussed the idea of a “public secret”. The public secret is that there have always been queer people on Agnes Scott campus, but it was another issue whether or not it was apparent. Overall, the timeline shows that Agnes Scott has attempted to make its campus more diverse in every way, but there is always room for more improvement.

After putting together a timeline of queer diverse social events, I have concluded that Agnes Scott is constantly striving to move forward. Agnes Scott is moving towards being more diverse in every possible way, be it racially, sexually, religiously, and ethnically, etc. However, not every event or controversy over/about queer events will be reported in the college’s newspaper. Agnes Scott gets an “A” for effort and consistently striving for a more diverse campus, but it is another matter whether the campus is inclusive.

"The History of Women's Studies at Agnes Scott"

http://ascwshistory.wordpress.com/

For our project we designed a website to house the history of the Women’s Studies program at Agnes Scott College, especially with regards to queerness. Its purpose is to contain the archival research we did for our this theory class. This project relates to class first of all because queer theory is listed as a women's studies class and is thus included in the women's studies program. It is also related because the women's movement (including the creation of women's studies) has (or has not) been accepting of the queer community to varying degrees, and recording that history is important. The work was done over the period of one month in the Fall of 2010. Our resources included interviews (both videos and transcripts) with professors and former students, official documents (career planning, course catalogues and program handouts).

- By J_Sanchez and Marianne

Millertime & Paisley Boniface Present: Queer Visibility in Aurora, 2000-2010

For our archival project, we chose to examine past issues of Agnes Scott College’s literary magazine, Aurora (from 2000 to the current 2010 issue) in order to glean a better understanding of what (if any) visibility queer issues have been given, and how this attention has shifted in the past decade. We wanted to explore a less structured and political facet of ASC’s many possible avenues of historic inquiry, and instead focus on what can be learned via what the students were doing creatively. We recognize that creative arts reflect not only the personal and interpersonal developments of the individual, but are also telling of overall attitudes during a given time period. Although not meant to be representative of Agnes Scott College as an institution nor of Aurora as a publication, we have selected samples of poetry, prose, and photography that we think in some way highlight issues that we've been discussing in our queer theory class this semester. The two main themes we uncovered dealt with the fluidity of gender and sexuality, including what qualifies as womanhood (Amber Raley’s “On Being a (Wo)Man”), gender as a social construction (Laura McKelvey’s “It’s A Girl!”), responses/reactions to the male gaze (Nicolette Morgan’s “Untitled), and queer desire (Bethany Sullivan's "Little Happens"). Enjoy!



2000: "On Being a (Wo)Man" by Amber Raley

2001: "America: Recipe for Sweet Land of Liberty Casserole" by Tonysha D. Johnson

2002: "Twin" by Yaisha Caron-Harding

2003: For reasons unbeknownst to your humble timeliners, Aurora was not published in 2003.

2004: "Untitled" by Nicolette Morgan

2005: "It's A Girl!" by Laura McKelvey

2006: "World according to Jung" by Lejla Marijam

2007: "Fourth Coffee" by Kristin Hall page 1, page 2, page 3, page 4

2008: "Seeds" by Kimberly Crew page 1, page 2

2009: "Snake" by Katy Flinn

2010: "Little Happens" by Bethany Sullivan