Registration is in full swing and students are trying to figure out what classes to take next year. Through general education requirements, students at UNC are able and encouraged to broaden their horizons outside their chosen fields.
This board would like to encourage students to take classes not just outside of their fields, but outside of their comfort zones. Specifically, we want to encourage people who identify as men to take women’s and gender studies courses.
Few men take gender studies classes. Certainly there are many causes for that, but we think one possible answer is that men simply don’t think they are welcome in these classrooms. This, of course, is not true. Just like in many classrooms, there are topics that will ask students to question their positions in society, but these interrogations should not turn students away. In fact, students should be encouraged to critically think about their place in and outside the classroom.
Men in gender studies courses represent a diversity of understandings and can open new ideas for everyone in the classroom.
We think the same principle applies to other disciplines. We encourage non-Latinx students to take Latinx studies classes, non-black students to take AAAD classes, and non-Native American students to take American Indian studies courses. We also hope that students of all genders will take gender and sexuality studies classes.
These classes are not only great ways to rake up gen-ed requirements, but also for students to see the other side of the coin and critically engage with the narratives and struggles of others.
