California State University in Long Beach, California is looking to hire a professor to teach classes on “transgender studies” and “gender variant theories.”
The job description states that this will be a brand new position where the successful applicant will be responsible for developing a program on topics such as “transgender studies, feminist transnationalism, trans feminism, gender variant theories, and transmigration.”
The official position title is “Assistant Professor of Trans Studies,” and in addition to teaching and developing courses on the topics above, the person in the new role will be asked to teach courses in the Women’s Studies Department on “Queering Gender,” “Introduction to Queer Studies,” and “Feminist Theory.”
Sounds Bizarre, right?
Well it is. Like what is feminist transnationalism, even?
Feminist transnationalism, is a theory that “critiques Western mainstream feminism for using itself as a referent for communities of color, and calls for a decentering from hegemonic Western discourse,” according to Canadian academic Sarat Colling, who also states that “anti-globalism and anti-capitalism” are “key” components of said theory.
“Transgender” is defined by the American Psychological Association as “someone who wants to transition to the other sex/gender both socially and physically through surgical procedures, it can also refer to people who express gender atypicality along a continuum, including, for example, cross-dressers, those who present as gender ambiguous, or those who live in the role of the other gender without surgical or hormonal intervention.”
As is expected with most professors, this one will also be expected and responsible for mentoring a diverse body of students. The department even offers a minor in Queer Studies.
Under the welcome section of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies department page, the following is posted in bold lettering:
“As feminist scholars, we understand many of the Trump Administration Executive Orders to be an assault on American values. Efforts to ban travel, deny scientific fact, to remove legal protections, eradicate funding, and attack the First Amendment erode our civil rights in unacceptable ways. We stand with the resistance movements, and are committed to do all that we can to create a more just society for ALL.”
The Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies department also offers classes such as “Queering Gender,” which focuses on “focused on the “intervention that queer theory seeks to make into heteronormative culture,” “Intro to Queer Studies,” “Principles in Feminist Thought,” and even a course on “Queer Spirit.”
