Modern collge courses
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considers leftist radicalism on college campuses. Last month, it
released this academic year's "Dirty Dozen" — college courses it found
to be "the most bizarre and troubling instances of leftist activism
supplanting traditional scholarship."
1. "The Phallus"
Occidental College. A seminar in critical theory and social justice,
this class examines Sigmund Freud, phallologocentrism and the lesbian
phallus.
2. "Queer Musicology"
UCLA. This course welcomes students from all disciplines to study what
it calls an "unruly discourse" on the subject, understood through the
works of Cole Porter, Pussy Tourette and John Cage.
3. "Taking Marx Seriously"
Amherst College. This advanced seminar for 15 students examines whether
Karl Marx still matters despite the countless interpretations and
applications of his ideas, or whether the world has entered a
post-Marxist era.
4. "Adultery Novel"
University of Pennsylvania. Falling in the newly named "gender, culture
and society" major, this course examines novels and films of adultery
such as "Madame Bovary" and "The Graduate" through Marxist, Freudian and
feminist lenses.
5. "Blackness"
Occidental College. Critical race theory and the idea of
"post-blackness" are among the topics covered in this seminar course
examining racial identity. A course on whiteness is a prerequisite.
6. "Border Crossings, Borderlands: Transnational Feminist Perspectives
on Immigration"
University of Washington. This women studies department offering takes a
new look at recent immigration debates in the U.S., integrating
questions of race and gender while also looking at the role of the war
on terror.
7. "Whiteness: The Other Side of Racism"
Mount Holyoke College. The educational studies department offers this
first-year, writing-intensive seminar asking whether whiteness is "an
identity, an ideology, a racialized social system," and how it relates
to racism.
8. "Native American Feminisms"
University of Michigan. The women's studies and American culture
departments offer this course on contemporary Native American feminism,
including its development and its relation to struggles for land.
9. "'Mail Order Brides?' Understanding the Philippines in Southeast
Asian Context"
Johns Hopkins University. This history course — cross-listed with
anthropology, political science and studies of women, gender and
sexuality — is limited to 35 students and asks for an anthropology
course as a prerequisite.
10. "Cyberfeminism"
Cornell University. Cornell's art history department offers this seminar
looking at art produced under the influence of feminism, post-feminism
and the Internet.
11. "American Dreams/American
Realities"
Duke University. Part of Duke's Hart Leadership Program that prepares
students for public service, this history course looks at American
myths, from "city on the hill" to "foreign devil," in shaping American
history.
12. "Nonviolent Responses to Terrorism"
Swarthmore College. Swarthmore's "peace and conflict studies" program
offers this course that "will deconstruct 'terrorism' " and "study the
dynamics of cultural marginalization" while seeking alternatives to
violence.
Charlotte Allen is an editor at Beliefnet and the author of "The Human
Christ: The Search for the Historical Jesus.