Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies
Report on Sexual Diversity Studies,
including An Undergraduate Program Self-Study,
Submitted to the Faculty of Arts and Science,
January 2008
Table of Contents
History of the Bonham Centre and SDS Programs2
Faculty and Administrative Complement3
Academic Programs7
Student Awards11
Co-Curricular Student Programming11
Research13
Infrastructure and Space16
Organizational Structure and Governance17
Finances18
Advancement, Alumni Relations, and Public Profile19
Into the Next Planning Period21
The Preparation of This Report22
Appendices:
A Undergraduate Program Requirements23
B Partners of the Collaborative Graduate Program26
C SDS Steering Committee27
D U of T Faculty Members with Significant Interest in Sexuality28
E Selected Publications and Research Grants, U of T Faculty30
F Undergraduate Journal of Sexual Diversity Studies33
G Fellows of the Bonham Centre35
H SDS Advisory Committee36
I Conferences and Visiting Lecturers (sponsored or co-sponsored by SDS), 2007-0837
J Graduate-Faculty Colloquium, 2006-0739
K Special Events, 2006-0840
History of the Bonham Centre and SDS Programs
A crucial and distinctive feature of the Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies is that it has been built on a foundation of student learning. It began with the intention to expand the curriculum and create program options for students where none existed. The Centre’s core purposes still include expanded curricular attention to sexuality at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Another hallmark of the Centre, signalled by its name, is a scholarly mandate beyond the ever-expanding LGBT alphabet, and even beyond the ill-determined boundaries of “queer.” Some of the course work, and the research undertaken by SDS-associated faculty, lies within one or another of those categories, but we are actively encouraging students who want to work on sexuality issues beyond the usual reach of programs such as those we sponsor, and linking ourselves to faculty members who work on a broad range of sexuality topics. This inevitably suggests permeable and flexible boundaries, and some overlap with the work done by faculty members associated with the Women and Gender Studies Institute, but neither we nor our colleagues in the Institute are troubled by that.
Early Years
Sexual Diversity Studies developed from a set of discussions that began in the mid-1990s among faculty and students concerned about the lack of curricular attention to a rapidly growing field of inquiry. From its birth in 1998 until 2004, SDS focussed entirely on building an undergraduate Minor program and offering explicitly interdisciplinary courses. Despite the laudable inclusion of sexual diversity in University of Toronto equity policies, strikingly little scholarly and instructional attention was being paid to questions of sexuality.
The preparation of the Minor program proposal entailed a survey of every single course offering in the Faculty of Arts and Science (FAS), yielding only a handful of courses with significant attention to sexuality and thereby appropriate as course options. The initial proposal included a set of SDS-specific interdisciplinary courses (offered under the UniversityCollege rubric), in part to provide undergraduates with common frameworks, but in part necessitated by the sparsity of curricular attention to the analytical questions around which the program was organized.
The Program’s formation and development since then has begun to correct this imbalance, creating a community of scholars across many departments and divisions. SDS was not the first undergraduate program in Canada to address this academic area, but quickly became the largest, the widest in scope, and the highest in profile.
In 1999, SDS submitted its first academic plan, as part of UniversityCollege’s submission to the Raising Our Sights planning exercise (undertaken across the University). At that time, the course stipends and miscellaneous additional expenses associated with the undergraduate Minor were borne entirely by private donations, with infrastructural support provided by UC. Planning deliberations did not result in any systematic contribution to the bulk of SDS core curricular costs, but they did secure a “collateral” teaching commitment tied to a tenure-track academic appointment in queer theory provided to the Department of English – soon filled by Michael Cobb. It was also during this period that regular funding began for teaching assistants in the now-large, second-year core course, as well as stipend funding for its offering during the summer term.
Radical Expansion
In September 2004, SDS launched the first undergraduate Major of its kind in Canada. By then, private fundraising, and in particular the first major gift by Mark S. Bonham, had allowed for an expansion of its own course offerings. There were now two core courses at the second-year level (like all of SDS’s own offerings these were one-semester courses), one drawing from frameworks in the humanities and history, the other in the social sciences. There were two theory courses in the third-year, a permanent course in law and sexuality, and special topics courses designed to take advantage of special opportunities.
In 2004, UniversityCollege approved the creation of a Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, with a view to expanding our undergraduate programs but reaching beyond that to establish a major hub of graduate and faculty research on sexuality. At the same time, the College approved a space plan for the Centre providing a two-room hub plus a cluster of faculty offices, all in proximity to classrooms for which SDS would have priority.
In early 2004, SDS submitted its own academic plan (alongside the UC plan), as part of the Stepping Up exercise. The result was an annual contribution, for the life of the plan, to the costs of course stipends, course release for SDS faculty leadership, and administrative support. This support was roughly half of the totals under each of these categories, the other half expected from private funds.
The other major result from the plan was curricular guarantees associated with two positions, building on the English position precedent from the previous plan. One of these was tied to a Sociology position in gender and sexuality, and the other tied to a joint position allocated to the Women and Gender Studies Institute and the Department of History (in transnational feminism). The former was filled by Adam Green, and the latter by Ashwini Tambe.
In 2005, FAS approved the establishment of the Centre, at the time classified as an EDU 2 (later translated into EDU C and now in the process of being reclassified as EDU B – which will allow the Centre to hold minority shares of faculty appointments). In 2006, the Centre was officially named after long-time supporter Mark S. Bonham, and new space was officially opened. At this time there were about 140 students registered in the undergraduate program.
In the fall of 2007, a proposal for an undergraduate Specialist program was formally prepared, and is now well on its way through the University’s formal approval process. This will be Canada’s first such degree program, once again finding the U of T at the forefront of developments in this rapidly growing field. More than twenty students are expected to register in the Specialist program when that becomes possible in the summer and early fall of 2008.
Also in 2007, a collaborative graduate program at the M.A. and Ph.D. levels was proposed, and approved by the governing bodies of both the Faculty of Arts and Science and the School of Graduate Studies. This interdisciplinary program links SDS to over twenty academic partners across the university (see appendix B). A first wave of admissions is anticipated in the spring of 2008, by which time the approval needed from the Ontario Council of Graduate Studies is expected.
Faculty and Administrative Complement
Faculty Appointments with “Collateral” Instructional Links to SDS
SDS has no formal shares of tenure-track appointments. However, through two academic plans, it has secured collateral teaching obligations tied to three tenure-track positions:
Michael Cobb Dept. of English (appointed 2002)
Adam Green Dept. of Sociology (app’d 2006)
Ashwini Tambe Women and Gender Studies Inst. / Dept. of History (app’d 2006)
Each of these appointments has entailed at least one full course equivalent of teaching per year in the area of sexuality, in courses to which SDS program students have full access co-equal with program students in the faculty members’ home units. In addition, such arrangements have led to one of the second-year core courses offered by SDS itself and a second-year English course in Queer Writing, also part of the core curriculum, taught by tenure-track faculty in Sociology and English.
Instruction in Core Curriculum, 2007-08
UNI 255HCore History/Theory Scott Rayter (SDS/English)
UNI 256HCore Social Science Adam Green (Sociology)
UNI 354HPre-Contemporary Theory Stipend - Sarah Sheehan
UNI 355HContemporary Theory Stipend - Elena Basile
UNI 325HQueerly Canadian Scott Rayter (SDS/English)
UNI 365HSexuality and Law Stipend - Meredith Cartwright
ENG 273YQueer Writing Michael Cobb / Dana Seitler (English)
HIS 348HColonialism and Sex’y Ashwini Tambe (WGSI/History)
POL 315HSexual Div Politics David Rayside (Political Science)
SOC 310HSexuality and Modernity Adam Green (Sociology)
1
WGS336H Cultural Studies of Gender/SexualityRinaldo Walcott (Soc & Equity Studies, OISE)
1
UNI 375HSpecial Topics: Trans/Bi Persp’s in Film Stipend - Linda Wayne
UNI 455HSpecial Topics: Intro to Trans Studies Stipend - Nick Matte
The Dept. of Political Science has also allowed full SDS student access to POL 315H (Sexual Diversity Politics), another course in the core curriculum, taught annually by David Rayside as part of his regular teaching load.
Rinaldo Walcott now teaches a course in cultural studies for both the Women and Gender Studies Institute and SDS (listed as WGS). This one-semester course represents an important addition to our regular curriculum, and Walcott’s home department at OISE is compensated by an arrangement equally funded by WGSI and SDS, with assistance from FAS for the remainder of the current plan.
Stipendiary Instruction
Of the eight instructors of core SDS courses who are either tenure-track or have more than two years’ experience teaching for the program, six are tenure-track. Our two core theory courses, at the third-year level, have been taught on stipend this past year only, following the withdrawal of long-standing SDS instructor Fadi Abou-Rihan.
Our special topics courses at the third- and fourth-year levels are often taught by stipendiary instructors, mostly just-graduated Ph.D.s and a few senior Ph.D. students. This, as we intended, has provided for a wide range of courses created and taught by emerging scholars (see below).
Scott Rayter has been the longest-serving of stipendiary instructors, having taught for SDS (first as a teaching assistant) since its very first year, and has been promoted to Sessional Lecturer II (within the collective bargaining framework for stipendiary instructors). His teaching is critical to our undergraduate program, since he has regularly taught UNI 255H, one of our second-year core course, in the fall and summer terms, and now routinely teaches UNI 325H (Queerly Canadian), a course co-sponsored by SDS and Canadian Studies. He is a superb instructor, and SDS would like, with English, to create a teaching-stream position for which he would be a prime candidate. We will be approaching FAS for support for a position bridging to the next academic plan.
Administrative Support
SDS now has 3/4 of a full-time administrative assistant position. It took some time to secure this position, and there was considerable turnover in it prior to our appointment of a permanent staff person. SDS anticipates that the position will move to 100% SDS within the next six months, which will be especially important as we move into graduate programming. The work of the administrative assistant is supplemented in various ways by the work of other staff at UniversityCollege.
Connecting U of T Faculty with Interests in Sexuality
One of the most important functions performed by SDS is to forge connections among faculty members across divisions and campuses, and SDS has taken a number of steps to develop precisely such connections. On hearing of the appointment of new faculty with an interest in sexuality, from any campus or division, we usually ensure that at least one of the leadership or core instructional team in SDS welcomes her/him. We have also expanded our Steering Committee to over twenty members, and use its regular meetings (every two months) to draw from them for advice on policy matters and help in staffing our various sub-committees. Included in its ranks (see appendix C) are faculty from well over a dozen academic units, three campuses, and five St. George campus faculties. We also, of course, organize a number of social and intellectual functions each year to facilitate contact among faculty across the three U of T campuses. There are now more than fifty tenure-track faculty members at the University of Toronto who have a significant research and teaching interest in sexual diversity. Most are young, many will at one point or another be directly involved in SDS, and many saw the existence and dynamism of SDS as an important attraction to a U of T appointment in the first place.
The demographic and intellectual diversity of these faculty members is impressive, and provides SDS with a foundation that is dramatically broader and more solid than it was at the program’s founding. Of the eight instructors and faculty responsible for teaching the SDS core, there are five men, three women, six white people, two people of colour, and about an even split between the humanities and social sciences, and between those primarily theoretical and those leaning more toward empirical work. We should and will improve our balance, particularly with respect to gender, ethnicity, and race.
Complement Challenges
As has been true of other new or relatively new interdisciplinary programs at the University, the absence of formally appointed core faculty represents a challenge on the curricular front and in and in ensuring faculty leadership for the future. Reliance on stipendiary instruction for our core curriculum is not healthy. Though it has produced some first-rate classroom experiences for our students, and for the instructors themselves, teaching quality is more difficult to secure. Most stipendiary instructors are not at the University for the medium or long term, and students therefore are less likely to be able to build sustained relationships with them over more than one year. In our first decade we have not always had choices, especially because there were so few courses taught in Arts and Sciences in sexuality until the last couple of years.
The collateral teaching links to three appointments help, although we have been sensitive to the fact that in one such case, the split of the appointment of Ashwini Tambe – between WGSI and History – makes any attempt to lure her into service functions associated with SDS unfair and unrealistic, at least for the time being.
One remedy has been to secure funds that will allow us to buy out a portion of the regular teaching loads of one or more tenure-track faculty, though this is (with some academic units) destined to be much more expensive than the standard stipend. In the future, explicitly shared tenure-track appointments will be crucial. Among the departments we consulted with last round, and would probably treat as priority “dance partners” in the coming plan process, are Religious Studies and Geography, though we are also mindful of the need to ensure that our theory courses are taught by tenure-track faculty. (This is in addition to the teaching-stream position shared with English, already discussed.) Shared appointments will be facilitated by our securing EDU B status.
One of the great strengths of the U of T faculty members interested in sexuality is their relative youth. This bodes well for the future, and within these ranks it is not hard to imagine candidates for instructing SDS core courses and assuming leadership positions. There will be a challenge on both fronts in the next few years, however, with the relatively small number of mid-rank or senior faculty able to take on major responsibilities.
Academic Programs
Major, Minor, and Specialist Programs
We now have a Major and Minor in operation. Both grew rapidly after their launches (without any need for promotion), and each now has 65-75 students. In 2008, we are launching a Specialist program, and anticipate an enrolment of 20-30 in it.
Undergraduate Program and Course Enrolment, 1998-2008
1998-99 2001-02 2004-05 2007-08
SDS Majors 37 67
SDS Minors 20 26 54 71
1
Total Program Enrolment 20 26 91 138
SDS courses at UC:
UNI 255H Hist & Sex’ies 55 / 25 * 66 / 46 * 89 / 60 * 90 / 55 *
UNI 256H Soc Science of Sex’y 74 108
UNI 354H Theory I 24 18 **
UNI 355H Theory II 32 34 44 59 / 10 *
UNI 325H Queerly Cdn 43 ***
UNI 365H Sex’y & Law 25 19
UNI 375H Special Topics 24 13 / 15 *
UNI 455H Special Topics 14 14 21