First Ones Out

Introductory courses are purposed to establish the history and background information of certain topics for students with no previous knowledge on the subjects.

But for Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies professors Deborah Meem and Michelle Gibson, introducing the topic of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender studies to students in LGBT Studies (WMST 360) proved to be more difficult because no text was available to guide them through the course.

Instead, the professors used an art book from an art exhibit in 1994 created by the New York Public Library. The book, “Becoming Visible,” features photographs, posters, magazine articles and other media about gay and lesbian history. And while Meem and Gibson praise Molly McGarry’s book for its varied illustrations and its cultural insights, they recognize its limitedness, not only in its treatment of historical and cultural issues but its narrow focus on the New York area as well.

“It’s not a textbook and it wasn’t designed as a textbook,” associate professor Michelle Gibson says. “While it was useful, it didn’t do what we needed it do in the classroom.”

So they decided, with former University of Cincinnati colleague Jonathan Alexander (now associate professor of English at University of California, Irvine) to write their own textbook. The book, “Finding Out: An Introduction to LGBT Studies,” came out in January through Sage Publications and is considered by the authors to be the first real introductory textbook published in the field, unlike the handful of academic anthologies they’ve relied on in the past.

The three wrote the text over the span of three years, sitting around the dining room table and collaborating on how best to encompass the emerging academic field of LGBT studies and present it to students. The challenge, they say, was to do this in a manner that respected students’ intellectual curiosity and knowledge at the same time that it offered significant introductory material in a pedagogically sound frame.

While just released, the book has been field tested by students in a similar course at Northern Kentucky University as well as by students in Meem’s class. Her students even assisted with the creation of the book’s glossary, creating a draft of all the key terms throughout the book.

“They did a good job,” says professor and acting department head Meem. “We’d get two or three versions of the same definition if the students couldn’t agree on one term. It was helping them converse about the material, and that was cool to see.”

The text covers a wide range of topics in relation to LGBT studies, including gay and lesbian history, queer theory, intersectionality, concepts of moral panic and many others. Primary sources are also included—like original poetry and translated texts—to give the reader a well-rounded understanding of LGBT culture.

The book may have been created as a standard textbook, but Meem and Gibson hope it transcends the classroom and attracts individuals who just want to learn more about the topic.

“We had in mind that it would be interesting,” Gibson said. “Our hope is that the text is interesting enough that a person could pick it up who’s not taking a class and still find it engaging. It’s both designed to be both a textbook and an engaging read.”