{"id":1848,"date":"2024-07-11T11:10:02","date_gmt":"2024-07-11T11:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-gaystarnewscouk.gmg-staging.link\/?p=1848"},"modified":"2024-07-11T11:18:25","modified_gmt":"2024-07-11T11:18:25","slug":"goldsmiths-responds-to-claims-its-scrapping-first-of-its-kind-queer-history-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev-gaystarnewscouk.gmg-staging.link\/index.php\/2024\/07\/11\/goldsmiths-responds-to-claims-its-scrapping-first-of-its-kind-queer-history-course\/","title":{"rendered":"Goldsmiths Responds To Claims It\u2019s Scrapping First-Of-Its-Kind Queer History Course"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Goldsmiths, University of London has denied claims that its postgraduate MA Queer History course is facing closure.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The university is believed to be making more than 90 arts and humanities staff redundant, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thestage.co.uk\/news\/goldsmiths-faces-backlash-over-97-arts-and-humanities-redundancies\"><em>The Stage<\/em><\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This includes Justin Bengry, who is the Director of Centre for Queer History at Goldsmiths.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a post shared on <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JustinBengry\/status\/1811267745453068578\">X (formerly Twitter)<\/a>, he described the changes as \u201cdevastating\u201d and said it would result in the \u201cclosure\u201d of the course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWith no specialist staff, this means the closure of the MA Queer History, the world&#8217;s only MA degree of its kind,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is an afront to my students, colleagues, and community. It is vandalism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Goldsmiths has decided to terminate my employment as part of a devastating restructure. With no specialist staff, this means the closure of the MA Queer History,  the world&#39;s only MA degree of its kind. This is an afront to my students, colleagues, and community. It is vandalism.<\/p>&mdash; Justin Bengry (@JustinBengry) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JustinBengry\/status\/1811267745453068578?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 11, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Goldsmiths itself <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gold.ac.uk\/pg\/ma-queer-history\/?gad_source=1&amp;gbraid=0AAAAADF9-XAo90XKR8k93DF4i-68S7inQ&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQjwhb60BhClARIsABGGtw96lNJ8qbMvM0Nuu3yiCOgUh4XYKqGugY6LKGNo3MhZ15VhWZmN9_QaAiFWEALw_wcB\">describes<\/a> the Queer History course as a \u201cpioneering programme\u201d that delves into \u201cone of the most exciting areas of historical enquiry, giving a voice to those who throughout much of history have been denied one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a statement shared with <em>Gay Star News<\/em>, a spokesperson for the university said: \u201cWe remain fully committed to delivering courses following the recent programme review, including MA Black British Literature and MA Queer History.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cUniversities across the UK are having to make difficult decisions to navigate unprecedented financial challenges. This is a painful time for us all as we take steps to make our finances sustainable. We consulted staff and unions over our plans but unfortunately this did not result in viable ways forward which would have avoided or reduced the number of redundancies.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur plans will ensure that Goldsmiths continues to be a beacon for innovative research and teaching as well as an entry point for students, many of whom are the first in their family to go to university.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Specialist LGBTQ+ courses at a university level in the UK continue to be incredibly rare, with the launch of Queer History at Goldsmiths in 2017 being <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gold.ac.uk\/news\/ma-queer-history-announced\/#:~:text=Goldsmiths%2C%20University%20of%20London%20is,Queer%20History%2C%20beginning%20in%202017.\">hailed<\/a> as a world-first.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Queer studies are typically incorporated into wider gender and culture qualifications, while in the US it will often serve as a minor or as classes that are part of a wider course about something else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The financial situation for universities more generally also continues to be bleak.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Earlier this year, a report from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/education\/article\/2024\/may\/19\/next-government-must-make-hard-university-funding-decisions-fast\">Office for Students<\/a>, a higher education regulator, estimated that 40% of England\u2019s universities would be running budget deficits in 2024 &#8211; with mergers also on the cards for many.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reports that Goldsmiths, University of London would be scrapping its Queer History course began circulating after a number of staff were made redundant. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1853,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,18],"tags":[77,66,58],"class_list":["post-1848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-news","tag-education","tag-lgbtq-news","tag-london"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.5 (Yoast SEO v24.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Goldsmiths Responds To Claims It\u2019s Scrapping First-Of-Its-Kind Queer History Course<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Goldsmiths, University of London has denied claims that its postgraduate MA Queer History course is facing closure.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta 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