Experiences of Queer Students in Residence

Over the past two decades, universities have shown commitment to protecting queer students through policy provisions. Undoubtedly, these policies comfort queer students; however, students who claim queer identities still experience unique challenges that often lead to an inability to reach their full academic potential. Internationally, queer students experience different levels of discrimination: sometimes verbal, psychological, and physical. In South Africa, queer students experience systematic exclusion in everyday campus life. Given this context, it is necessary to find alternative ways to forge spaces for diverse existence; universities can create one of those spaces. Transformation in South African universities should be reflected in all aspects of the universities. As such, university residences are significant spaces in which students spend most of their time and begin to explore their identities. However, scholarship is often limited to the experiences of queer students at university at the expense of how these experiences shape their professional identities. Therefore, there is a need to explore students’ experiences living in university residences and to understand how these experiences shape their professional identities.

Tailor Made, Skylarking, and Making in the Humanities

Reacting to the symbolic features and historical artefacts that invite institutional self-reflection at the Royal Military College (RMC), I created a performance project leading to two storytelling events. Everyday campus life at RMC already offers opportunities for cultivating a meta-perspective—a higher-order awareness—of the institution, and the storytelling events called attention to such opportunities. I argue that, likewise, art-based projects in the humanities call attention to the creativity—the making—involved in the humanities more broadly. The first storytelling event, Tailor Made (2017), comprised stories focused on the uniform as a model and the body wearing it as an actual bearing out that model. Social and cultural life is made of the difference between models and actuals, and each story engaged the ways that rules, systems, and practices meet with individuals in hurtful, inconvenient, funny or messy ways. The second event, Skylarking (2018), included stories of the institutionally condoned pranks called “skylarks” and coincidentally occurred against the backdrop of a campus-wide punishment that elicited a skylark response. This event and its context showed that marking disruption with more disruption (marking failure with punishment and marking punishment with prank) is a recursion that invites higher-order thinking about existing orders.

Tailor Made, Skylarking, and Making in the Humanities

Reacting to the symbolic features and historical artefacts that invite institutional self-reflection at the Royal Military College (RMC), I created a performance project leading to two storytelling events. Everyday campus life at RMC already offers opportunities for cultivating a meta-perspective – a higher-order awareness – of the institution, and the storytelling events called attention to such opportunities. I argue that, likewise, art-based projects in the humanities call attention to the creativity – the making – involved in the humanities more broadly. The first storytelling event, Tailor Made (2017), comprised stories focused on the uniform as a model and the body wearing it as an actual bearing out that model. Social and cultural life is made of the difference between models and actuals, and each story engaged the ways in which rules, systems, and practices meet with individuals in hurtful, inconvenient, funny, or messy ways. The second event, Skylarking (2018), included stories of the institutionally condoned pranks called “skylarks” and coincidentally occurred against the backdrop of a campus-wide punishment that elicited a skylark response. This event and its context showed that marking disruption with more disruption (marking failure with punishment and marking punishment with prank) is a recursion that invites higher-order thinking about existing orders.

Before #MeToo: The Fight against Sexual Harassment at Ontario Universities, 1979-1994

This article examines the campaign against sexual harassment conducted at Ontario universities between 1979 and 1994, looking closely at four universities: York, Queen’s, Toronto, and Carleton. Sources examined included campus newspapers, national media, and the CAUT Bulletin. The term “sexual harassment” was only coined in 1975, but it was quickly taken up by campus feminists in Ontario who successfully fought to have universities adopt policies and procedures to combat sexual harassment. By the late 1980s, they had broadened their campaign to look beyond predatory instructors, focusing on actions and behaviours that created a sexist climate that hindered women’s learning and their full participation in campus life. The arguments of both the supporters and the opponents of the campaign are examined. The article concludes with the failure of the Ontario government to impose a “zero tolerance” policy on sexual harassment at universities. While sexual harassment continues to exist at Ontario universities, campus feminists made significant progress during these years.