Campus Reform, the education watchdog, describes the “Queer Games Studies” at the University of Texas at Arlington in a Jan. 23 story by Claire Caton.
The university, which has about 41,000 students, offers the silly class in its English Department, where students get to play video games such as the classic Pong and Mario Kart 8. Another online game in the class is “Secret Hitler,” which requires players to find the fascists hiding among them.
Outside the classroom, students are required to read articles such as “The Monster and the Homosexual,” which says the public wrongly views homosexuals like vampires, werewolves, and Frankenstein's monster.
The course description says the class “will investigate the place of queerness in gaming, including the representation of characters and methods of resistance to game constructs.”
Zachary Marschall, editor in chief at Campus Reform, says the class symbolizes what is wrong in higher education.
“It's a very unserious pursuit,” he says. “There are a lot of serious things you can do in studying video games. You can study the economics of the industry, the art form of graphic design, of storytelling, but that's not what this course is about."
The article says the class instructor is Mark Reeder, an adjunct professor. Reeder is also the assistant director of Campus Visits and Events.
