Texas Christian University (TCU) students will have to participate in a live group drag performance if they are looking to score an A in the college’s new elective.
In the 2023-2024 school year, the private Christian university will offer a three-credit class titled “The Queer Art of Drag,” Campus Reform reported. It will be taught by Dr. Nino Testa, whose drag name is Maria von Clapp, according to the syllabus.
Calculations based on TCU tuition rates show that students will have to pay $5,946 to learn many crucial life skills, like how to strike a pose.
Assignments for the class include creating “a drag vision board” to help students craft their “drag persona.” The vision board may include images and quotes. Each student will be given a $100 budget to help craft their persona, and they must record and edit a minute solo performance that will be shown to the class.
Students must also perform a live one-minute lip sync in front of the class.
The syllabus states:
Drag is an art form with a rich history of challenging dominant norms and systems of oppression; building queer community; and cultivating experiences of queer joy in a hostile world; but drag has also been deployed in service of violent ideologies and can sometimes participate in harmful normative logics.
However, this class is more than just fake eyelashes and body glitter. Students will be required to write nine reflection posts on readings, performances, and their own personal reflections. A bibliography including eight to ten articles encapsulating the vision of their drag persona is also required, as well as a four-page final paper combined with a ten-minute presentation. It is crucial that the paper is written in the drag persona.
According to the syllabus, the lowest grade a student can receive in this class is a B.
It explains:
I will not be grading the ‘quality’ of your assignments or your understanding of core concepts; instead, you will receive credit for demonstrating through the prompt submission of assignments that you are doing the work of the class: reading, thinking, writing, and performing.
For students to clinch that A, they will have to participate in a performance choreographed by Drag Aunty De’ja DuBois at TCU’s annual Night of Drag.
The class is “funded by an Inclusive Excellence Grant from the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.