The College Fix

‘Subjugation of women’ and ‘socialist literature’ among topics of discussion

“Abortion bans” and “anti-LGBTQ+ legislation” are two of the topics that an Ithaca College course will explore this semester using an “intersectional feminist lens.”

The private college in New York says the course’s questions, including the abolition of prisons, are “increasingly relevant and consequential to our daily lives.”

The political science course focuses on “the subjugation of women and members of the LGBTQ community, historical and contemporary,” according to Homerconnect, the college’s course registration page.

It is inspired by the works of Mary Wollstonecraft and other contributors to “feminist ideology” including the creators of “socialist literature, radical feminism, Black feminist thought, and post-colonial feminism.”

The registration page states further:

Key questions to be discussed throughout are the issues of the sexual division of labor; the acceptance or rejection of the issues of the sexual division of labor; the acceptance or rejection of the connection between sexual and class oppression, and other key historical and contemporary feminist debates.

At least three students have dropped from the course in the past two weeks – there are now 10 students enrolled as of Feb. 5. When The College Fix first looked on Jan. 22 there were thirteen students enrolled out of twenty seats.

Professor Sumru Atuk, who teaches the course, did not respond to multiple requests for information via email through voicemail in the past several weeks. The Fix asked for the course’s syllabus and about the specific pressing issues the course will cover.

Professor Atuk “researches femicide/feminicide in Turkey and Mexico” and “institutional dimensions of gender-based violence, feminist theory, modern and contemporary political theory, theories of biopower, and digital political participation,” according to her personal website.

The executive director of Feminists Choosing Life of New York, a pro-life group, says courses should have multiple perspectives. Michele Sterlace-Accorsi said feminist theory courses should help students establish their own views after reviewing related information.

“Students should have comprehensive, balanced (not unilaterally driven) content regarding topics of study, especially where such topics are controversial and contain data/studies that supports/opposes various perspectives,” Sterlace-Accorsi told The Fix via email.

She said courses like this, which study a specific political ideology, “should include and discuss divergent perspectives/philosophies. If they don’t, they’re likely to fuel caustic polarization, squash critical dialogue and thwart forging meaningful and peaceful solutions, impacts that are antithesis to real progress.”

Students for Life of America’s communications and policy director also provided comments on bias in higher ed in general.

In general, “[t]he pro-abortion bias in academia is obvious in the number of classes that celebrate ending life and that disparage a family structure that has been foundational in world civilizations, no matter the faith or nation,” Kristi Hamrick told The Fix via email.

Hamrick has heard many stories from students about prejudice they experience when they support traditional family values.

“What’s tragic on too many college and university campuses is that the free open marketplace of ideas is instead an expensive, closed, and prejudiced small circle of politically correct thinking,” Hamrick said.

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