I’d like to thank the academy…

Harvard University has just announced that they will endow a visiting professorship in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender studies, which they believe will be the first endowed, named chair in the subject at an American college.
This would at first seems like overwhelmingly great news.

I would generally say that in the United States, no single institution is more central to our notion of “The Academy” than is Harvard, and just as the rise of Women’s Studies (nee Gender Studies) helped bring women’s voice into the academy (with a methodology that focused on the individual experience and that paid attention to who contributed to our narratives), one would hope that Harvard’s decision to endoy a chair in Gay Studies might have a similar impact.
If I lack enthusiasm, its because I have been reflecting recently on what role “The Academy” still has.
In a lot of ways, the democratization of information has been an overwhelmingly good thing. Feministing.com stands as a testament to that–more so than ever before, women, not to mention all other sorts of groups traditionally underrepresented in the academy can express their opinions in the marketplace of ideas.
“Punditry” is no longer concentrated in the hands of a few, so Harvard’s proclamation will probably have a quite negligible impact on the way our society views the spectrum of gender experience.
Whether we’re talking about climate change, the exceptional intelligence of Sotomayor, or, in this case, the fact that gender and sexuality experience is worth understanding, it seems apparent that no matter how many “experts,” with however much scholarly research behind them, come out and make a claim, the proliferation of media makes it possible for the deniers to make a case with “corroboration.”
Harvard’s decision might be a good step forward, but I have to wonder if they’re walking in the same plane as the rest of us.