Reply #19: I'm sorry, I must have missed the memo...

[Runcible Spoon]

since when was the main thrust of a college education to increase "the potential for financial return"? Diversifying educational curriculum is a far cry from fetishism and compartmentalized labor/production that is the basis for class hierarchy in capitalist political economies. Then again, if we are coming from a Marxist perspective, why even care about the earning power of a degree except to purge higher education of that taint? At any rate there are many persuasive reasons to argue that an MBA is a useless POS degree in most cases unless one already has an establishesd career or mommy and daddy's business to inherit. Last thing this economy needs is more management! In my experience, as an ABD PhD student in cultural anthropology, perhaps a whole new major/minor is not needed, but should be explored until (I AM GENERALIZING WITH FULL KNOWLEDGE HERE PEOPLE) psychology and medical degree programs get their collective heads out of their asses when it comes to "deviations" from the status quo. Many LBGT and those interested in studying the dynamics of "alternative lifestyles" (I cringe at the term but without writing a long winded thesis here it will have to suffice as shorthand to get my point accross) are extremely frustrated at the hamfisted way the "traditional" disciplines understand and analytically problematize their particular fields of experience. IMHO anthropology has been a great field for answering these concerns, and we are certainly established, but alas suffer in relative obscurity since we do not make gobs of money for our universities and we also have this annoying tendency to illuminate and challenge the very foundation of reality-construction that universities depend upon to maintain intellectual hegemony. In some ways, Queer Studies does seem like "throwing crumbs" to shut up a small but active, tenacious, and justifiably inflamed group(s), but at the same time I think that any visibility is beneficial in the long run.