Non-Binary Academics: Impacts of Hierarchies on Gender Minorities

And so, it takes a lot of modesty and a lot of openness and a lot of willingness to be wrong. To say, “okay now I need to do something about this” -Kim

Kim’s quote spoke to my research, the idea of change and openness does not come easily. It takes seconds to realize the part where people stop and understand the ways they think and act contribute to an exclusive world, but a lot of work to understand and accept that they may be wrong. Kim also speaks of the idea that it is one thing to listen, but to act is what shows you were truly listening. Throughout my research I looked at how hierarchies in academics’ impact professor openness to minority identities and their willingness to change looking specifically at non-binary students at Beloit College.

Transgender and non-binary people are becoming more common in American Society. There is a need for change and acceptance for these identities and also a need to recognize their identities as real (Stryker 2008). The purpose of this research is to understand perceived academic and social hierarchies at Beloit College. I argue that hierarchies are real at Beloit and they impact student’s identities in and outside of the classroom. These hierarchies work against students in creating grassroots change by facing pushback from professors as well as Administration at Beloit.

By interviewing professors and observing students, I will learn about how they interact at Beloit and how they view themselves in this structure. I specifically interacted with the Trans Task Force, a group of students I am a part of, that presents to departments and student groups about transgender identities at Beloit. I wanted to observe the group and understand how they felt about the effectiveness of their group. This research will eventually help the Trans Task Force better address the college and its faculty as well as help the New Office of Academic Diversity and Inclusiveness learn where it needs to work on issues in the institution.

Background

I conducted my research at Beloit College. It is a small undergraduate liberal arts college in the Midwest. The student population is small with about 1,208 students from nearly 46 states and 40 international countries. There is about 110 faculty members at Beloit College, most holding a PhD. Beloit College is predominantly white college which leads to a lot of racial tension on the campus.

Beloit College attracts many LGBTQ+ students because of the Liberal environment. The Critical Identities Studies Department, which is a huge draw for queer students due to its focuses on sexuality and gender. There are about 300 students that are subscribed to the Sexuality and Gender Alliance (SAGA) e-mailing list, which is the primary LGBTQ+ group on campus that provides programming for queer identified individuals and is the home of the Trans Task Force. There is a house that the club lives in and every Thursday at 5:30pm the Task Force meets there to talk about their jobs for the week and to decompress. It is a safe place for LGBTQ+ students at Beloit to come to.

There is a lot of terminology in the LGBTQ+ community that is hard to define and can be subjective from person to person and changes definition over time. Transgender is when someone’s assigned birth sex does not match their gender identity. Cisgender is when someone’s assigned birth sex does match their gender identity. Non-binary is a gender identity on the transgender spectrum that does not rely on the traditional female/male binary (Stryker 2008). Binaries are difficult to work around. People tend to rely on binaries to understand the world. We think in dichotomies like rich and poor, skinny and fat, as well as Black and white (Nestle 2002). People try to put people in these specific categories in order to understand people quicker which leads to people erasing identities and cause people to feel ostracized for not fitting into a box.

Queer Linguistics is useful for understanding how language change can impact people’s acceptance. Throughout my research the focus has shifted from the notions that pronouns are the problem, but in fact a symptom to the close mindedness people have about non-binary people. Queer linguistics is an emerging field in Linguistics in the United States which seeks to understand the gender binary and how language has changed in order to adapt to more diverse gender identities (Motschenbacher, 2010). Creating language and words for those who do not fit into the binary would be more accessible for queer people and help create a better world view of transgender individuals (Zimman, Davis and Raclaw, 2014).

The institution of Beloit thrives on hierarchies. There are institutional hierarchies as well as socially constructed ones. Often times a professor will say that it is all up to the students to create change, but hierarchies at Beloit College can make it hard for people to get their voices heard. The idea that we can create change is a narrative that Beloit really likes students to strive for, but the hierarchies can make it difficult to do so. There is tension in the institution between change and these perceived hierarchies. American academics are hierarchical in nature. The older you are and the more published you are, the more reputable and trusted you are in academics (Martin, 2002). There is also a tension between Associate professor and tenured professors. The idea of job security makes associate professors feel uncomfortable at the institution and fear speaking out or acting out. It can create negative feelings of jealousy at other tenured professors (Martin, 2002). Academic hierarchies create roles for professors that disallow them from speaking out or being confronted on the violence of their ideas and words and the impact words have on marginalized students.

Methods

I interviewed two faculty members at Beloit College and one staff member. They were semi-structured interviews in their offices in order to promote comfort. I planned to do structured sampling but then decided to do snowballing sampling. This is due to issues that I will cover later in the limitations section. I wish in the future to conduct more interviews with professors and get a more diverse number of departments since I only interviewed humanities. The staff member I interviewed worked in the Office of Academic Diversity and Inclusiveness.

I also did participant observation with the Trans Task Force. It was an informal group of non-binary students who sat around in SAGA and discussed what the group needed to do. I participated in conversation and decisions because I am one of the founding members of the Trans Task Force. Stepping back would hinder the group’s efforts to operate, but staying in a leadership position impacts the direction of the group and mindset of the participants in interviews.

I observed in one of my classes when we were discussing the student reaction to the Anti-Hate, Hate Crimes, Hate Act and Bias Incidents form. I noted student’s thoughts and what they understood of the policy. I also did observations at a Town Hall Meeting at Beloit College. It was also about the Anti-Hate form and it meshed together faculty, students and staff and their frustration about it. This provided valuable information about tensions between students, faculty and staff.

When I conducted interviews, I had a set list of questions on a variety of topics. I had my initial questions to ease us into the conversation. I asked about their pronouns, which caused a bit of hesitation and laughter because it was easy for them. I also asked about their understanding of the Trans Task Force. I also asked questions to instigate a story like “What was your first experience with gender neutral pronouns (they/them)?” and it would be usually about the Trans Task Force. It helped them open up and relax when it came to talking about their students and how they interacted with trans students. I also asked questions pertaining to the direct research, like what would they do with the research that I am conducting if it became available? This lead them to talk about the hierarchy and who needs to read it or if it could be used for institutional change and it shows an understanding of the impact of the research and their voice in this project and how it also might affect their security in the academic hierarchy.

Limitations

Limitations of the ethnography are that research like this takes longer than a semester to complete and in reality, I had about a half of a semester. This produces limitations that may impact the quality of my research. I will be expanding off of this information and hopefully continue this into the fall.

The Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Beloit College did not give me approval until the end of March which allowed for three weeks of research. Once I got IRB approval, I emailed professors asking for interviews. I sent them to separate departments and people. I could only do so many with the time left in the semester and the professor’s schedules. In the end, the only people who responded were people I worked with on a daily basis in the Anthropology Department at Beloit College. I wanted to interview people from the sciences and the e-mails I sent never got a reply. This could be seen as professors being too busy, but this is an all too familiar feeling for the Trans Task Force.

In the year that the Trans Task Force has been active, we have not visited all the departments on campus. We have to be invited to their meetings, and we email them asking for a time to meet with them. Some departments got back to us and others never responded. Some even sent emails saying that they do not need training. This sense of disinterest or refusal to answer feels like they do not care or respect students enough to respond. This is a feeling I felt and the Trans Task Force has felt before. This is pertinent to my research to be a noted feeling amongst my informants.

Ethics

Harm that might have been done during the interview is the reveal of the identities of my informants, so I changed the names of all of my informants in order to keep confidentiality within my research. The information about students has been left vague from events, so that students cannot be identified. Trans students on this campus, especially in the Trans Task Force are visible. When they discuss professor treatment this could lead to them being discovered and persecuted by their professor, so I took extra steps to not be descriptive about the informant other than they are transgender.

Results

Hierarchies

The College is very hierarchical and one of the challenges in particular, not necessarily limited to Beloit College, in American culture, there is a real, there is a reluctance to acknowledge or recognize hierarchies. -Patrick

Hierarchies are real, not just at Beloit but everywhere. In academics, there is a hierarchy between all levels of education and age (Martin, 2002). At Beloit, there is a similar structure to other colleges, but with the help of my Trans Task Force informants, I developed an image to depict the Hierarchies of Beloit (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Perceived Hierarchies at Beloit College, created by the Author

The top of the pyramid is the Board of Trustees. They provide money to the college and make decisions about what the college does and endorses. They only come to the college as a group once a year during the Final Exam week for students. There is a lot of distance from the students to the Board and a lot of negative feelings between the two groups. The board is made up of predominantly white cisgender men. The second tier is the President and the Provost of the college. The president is paid the most at the college and is the face of the college. Our Provost deals with issues pertaining to professors misbehaving and has mediations with tenured professors.

The third tier is the Tenured professors and department heads. Department Heads have control of the department and are harder to report. You have to go to the provost in order to report them, which can be a lot of work for a student. These professors have more freedom than non-tenured professors because they have job security. This can cause a lot of tension between the two tiers (Martin, 2002). There is also trickle down of information. Professors are teachers, they disseminate knowledge to students.

[What is] beautiful about being [at Beloit] is the sort of willingness of our students to let us learn from them, like that is what I really value about being at Beloit, which is why the hierarchy frustrates me so much is that I probably learn more from my students than I could ever teach them and I am okay with that and I am humbled by it. -Kim

Professors have a tremendous power of teaching students. There is a sense of normativity in professors to teach students, they believe they are correct and almighty because they have a PhD. Students fuel this hierarchy. Professors can acculturate students, they have an opportunity to teach and help people understand how things like gender and race work (Frances and Le Roux, 2011). Referring to Kim’s quote, learning can be a two-way street. Disruption of systems occurs if we accept this idea that knowledge can also be spread up. It is a way to allow the student voice to be heard and understood. If there is an openness, it allows for a flow of power and structure. It is vital to students, who are in undergraduate studies, to know that they can teach people with PhDs and make them feel like they are intertwined in community conversations about the college and academics. I think this willingness to listen to students is rare, but needed at Beloit.

I think that Beloit Students have tremendous power on this campus because this is an undergraduate student driven endeavor, so I think you have a lot more power than you realize - Linda

The Bottom of the pyramid is students. It may feel that we have a power to be able to pay the school and determine what we want, but this is often a fake feeling. We rely on professors to grade us and help us succeed academically and if we anger them, this could jeopardize the relationship and student success. As one of my informant in the Task Force described, it is hard for a trans student to call out a cisgender professor. There is a heavy reliance on professors for good grades. While we can start groups and fight the system, it is a lot harder than my informant, Linda, think it is. We can fight, but the school and professors can fight back. The portion off to the side is a new office at Beloit College, it is the Office of Academic Diversity and Inclusiveness. I was able to interview Patrick, who is one of the heads of the department. He is a staff member and not a faculty member at Beloit. He has a lot of feelings about his place at Beloit College.

One example of hierarchies at play where faculty are empowered to Center think about and work on this document which has a profound impact on my life and your life as a student and yet we have no access to putting it on the table. - Patrick

“Office of Academic Diversity and Inclusiveness is a new office for Beloit College historically when we think about underrepresented students receiving support at the college it's the trio programs the federally funded programs SEL and McNair.” (Patrick) It gives support to students who do not get into SEL (Students Excellence and Leadership) and who need some help. It is the first office of its kind at Beloit that is funded just by Beloit. It is a staff office and Patrick felt like students and his office are kept in the dark with policy change. These items that are being created by the institution to support students, faculty and staff only go to faculty and not even the office that it impacts the most. There is a sense of hierarchy that makes Patrick feel like his office might be on the same level of the hierarchy is students.

Students Fighting Back

Students are a huge majority of Beloit College, although they are the least powerful at Beloit. A lot of the change that Beloit needs to make, is always left up to the students to do. The Trans Task Force is a student created group that started in Spring 2015. They sit in the living room of SAGA every Thursday to discuss different topics and things to be done. There were quite a few struggles that trans students faced on a daily basis that were brought up at the meetings.

Ignorance kills and ignorance is a bitch. - Charlie

This quote exemplifies the feelings of the Trans Task Force. The hardship of having to be the only trans person in the classroom can be hard for students. Charlie reiterates this phrase when talking about trans suicide. As a student dealing with a lot of health issues, the Task Force can be a lot on their mental health. The disconnect between a professor and a student on gender identity can become a semester full of misgendering (when someone labels a trans person with the wrong gender) and a drain on mental health.

Correcting professors can be a hard thing to do when it comes to pronouns. Due to the hierarchies, not only professor created ones, it is difficult for a trans person to correct a cisgender person. “When you correct cis people, when they are giving a compliment, they think you are a jerk and they think you ask too much… they think they are doing a good job, they make you feel like it is you [the trans student’s] fault” Charlie was explaining how this is how cisgender people react to them when they try to correct them, and it is not worth it to be yelled at or be called negative things. It is hard for the group to come out and say what they need to say. It is also hard to come out on this campus.

One of the main fears of doing these presentations is the “coming out” part of it. During one of our meetings, a student brought up concern because they had to do a presentation to a certain department, because they were not out to their professors and they didn’t know how they would take it. It is a hard process to do and I have done it several times during presentations. It is not comfortable to do. Although, Linda said when I presented to her and came out to her it I was “part of the Task Force and [I was] one of the more visible students as a part of that and discussions around it”. I am a major in Linda’s department and have had spent time with her outside of class. There is a sense of connection that could lead professors into having a deeper connection to the trans student and lead to them “trying harder” with pronouns. The worst feeling students described is that if a professor knows and still ignores pronouns. A lot of professors do not want to learn because as Kim put it “If I pretend it’s not there, then no one can accuse me of being bigoted!”. She said this in a joking manner, but the feeling behind it is real. Not knowing leaves, a security to rely on that if they don’t know, they don’t need to care.

Anti-Hate, Hate Crimes, Hate Act and Bias Incidents Form

While conducting my field notes, a pertinent issue on campus came up. The Administration released a new draft of a document called the Anti-Hate, Hate Crimes, Hate Act and Bias Incidents form. The part of the document labeled “Bias Incidents” impacted my research the most. These documents made some tenured faculty become concerned and start and to initiate an email based discussion.

This policy dictates what happens if a professor uses bias speech or an aggression against someone based on their identity. This is a vital for campus. Right now, Tenured faculty have no repercussions for their words and actions at Beloit. Now, if a professor was transphobic against a student, the student would be able to report it to the school in order to have a mediated discussion about it and so the professor can learn how to be more inclusive in the future.

The backlash that happened was from tenured professors who believed their freedom of speech was being hindered. The professor of the class argued that “Beloit college is committed to the freedom of expression as well as to the understanding that how such expression is heard and received”. The understanding that people have freedom of speech, but their words have consequences. The frustration from tenured professors is that the benefit for being a tenured professor is that you have full freedom of speech and the Bias Incident Form is hindering that. This professor is not a tenured professor at Beloit, they are a visiting professor. The professor was angered by this feeling of not being able to speak up. They had to keep silent in these conversations in fear of losing their job. The tenured professors do not need to worry about that. The hierarchy about freedom of speech and academics is real and is being implemented in this situation (Martin, 2002).

And frankly if it would be one thing if I was sitting here as a staff member from the accounting office but I am working in the Office of Academic Diversity and Inclusiveness and have not yet received a copy. -Patrick

During my interview with Patrick, we also discussed this policy. I just learned about it right before from my informant Kim. Patrick just came back from his faculty Sustained Dialogue group where they discussed this. His position amongst faculty was challenged there. As a staff member, he was excluded from these conversations. He didn’t even receive a copy of the Anti-Hate, Hate Crimes, Hate Act and Bias Incidents form. This frustrated him during the interview. He views this as a situation where staff are being kept in the dark. He is working in the office that deals with inclusivity on campus and yet he still hasn’t gotten a copy. He received it through another professor who shared the email with him. “[He] should not have to go through those means to acquire a copy” it should be given to him, probably even before it was sent out, but wasn’t because staff is also ignored by the institution. The Anti-Hate, Hate Crimes, Hate Act and Bias Incidents form gave a lot of insight into how the institution implements campus wide policy, which requires more work and communication.

Conclusion

But I am not faulting anybody because again it, I see it as a symptom as the way the institution operates and I don’t see it as any individual persons maleficent. So, let me be clear on that, I am not, there is not anybody to blame necessarily. It’s just kind of the way Beloit operates and kind of the way it has operated for a long time. There is that institutional momentum, there is that sense of just the way things work at Beloit. Not much transparency. -Patrick

Even though Beloit College strives itself from being different, it is not distinct than any other academic institution when it comes to Academic hierarchies. It is just the way the institution operates. It has done for a long time. The American academic system has always been built on rankings. One person has to be higher than the other in rank. Patrick describes it as “The College is very hierarchical and one of the challenges in particular, not necessarily limited to Beloit College, in American culture, there is a real, there is a reluctance to acknowledge or recognize hierarchies.”. We need to deconstruct them in order to create change. It is not so easy as getting rid of them that will solve the problem, because we cannot. It is the point in which we should acknowledge them and understand how they operate at Beloit. Kim wants “people in power who are unaware of privilege, of their own privilege” to acknowledge it in order to create change. If they don’t realize there is a problem, then they won’t try to implement and accept change.

Administration is some of the highest people on the pyramid at Beloit. They do not really understand what students, staff and faculty want or need. In order to get a better understanding and response to change we need to “Do a top down rather than bottom up dissemination of understanding and create new cultural morays.” (Kim) It is easier to change things from the top-down than the bottom-up. It should not just be on the weight of the trans students to create a safe and better place for transgender students at Beloit, but it is just the way that Beloit operates. I will be conducting more research in the future. I want this to be implemented and understood at Beloit College. This research will help the institution realize how it operates and how it is currently ineffective and too hierarchical to create change. I will combine my research with a fellow student in my Ethnographic Methods class in order to get a holistic view of how students feel in the classroom as transgender students. It will be developed into a research project in which my limitations will be lessened in order to use this research to create change for Beloit College students from an academic perspective.

Work Cited

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