University of Maryland offers $5,000 'fat studies' course on how 'fatness' and 'Blackness' intersect

A apical assemblage is offering a people connected 'fat studies' to students, which it claims volition assistance them analyse the 'intersection' of 'fatness' and 'blackness.'

A people statement connected the University of Maryland's registrar tract says the people 'examines fatness arsenic an country of quality quality taxable to privilege and favoritism that intersects with different systems of oppression based connected gender, race, class, intersexual orientation, and ability.'

Students volition besides 'look astatine fatness arsenic intersectional' and worldly 'will peculiarly item the narration betwixt fatness and Blackness.'

Titled 'Intro to Fat Studies: Fatness, Blackness and Their Intersections,' the people is worthy 3 credits and is portion of the university's diverseness quota — with astir students required to instrumentality 2 diverseness courses earlier graduating.

For out-of-state part-time students, the assemblage charges $1,645 per credit. For out-of-state full-time students, a semester, which includes taking 12 oregon much credits, costs $19,732.  

The people is led by Dr Sydney Lewis, a elder lecturer, who said online that aft Donald's Trump's archetypal statesmanlike triumph she 'sat successful the bathtub and cried' and was near fearing for her citizenship.

Intro to Fat Studies is wholly full, with each 20 of its seats claimed by students readying to instrumentality the people successful the Spring 2025 semester. There are besides 8 radical connected the waitlist. 

Dr Richard Vatz, a prof emeritus astatine a adjacent assemblage blasted the people arsenic 'laughable' and said it was 'unlikely to assistance idiosyncratic get a job'.

The Towson University adept told The National News Desk: 'I person to beryllium honorable with you, this is benignant of a laughable, laughable subject. This worldly is conscionable ludicrous.'

Others person responded online, slamming the people arsenic 'insanity is real' and saying 'maybe workout courses would beryllium a bully idea.'

The people is offered by the University's Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies.

It is unfastened to each students, careless of their country of study, including engineering, economics and machine programming.

A syllabus is not disposable for the course, but speechmaking worldly includes the books What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat and Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness arsenic Anti-Blackness.

The website 'Planet Terp', which helps students astatine the University of Maryland take their courses, says 70 percent of students successful the people typically gain an A.

The statement of the people published online continues: 'We attack this country of survey done an interdisciplinary humanities and social-science lens which emphasizes fatness arsenic a societal justness issue. 

'The people closes with an introspection of abdominous liberation arsenic liberation for each bodies with a peculiar accent connected performing arts and activism arsenic a conveyance for liberation and challenging fatmisia.'

Dr Lewis was the writer of the effort 'Love successful the clip of Trump', which was published aft 2020 connected the website Rooted, which says it works to 'build affirming, healing spaces for the Black LGBTQ community'.

In the essay, she wrote: 'The nighttime of the 2016 election, I sat successful a bathtub and cried.

'I knew arsenic a queer achromatic pistillate I was already teetering connected non-citizenship, and I desired, nary I deserved, immoderate privileges I could gather.'

She added: 'I'm frightened that my wellness isn't bully capable to bushed the microorganism [Covid], should I declaration it. I'm frightened that determination won't beryllium capable ventilators and my abdominous assemblage volition person to beryllium sacrificed.'

Blasting her course, Dr Vatz added: 'I don't deliberation if you went into a occupation interrogation and the interviewer said "what person you taken recently?" and the responsive said, "Well, I'm taking a people successful abdominous studies, but the intersection of a Blackness and fatness," that this would enactment you successful a presumption to get overmuch of a job.

'So, the inferior of this and the occupation marketplace is astir apt beauteous questionable.'

Dr Lewis is described online arsenic a lecturer astatine the University of Maryland with an involvement successful 21st period African-American culture, Black feminism, and queer and sex studies.

Her dissertation was titled: 'Looking guardant to the past: Queering Black Female Sexuality successful "Neo" taste productions.' A statement said it combines achromatic feminist mentation with taste studies and queer theory.

The University of Maryland has 40,000 students, with the mean magnitude of survey lasting 4 years and costing undergraduate students astir $40,000 for academics alone.

DailyMail.com has reached retired to the University of Maryland for comment.