Tipsheet

'Only in America': Spring Course Offering at the University of Maryland Prompts Widespread Criticism

Leah Barkoukis
Leah Barkoukis  |  December 02, 2024 9:30 AM

The University of Maryland is being panned for a Spring course offering studying the connections between “fatness” and “blackness.”

The course in question—“Intro to Fat Studies: Fatness, Blackness and Their Intersections”— “examines fatness as an area of human difference subject to privilege and discrimination that intersects with other systems of oppression based on gender, race, class, sexual orientation, and ability,” a description reads.

“Though we will look at fatness as intersectional, this course will particularly highlight the relationship between fatness and Blackness,” the description continues. “We approach this area of study through an interdisciplinary humanities and social-science lens which emphasizes fatness as a social justice issue. The course closes with an examination of fat liberation as liberation for all bodies with a particular emphasis on performing arts and activism as a vehicle for liberation and challenging fatmisia.” 

According to TPUSA, the course meets the university's Distributive Studies or Diversity course requirement, which students need in order to graduate.