Yvonne Pitts
Please join me in congratulating Yvonne Pitts, associate professor of history and American studies, and Lowell Kane, director of Purdue’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Center, for winning the Gender and Sexuality Knowledge Community’s Exemplary Program Award for 2018 from the National Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (NASPA). NASPA is the leading international association for the advancement, healthy, and sustainability of the student affairs profession.
Yvonne and Lowell were honored for their “Sex, History, and the Cities” study abroad program, which examines LGBTQ history and culture in three cities: New York City, Paris, and Berlin. These cities have a rich history of vibrant sexual subcultures and simultaneously have been the sites of some of the most violent repressions of LGBTQ people. Students meet with historians, scholars, grassroots activists, and other partners over the course of the six-week program, studying the changing meanings of same-sex sexual desire, acts, and identities over time and how communities developed around sexual and gender identities in each city.
This program was recognized by NASPA because it bridges academics and student life through innovative pedagogies and attention to intercultural learning outcomes.
Congratulations, Dr. Pitts!
David A. Reingold
Justin S. Morrill Dean
College of Liberal Arts