LGBTQIA+ at Clark

Clark University values and supports its LGBTQIA+ community members — students, faculty, and staff. On this page, you will find information and resources to help you navigate your Clark experience, on campus and beyond.

University Resources, Practices, and Policies

All-Gender Bathroom List

View a list of all-gender (and single stall) bathrooms on Clark’s campus. The original gender-neutral bathroom project was spearheaded by Oliver McCormick ’24 and was a continuation of work started by previous student groups.

Find Out More and View Full List

Staff and Resources

Students, Faculty, and Staff: learn more about our inclusive policies (e.g. name change for on-campus use), supports for success, and access to health care support as a Trans or Queer student or staff member here at Clark.

Find Out More about On-Campus Resources

Gender-Inclusive Housing Policy

All students in University housing may choose to live with a roommate or suite-mates of any gender. Additionally, all gendered spaces are assigned based on students’ self-identified gender.

Want to know more? Contact us at reslife@clarku.edu.

Find Out More about Housing

Student Groups and Affinity Spaces

Trans and Gender Diverse Support and Discussion Group

The Trans and Gender Diverse Support and Discussion Group provides an affinity space for those that are trans (binary or non-binary), gender diverse, and/or navigating or questioning aspects of their gender. Each session is co-facilitated by students and staff in seeking to provide access to a trans-inclusive community at Clark.

Learn More

QTSOC (Queer and Trans Students of Color)

This group provides an affinity space for BIPOC students who are LGBTQIA+ or are questioning their gender and sexuality. We will engage in conversations around intersections of identity, support one another, and build community; each session is co-facilitated by students and staff.

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Prism

Prism serves LGBTQIA+ students at Clark and is dedicated to improving support and awareness within the community. Prism holds annual events throughout the school year such as Coming Out Stories, Trans Day of Remembrance, and Pride Prom. Additionally, Prism provides services for students: a queer library, clothing swap, and a binder exchange.

Learn More

Interested in career resources for LGBTQIA+ students?

Explore

Queer History at Clark

Clark University was on the forefront of the gay liberation movement in the 1970s. A course on the subject, one of the first in the country, was offered in 1975; a student group also was active that year, and the University hosted a major conference in gay studies in 1976. “Queering Clark,” a 2019 exhibit, highlighted Clark’s LGBTQIA+ heritage from the 1970s to the present. Moving forward in 2021, Screen Studies Professor Rox Samer brought micha cárdenas, Zackary Drucker, and Chris E. Vargas to campus for the Higgins School of Humanities event on “Trans Media and Its Futures.”

Angela Bowen, M.A. ’94, Ph.D. ’97, a well-known Black American lesbian, feminist, activist, and dancer, earned the first doctorate in women’s studies at Clark.

“Gay at Clark,” an illustration published in May 1986 in The Alternative, a Clark student newspaper.

William Koelsch, M.A. ’59, professor emeritus in Clark University’s Graduate School of Geography and author of “Clark University, 1887-1987: A Narrative History,” returned to campus in 2019 to deliver a talk, “The Revenant Returns: A Tale of Gay Liberation.”

Professor Robert Deam Tobin was awarded a Key to the City of Worcester for his work on “LGBTQ+ Worcester — For the Record,” a 2019 Worcester Historical Museum exhibit that documented and celebrated the history of the LGBTQ+ community in Worcester County.

Professor Robert Tobin (seated, center) receives the Key to the City of Worcester at the MB Lounge on Jan. 26 with Stephanie Yuhl of Holy Cross, left, and Joseph Cullon of WPI. Standing at left: Worcester City Councilor Khrystian King.

Professor Robert Deam Tobin (standing, back left) and his students in Goddard Library’s Rare Book Room, conducting research for “LGBTQ+ Worcester - For the Record.”

Professor Emeritus William Koelsch, who founded the University’s Archives, shown in the stacks of Goddard Library during his time at Clark.

English Professor Elizabeth Blake publishes in the field of queer studies and teaches classes on gender and sexuality, including Queer Literature. Her current book project, In the Mouth: Modernism and the Queering of Eating, demonstrates that scenes of eating in modernist literature are sites of queerness, depicting and enacting a kind of pleasure that exceeds normative models.

Screen Studies Professor Rox Samer has published transgender media studies, and their book, Lesbian Potentiality and Feminist Media in the 1970s, is forthcoming with Duke University Press. In addition to teaching courses on trans and queer media studies, they have brought numerous trans and queer guest speakers to campus, including the lesbian filmmaker Su Friedrich, transgender media studies scholars Cáel M. Keegan and Laura Horak, and, for the spring 2021 Trans Media and Its Futures Higgins event, micha cárdenas, Zackary Drucker, and Chris E. Vargas. (Photo by Stephen DiRado)

LGBTQIA History month

‘We see you, and you are enough’

Clark University plans events to honor LGBTQ+ History Month

Abbie Goldberg

‘What about our rights?’

Professor’s research spotlights concerns of LGBTQ parents in Florida

Clark University alumni affinity group

Affinity group helps LGBTQ+ alumni stay connected

Members find support across age groups

The course serves as an introduction to gay and lesbian studies and queer theory from the perspective of literature in an international and intercultural context.

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This course will explore how cinema has participated in the construction, deconstruction, and reimagining of gender across its history, reading examples of early feminist film theory.

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Covers the history of sexuality from 1750-present focusing on Western Europe. Examine how different societies and times determined what was licit and illicit sexual behavior.

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From the coded sighs of “the love that dare not speak its name” to the out and proud writers of the present moment, this course traces a non-linear history of literary engagement with queerness.

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In this course, we will investigate the emergence of modern sexual discourses in the nineteenth-century German-speaking world.

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This course examines contemporary knowledge and attitudes towards human sexuality, relying on theoretical and empirical psychological research.

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The Victorian period was full of writers addressing what we now consider themes of “queer” sexuality and gender. Often, however, these themes have gone unrecognized.

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What happens when we think of sexuality, with all of its transgressive and individualistic energies, in terms of rationally established universal human rights?

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Join the Clark community in celebrating Pride throughout the year! Download virtual backgrounds or pick a frame to add to your social media profile.

Dana Commons,
1st Floor

LGBTQIA+ at Clark

Clark University values and supports its LGBTQIA+ community members — students, faculty, and staff. On this page, you will find information and resources to help you navigate your Clark experience, on campus and beyond.

University Resources, Practices, and Policies

All-Gender Bathroom List

Staff and Resources

Gender-Inclusive Housing Policy

Student Groups and Affinity Spaces

Trans and Gender Diverse Support and Discussion Group

QTSOC (Queer and Trans Students of Color)

Prism

Queer History at Clark

Stories of LGBTQIA+ Community and Research at Clark

‘We see you, and you are enough’

‘What about our rights?’

Affinity group helps LGBTQ+ alumni stay connected

Related Courses

Sexuality and Textuality

Gender and Film

History of Sexuality

Queer Literature

The German Discovery of Sex

Human Sexuality

Queer Victorians

Sexuality and Human Rights

Celebrate Pride

Identity, Student Engagement, and Access