Name: Nathan Durham
Year: 2017
Hometown: Atlanta, Georgia
Major: Sociology, Women and Gender’s Studies
Activities: Manager of Unity House, Sexual Misconduct Advisor, Co-President of Project for Open Voices
HCK: What is it like being a guy and a Women’s & Gender Studies major?
Nathan: I wish that more people would take WGS classes just because I think that it, as an academic field, offers a lot of different ways to work out some critical social issues of our time. We’re not just talking about gender — it’s race, and sexuality, and politics — and I think that I came to WGS more out of the sexuality aspects because I was really interested in it sociologically but I really liked it. I am now doing honors next year, and I’m gonna look at the ways in which immigration law relates to politics in the U.S. That’s the kind of stuff we do in WGS
Other than getting weird looks when I talk about what my major is, there’s nothing more that changes for me in the course of study except for the fact that I do have to constantly locate myself in relationship to the things in my readings, as a man engaged in feminine scholarship. I wouldn’t say that it’s super constraining and I would definitely encourage other people, especially guys, to start thinking about this stuff.
What got you into those topics and how did you become engaged in them?
I’ve always had a very complicated relationship with gender, that I don’t often put it into words because it’s nebulous but I’ve had a lot of gender experiences in my life that don’t really fall in line with what you’re “supposed to do.” I have vivid memories of, you know, putting makeup on as a kid and just wanting to do that because I felt like it would make me look pretty. Or, especially when you’re coming of age and starting to realize your sexuality with the worldview that I was raised in at least, its heteronormativity is just sort of inscribed, I assumed something about liking boys that was gendered in ways that it doesn’t have to be. So, when I started to realize that I was gay, that became very much related with femininity and it became a gendered conflict for me just because the way that I had been raised to think about gender was very based in heterosexuality as a system. And so, I came into college still figuring things out, so I was really interested in exploring my identity in the politics of this at an academic level because it was offered to me. The cool thing about liberal arts today is that students who come from marginalized backgrounds are now able to really start getting into questions about inequality in their curricular lives, and that’s what led me to this area of studY.
I understand that you are co-manager of Unity House. How did you get involved with this organization?
Last year, my friend, Rachel, asked me at the end of the year if I wanted to apply to manage Unity with her and I was like, “sure” and so we got the job. My job is to coordinate events with the administration and be a liaison between the campus and the administration. We’re kind of like employees of the college, but not really, and we’re kinda charged with facilitating the larger queer circles on campus. This year, for the first time, we have organized meetings with leaders of other queer societies and we’ve established regular events like Queer Beers to strengthen the connections among queer students because for a long time it was very stratified and there were not many cohesive environments where people could sort of connect with one another in a specified way that isn’t constrained by other social forces. It’s people from all over different areas of campus can come together. A lot of my job is managing the budget, making sure that we’re not overspending or underspending, making sure that people feel comfortable coming. I think we have really worked hard to make sure that it is an open space where people can just come in, and they do, and I like that. It really is mostly bureaucratic stuff but it comes with a lot of opportunities to connect with students and to build relationships with a lot more people and to bring really valuable leadership experience. It’s really because you’ve come to be seen as authority on these sort of things that relate to the LGBT community, even though sometimes you feel like you’re not really in authority. But, people start asking you questions and you have to do all these panels and so it’s weird. I would say that managing Unity has probably been the most rewarding experience of my time at Kenyon.
What are some of the exciting events Unity has either put on in the past or looks forward to putting on in the future?
We were really excited about Tyler Ford, last Wednesday. That was one of the big events of the semester. Last semester, the big thing was the Everyone is Gay event that was unfortunately under attended, but it was over October break so it was a weird weekend. Tyler Ford, on the other hand, was very successful. Queer Beers is also something that was really look forward to. We had a Barbequeer last semester that we’re hoping to do again in April. Other than that, we just have weekly meetings and we cosponsor events with other organizations.
How can people get more involved in some of the activities you do?
For Unity, if you want to get involved, just come to our meetings at 2pm on Sundays, everyone can come! We send out emails and if you want to be on the dislist then email me, or email the Unity account at GLBTQ@kenyon.edu.
For POV, we’re going to have a discussion after break. We’ve had a couple of meetings about sex culture at Kenyon and that’s been really interesting. We’ll probably try to go about that route again in our next discussion because there’s a lot of different intersecting issues there.
For SMAs, we just had informational sessions a few days ago! If you went to that, you should apply to be an SMA! If not, you can email Nikki Keller if you’re interested in applying and talk it out. The SMAs have been really valuable in giving me a space to think critically about such an important issue but also to help people, and to be a resource for my peers and for people on campus. I think that’s important especially something that concerns me as an SMA is that there’s a lot of sexual misconduct that goes unreported in which the victims are male who don’t feel comfortable talking about these things. I think having SMAs who are available and male who are there to talk to has increased the amount of reports, but I don’t think it’s because sexual misconduct has increased — I think it’s because people are more comfortable talking about it now that the SMA program is so strong. It’s just different talking to a peer than it is talking to someone in the administration even if you are sort of sanctioned by the school, it is an interesting balance. I think the SMA program is unique.
What else do you hope to do in the future?
After I graduate, I would probably like to get a job for a year or two before grad school. Over the summer, I’m looking into various nonprofits and some policy institutes to do some political work and activist work. It really depends on who hires me at this point, fingers crossed! I would really like to go into working for a nonprofit at least for this summer to test the waters but I think eventually grad school is the goal for something, I don’t really know yet — maybe law school, we’ll see!
We look forward to it, Nathan! Keep up the awesome work!
Image credits: Nathan Durham