Yale English Faculty “Decolonizes” Curriculum

This is also an older controversy, having started with a student petition in 2016 and resulting in a faculty vote to make the change in graduation requirements in Spring, 2017.

Liberals see it as reform and adding flexibility in course requirements for an English major, allowing more diversity and not forcing a canon of Chaucer, Shakespeare and other “Major English Poets” on students.  Conservatives see it as another example of Faculty and Administration caving into an intolerant left bent on rejecting Western values and culture.

The petition claims it is “unacceptable” for prospective English literature majors to study only white male authors in the Major English Poets sequence, adding that the lack of diversity in the curriculum drives away talented students. Furthermore, the petition writes that the white male-centric introductory courses do not adequately prepare students to take higher level courses relating to race, gender and ethnicity or to engage with critical theory or secondary scholarship.

The conservative education blog, Circe views the controversy in more dire terms:

The Yale student petition claimed that “a year spent around a seminar table where the literary contributions of women, people of color, and queer folk are absent actively harms all students.” To put it another way, these English students assert that English literary tradition is inhumane. In fact, the petition originally requested that the university abolish the Major English Poets sequence entirely. This is not about including authors who are “women, people of color, and queer folk.” They are not calling for diversity, but destruction. To them, the dissolution of English literary tradition is a moral act. It is time, they claim, not only to reject the fathers, but to erase their legacy from the earth.

For interviews with people on all sides of the controversy, see https://www.rt.com/usa/408017-yale-english-lit-diversity/.  It actually reports reactions from across the spectrum.