Formal complaints were filed against a tenured Penn State professor last spring after he reportedly misgendered a non-binary graduate student, as well as a transgender author who was listed on his syllabus for a queer theory class.

The English professor in question, Christopher Reed, said in an interview that multiple reports were made during the spring 2018 semester and in the summer.

Reed said students asked if he could change a reference to Jack Halberstam, an author who is transgender, on the syllabus. Reed had included Halberstam’s previous name.

That was one of the earlier instances of Reed misgendering others, said students who were enrolled in the course.

However, Reed said, the official complaints “came to nothing.” Reed, who is openly gay himself and specializes in queer theory, said he’s protected by the principle of academic freedom — and can therefore introduce alternative ideas into the classroom.

It’s unclear whether Reed’s tenured status impacted how the complaints were addressed. However, in a post on his English department profile page, Reed said he is a “scholar fortunate to be protected by academic rank and job security.”

Penn State spokeswoman Lisa Powers said via email she is “not in a position to release additional information” regarding the complaints. After consulting with the Title IX officer and the Affirmative Action Office , Powers said it was in the “interest of maintaining the confidentiality of the complainant and the alleged offender in any case” to withhold further details.

Mark Morrison, the head of the English Department at Penn State, declined to comment on the allegations.

The topic of identity and the use of pronouns surfaced the first day of Reed’s queer theory class last spring. After students voiced their concerns, Reed said, he then engaged in an “academic debate” surrounding identification and how Halberstam self-identifies.

“The student who raised the particular objection dropped the class,” Reed said.

Student View

A graduate student from the queer theory class said Reed also misgendered an openly non-binary student in the class. The graduate student, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, also said this student considered dropping Reed’s class “very early on.”

The non-binary student preferred the pronouns “they” and “them.” However, Reed would refer to the non-binary students as “she,” the graduate student said.

“[Reed] was very fond of making very snide and sometimes hurtful remarks in his feedback on people’s work,” the graduate student said.

As the class progressed, more issues arose. Reed said in the interview that he experienced some backlash from others, including students.

“There were all of these complaints and semi-public demonstrations of wanting me to change my ‘wicked ways,’” Reed said. “That’s when I felt I had to put something up on my webpage that would alert everybody of what to expect [in class].”

In August, under his biography page on the Department of English’s website, Reed posted a link to a four-page document. Reed stated he had a right to “engage these issues as a fundamental matter of academic freedom.”

Academic Freedom at Penn State

But what exactly is academic freedom at Penn State?

According to Penn State’s official policy website, academic freedom allows an environment where faculty members have “the right to express their own views and to hear the views of others expressed... while protecting and respecting the rights of others to learn.”

Penn State has several policies specifically regarding gender identity. These policies cite academic freedom, stating faculty members can express themselves “free from interference or obstruction.” But, there is no language within the Academic Freedom Policy that mentions gender harassment.

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The graduate student said Reed’s offenses went beyond misgendering.

“He really has a ray of pedagogical practices that I would call abuses,” the graduate student said.

In his extensive document, Reed also discusses what he considers to be the correct way people should talk about their own gender pronouns.

Reed wrote that the only pronouns belonging to individuals are “I” and “me.”

“Second and third person pronouns are other people’s utterances,” Reed wrote in the document.

In Reed’s opinion, those who prefer “they” and “them” pronouns are “kind of a euphemism.”

“To demand people use a plural grammatical construction to refer to a singular entity is eccentric and could be funny,” Reed said in the interview.

He said disregarding well-established grammatical constructions makes it more about someone’s “authority” to correct a person, rather than the act of misgendering itself.

Reed said the current climate of people correcting pronouns is “actually a step backward in queer theory.”

Generation Gap

“I need them to respect that I come from a place where we play with gender identity, and gay men have played with gender identity for longer than I have been a gay man,” Reed said. “We’re not going to stop doing that, because in a lot of ways that was culturally, aesthetically, socially and politically important and useful.”

Tension in the queer theory class, Reed said, potentially stemmed from what he called a generational conflict of “policing speech” tied to gender.

“Who is the younger generation to say that the older generation of gay activists is wrong to play with gender?” Reed asked rhetorically.

The graduate student said Reed had a biased attitude toward students, as cisgender people who were identified were not misgendered.

“It doesn’t really seem to be about playing with gendered language,” the graduate student said. “It seems to be much more about disrespecting the lone [non-binary] student in the room.”

The student said Reed seemingly insulated himself from administrative repercussions based on academic freedom.

Another graduate student from the same queer theory class, also speaking under anonymity, said the class environment became “uncomfortable” as a result of Reed’s behaviors.

“He misgendered trans people knowingly,” the student said. “He was confronted by multiple people on multiple occasions.”

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‘A generalized debate’

The incidents between Reed and students in his class reflect a contentious discussion, on a national scale, for how people choose to self-identify.

Multiple requests for interviews and information to understand the scope of the investigation into Reed’s conduct went unanswered.

However, in general terms, Powers said similar investigations include “notifying the alleged offender of a complaint being made and providing an opportunity to respond to those allegations.”

Penn State provides policies surrounding the topic of gender identity and harassment.

As previously reported by The Daily Collegian, Penn State provides a service where students can request to change their gender identification, including a map of gender-inclusive restrooms and sexual orientation and/or name changes on official documentation.

Hilary Malatino, an assistant professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies and philosophy, declined to comment on allegations leveled against Reed. However, Malatino offered their general perspective on gender identification.

“I think it’s fundamentally unethical to refer to people with the gendered pronouns that they don’t identify with,” Malatino said.

For many people who are transgender or non-binary, misgendering them affects them in “many ways,” Malatino said.

“It’s one thing if someone does it unintentionally, and gets corrected and makes a good faith effort to never do it again,” Malatino said. “Misgendering happens — it happens all the time. But I think if there is resistance to dignify how somebody identifies that is recurrent and dogged, then that is a form of profound disrespect.”

When Malatino, who is transgender, first started teaching in the late 2000s as a graduate student, the topic of gender was “not a commonly held discussion.” Throughout the years, they have seen the topic become “a generalized debate.”

“It’s a complex time to live through as somebody who is trans and non-conforming, working with students of those identities,” Malatino said.

Correction: This article once referenced Assistant Professor Malatino with she/her pronouns, but it has since been corrected to reflect Malatino's preferred pronouns, they/them. We apologize for this error.

Penn State's policies on gender:

The Preferred Name and Gender Identity Policy: -recognizes the need or preference for the Penn State community to self-assert a gender other than their legal gender -as long as gender assertion is not intended for avoiding legal obligations or misrepresentation

The Sexual And/or Gender-Based Harassment and Misconduct Policy: -maintains an environment free of harassment and free of discrimination against any person because of gender, age, race, etc.

Discrimination and Harassment and Related Inappropriate Conduct Policy: -companion to the Gender-Based Harassment Policy