When women's and gender studies professor Michael Bronski is looking for fun, his plan is clear he writes another book. Cheery and talkative despite the fact that I interviewed him in the sliver of spare time between his first class and his bus back to Boston, Bronski assured me that rumors of his impending retirement or permanent transition to Harvard are unfounded. While Bronski does hold a position at Harvard, his diehard fans can put aside their worries. He's here to stay, at least for the time being. In fact, Bronski called Dartmouth a perfect fit because of the opportunity here for student interaction. Beyond lecturing, Bronski said that real teaching comes from engaging one-on-one with his students.
"It's a well-kept secret teachers learn as much from students as students learn from us," Bronski said.
He has used students' papers in later courses, and believes that the fresh perspectives undergraduates offer keep professors from recycling old ideas on a given topic. Listening to students is paramount.
"It's foolish and dangerous not to," he said.
Bronski has become friends with many of his students, and is collaborating on a forthcoming book with Michael Amico '07, a former student, and New York University professor Anne Pellegrini. The book, "You Can Tell Just By Looking and 20 Other Myths About LGBT People," is slated for release this October.
As an activist and leader in the queer community at Dartmouth and beyond, Bronski is often called upon to discuss queer issues, but he believes that being an activist does not mean spreading his own opinion.Bronski said he works hard to keep his own views out of the classroom setting.
Bronski considers teaching an extension of activism, but not in transforming beliefs or forwarding a certain point of view. Instead, he tries to present material in a way that provokes critical thinking, raising issues and encouraging students to form their own opinions. The most important information that comes from a college education is how to think creatively, critically and intelligently, and how to bring these skills with us after graduation, he said.
"Most of what you will earn in college you will forget," Bronski said. "Learning happens out in the world."
His own accounts reflect this view, as much of what he teaches is not from books, but from life experience. Bronski's firsthand experiences allow him to bring a candid recollection of history to the classroom.
"I am history in my age and background," Bronski said.
Bronski's legacy of activism began at his Roman Catholic high school in the 1960s.
"It was the height of the civil rights movement, and we got extra credit for going on civil rights marches," he said.
Bronski joked that the nuns never would have guessed that he would end up teaching queer and Jewish studies.
"Well, maybe the queer part, but definitely not the Jewish part," he added with a laugh.
What began as extra credit points soon developed into a passion for participating in the movements at work around him. Bronski attended college at the inner-city campus of Rutgers University, and his first week fell just after a series of violent race riots in Newark, N.J.
"The city was in flames for most of the summer," he said.
Soon after arriving, Bronski became involved in marches protesting the war in Vietnam. By the late '60s, he had allied himself with his female friends, talking and reading about second wave feminism. The same year, the Stonewall riots marked the uprising of the fight for LGBT rights, and Bronski began what would become a life dedicated to this fight.
"In the mid-'60s to late '70s, there was enormous support for people being activists," Bronski said. "There was also interest on the part of the younger people to be activists. Social upheaval, hippie culture and the war in Vietnam presented youth with people like Janis Joplin, people who were in constant revolt against social norms that were being rewarded for it."
The urgency of activism amongst Bronski and his peers came to a head in 1981, when the emergence of HIV/AIDS created a radical crisis in the LBGT community. The immediacy of the problem overshadowed pre-existing disagreements and differences, and it became a watershed moment for gay and lesbian individuals nationwide.
"Activism had to happen fast, because people were dying," Bronski said. "You had to challenge what the newspapers were saying."
As the HIV/AIDS crisis proliferated, there was no time to wait, plan or contemplate. Activism became action, not only in challenging the media, but in visiting sick friends and loved ones, volunteering for committees, bringing people food and planning funeral services. For 14 years, the urgency continued and activism became a way of Bronski's life.
Bronski said that the dramatic events of his early activist days have impacted his perspective on student issues today. At Dartmouth, where many enter the corporate world after graduation, those interested in activism or social issues often face a more unsure future. Bronski noted that students often come to him worried for this very reason.
"Students say I'm graduating, I don't know what to do, what did you do?'" he said. "And I say, Well, we had to stop the Vietnam War.'"
Today, Bronski said that social issues today may not inspire the same sense of desperation and immediacy.
"When you look at the organizing around same sex marriage, there just isn't the urgency to it that there was with AIDS or Vietnam," he said. "It doesn't have the same sense of urgency about life or death in this country."
Bronski said his generation featured a greater sense of agency for youths and individuals in activist projects.
"Since the '60s and '70s, there has been a professionalization of activism with fewer options for grassroots work," he said.
Bronski said he deepened his involvement by writing articles for a newly formed gay and lesbian issues newspaper. Those options are few and far between today, he said. For the few who do manage to get an internship with a publication or activism group, they are often unpaid, and those who would have been activists 45 years ago end up stapling papers and making copies.
The downturn in activism shouldn't be an excuse to give up, Bronski said. Find those who care about what you care about, and work with them.
"You have to create options," he said. "It is possible."
