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Professor Debra Moddelmog Wins 2009 OSU Distinguished Diversity Enhancement Award
Dr. Debra Moddelmog receives 2009 Distinguished Diversity Enhancement Award
Moddelmog's award recognizes her work in establishing Sexuality Studies as a graduate and undergraduate interdisciplinary field of study at OSU; teaching and supporting courses in GLBT literature, ethnic literatures, women's literature, disability studies, and sexuality studies; pioneering queer studies research on the writing of Ernest Hemingway; leading the new interdisciplinary Diversity and Identity Studies Collective at OSU; and connecting the OSU community to both the local and national GLBT communities.
In 2002, Dr. Moddelmog created the Sexuality Studies undergraduate minor, and followed in 2006 with the creation of the Sexuality Studies GIS, a graduate interdisciplinary minor. At both the undergraduate and graduate level, students take courses in a variety of disciplines covering topics including same-sex history in the Western world, gay and lesbian literature, adolescent sexuality, sports and sexuality, and the sociology of sexuality. In this short time, the undergraduate minor has become the second most popular interdisciplinary minor at OSU: over 150 students have completed it, coming from majors as far-ranging as English, Women's Studies, Sociology, Criminology, Human Development and Family Science, Microbiology, Radiology, Social Work, Forestry, and Fisheries, and Wildlife. Several doctoral students have graduated from OSU with the Sexuality Studies GIS, for which courses are offered in the Colleges of Arts and Humanities, Social Behavior Sciences, Social Work, Education and Human Ecology, Law, and the Medical School. In addition to attracting students interested in research in Sexuality Studies, Dr. Moddelmog's program is a major reason why OSU was named one of the top twenty American universities in The Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students.
As the creator of OSU's Sexuality Studies program, Dr. Moddelmog advises many of the undergraduate minors and teaches many of the classes it offers to undergraduate and graduate students. Her courses emphasize GLBT literature, ethnic literatures, women's literature, disability studies, and sexuality studies. She taught the first graduate-level queer theory course in Spring 2008, and is currently working on an undergraduate version she hopes to offer soon. In addition to the subject matter she teaches, Moddelmog has also theorized her role as an "out" faculty member, collaborating with OSU colleague Brenda Brueggemann on the widely-read article "Coming Out Pedagogy: Risking Identity in Language and Literature Classrooms" which examines the educational implications of teachers coming out as non-stable identities (like LGBT or disabled) in the classroom.
As Moddelmog's creation of OSU's Sexuality Studies program suggests, her own work uses theories about gender, race, and sexuality to, as she says "investigate the 'queer' potential of Hemingway's own identity and of his fiction." The result of this research is her book, Reading Desire: In Pursuit of Ernest Hemingway, where she argues against the way that Hemingway's perception–even by literary critics–has been shaped by the myth of ultra-heterosexual super-masculinity which surrounds his legacy. As a result, readings of his work are informed by this heteronormativism, which blinds critics to the queer elements Dr. Moddelmog sees in Hemingway and his characters. Furthermore, Reading Desire shows how the Hemingway myth caused the editors of his last book–The Garden of Eden, published posthumously–to shape it to fit Hemingway's image, altering the manuscript drastically. Using Hemingway as a test case, Moddelmog offers suggestions on how to pursue a critical multiculturalism that favors the kind of unstable identity she argues Hemingway and his work represent, simultaneously calling for scholars to acknowledge, as reviewer Gerry Brenner explains, that the interpretations of culture and identity they make are also "mediated by desires and fluid identities."
Beyond her efforts to foster student research in identity issues, Dr. Moddelmog also works to promote this kind of work among her OSU colleagues, leading the interdisciplinary coalition of faculty members working to establish the Diversity and Identity Studies Coll-ective at OSU. Working with Maurice Stevens from the Department of Comparative Studies and Judy Wu from the Departments History and Women's Studies, Dr. Moddelmog has led a group of faculty from a variety of disciplines which emphasize the study of identity–African American and African Studies, American Indian Studies, Asian American Studies, Comparative American and Ethnic Studies, Disability Studies, Latino/a Studies, Sexuality Studies, and Women's Studies–in designing a Collective that will highlight and publicize faculty research on issues of diversity and identity, coordinate diversity focused events occurring across the university, and encourage exchanges about diversity focused-pedagogy in an online public forum.
Dr. Moddelmog's "community organizing" extends beyond her students and colleagues as well. In addition to serving as a regular member of OSU's GLBT Alumni Society scholarship committee which distributes scholarships to GLBT students and their allies, Dr. Moddelmog chaired the search committee for a new coordinator of GLBT Student Services. She also mediates between students and the academy by presenting to freshman students about Sexuality Studies and to graduate students about being an "out" faculty member. Dr. Moddelmog also works to connect OSU students to the local GLBT community, setting students up in internships with GLBT organizations and sometimes getting involved herself with local GLBT events.
All this focuses on initiatives Dr. Moddelmog has founded or led during the last few years at OSU. In addition to these activities and groups in which she played a significant leading role, Dr. Moddelmog also promoted diversity in other capacities as Director of Graduate Admissions for English Department and through the mentoring program for untenured faculty of color she helped set up as an Associate Dean. As Director of Admissions, Dr. Moddelmog worked–as English Department Chair Valerie Lee puts it–"tirelessly to recruit students of color to [the English] program." Similarly, the mentoring program she helped create for untenured faculty of color aims to connect new faculty members of color in different departments to lessen feelings of isolation by providing forums for discussing research, teaching, and professional/political issues, as well as to offer mentoring and workshops to help new faculty of color navigate the promotion and tenure process.
As her record demonstrates, Dr. Moddelmog has worked consistently on a variety of diversity initiatives across campus during her time at OSU. Her research, teaching, and service work in the areas of sexuality studies and identity studies prompt Dr. Lee to remark that Dr. Moddelmog "has extended herself in so many ways to make our university a place where women, GLBT individuals, racial minorities, and people with disabilities can thrive," earning her a 2009 Distinguished Diversity Enhancement Award.
For more information about OSU's Distinguished Diversity Enhancement Award, Dr. Moddelmog, or this year's other recipients, visit the University Awards and Recognition Web site.
