Higher education

[Leigh]

Last May, the tree-lined campus at SUNY  New Paltz in New York's Hudson region buzzed with hipster punks and androgynous preppies carrying notebooks and discussing postmodern theory. In that sense, the conference taking place that day resembled any other queer-bent academic symposium. But certain elements stood out. Workshops featured titles like Boys With Boobs. Introductions included the question, "What pronoun do you prefer?" And the co-ed school's women's studies department, which had lent its support to the conference, was packed with female-born organizers who seemed to identify as anything but women.