Did Cross-Dressing Cost Adjunct His Job?

[Susan]

Did Cross-Dressing Cost Adjunct His Job?
By: Scott Jaschik
June 6

Jeremy D. Kerr is a sociologist who uses cross-dressing to make points about gender and society.

But Kerr, an adjunct who teaches at the University of Kentucky and who used to teach at Georgetown College, has been told by his department chair at Kentucky to stop cross-dressing in class, and Kerr has sued Georgetown, charging that he lost an adjunct position because of his cross-dressing in area restaurants.

Kerr was not available for comment.

In an interview on Sunday, James Hougland, the acting chair of sociology at Kentucky, called Kerr "a good instructor." Kerr finished his Ph.D. at Kentucky in the spring and has been working there as an adjunct and is expected to teach again in the fall.

While Hougland praised Kerr's work as an instructor, the chair said that he had asked Kerr "to wear gender-appropriate clothing in his UK classes and to my knowledge he has complied with that request."... [Read More]

[Louise]

Adjunct faculty, unlike full-time faculty, generally have few employment rights.  Adjuncts are hired on course-by-course contracts which generally specify that the university is under no obligation to rehire the adjunct.  While this individual may indeed have not been rehired because of cross-dressing, it would be very difficult to proove this, since the university does not need to give any reason why he was not rehired. 

About two years ago the Chronicle of Higher Education (the trade newspaper for academics) had a very interesting article about trans people in higher education.  Although the article focused on TS faculty, it also discussed faculty who use cross-dressing for dramatic effect in the classroom.  While many college administrators would be tolerant of this, many other administrators, particularly those in socially conservative institutions, would not be at all amused.