Fat studies: The Ivy League’s latest and craziest academic trend

Published June 20, 2024 4:19pm ET



Brown University’s pre-college program is offering a course about fatphobia in which students will discuss “the social, medical, and cultural implications of fatness” in an introduction to the emerging academic field of “Fat Studies.” You can’t make this stuff up. 

The weeklong class, titled “The F-Word: Examining the Science, Culture, and Politics of Fatness,” will apply “major theoretical lenses to the study of fatness, including the feminist/gender lens, reader-response lens, historical lens, and race lens.” There are no required prerequisites (phew!), but enrolled students should arrive “open-minded and prepared to engage respectfully with others,” according to the course description

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