Queering Campus Climate: A Review of Benjamin Arnberg’s Queer Campus Climate: An Ethnographic Fantasia

Abstract

A review of Arnberg’s Queer Campus Climate: An Ethnographic Fantasia seeks to educate higher education administrators and educators about the challenges and barriers queer men face navigating a hostile campus climate in the deep south. Arnberg’s storytelling provides an immersive experience of the unique lives of queer men in higher education and the campus climate’s role in their identity development. The fantasia illustrates various issues queer men navigate including queer performance as a means of adaptation, providing safe spaces that allows authenticity, suicide and mental health problems, and barriers to developing community and support systems. Awareness of issues impacting queer men intends to encourage action among administrators to implement campus climate assessments and take meaningful action toward addressing issues of discrimination, prejudice, and inequity on their campus.