PULSE POINTS
❓WHAT HAPPENED: Harvard University has hired a visiting professor in the Women, Gender, and Sexuality department who also performs as a drag queen named “LaWhore Vagistan.”
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Kareem Khubchandani, a Tufts University associate professor and drag performer.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Announced in July, Khubchandani will teach at Harvard University.
💬KEY QUOTE: “I chose ‘LaWhore’ because my family traces its origins to Pakistan: Lahore is an important city in Pakistan, and, well, I’m a bit of a whore.” – Kareem Khubchandani
🎯IMPACT: The courses will explore drag, race, and gender topics, requiring students to attend drag shows and participate in performance-based exercises.
Harvard University has hired Kareem Khubchandani as a visiting professor in its Women, Gender, and Sexuality department. Khubchandani, who performs as a drag queen under the name “LaWhore Vagistan,” will teach courses on “Queer Ethnography” and “RuPaulitics: Drag, Race, and Desire.”
According to the Harvard course catalog, the “Queer Ethnography” course will examine “gender and sexual dissidents” in various settings, including “gay neighborhoods, trans raves, sex work, lesbian parties, BDSM dungeons, AIDS activism.” The “RuPaulitics” class will focus on “contemporary and historical drag archives” and provide students with tools to analyze drag. Students will also be required to attend drag shows and participate in performance-based exercises.
Khubchandani, who is an associate professor of theatre, dance, and performance studies at Tufts University, describes himself as “an educator, scholar, and performer invested in feminist, queer, and trans everyday-aesthetics.” His personal website states that his work focuses on “uplifting the creative ways that minoritarian subjects live inside of oppressive structures.”
In addition to his academic work, Khubchandani has authored books such as Decolonize Drag and Ishtyle: Accenting Gay Indian Nightlife. He has explained the origins of his drag persona’s name, saying, “I chose ‘LaWhore’ because my family traces its origins to Pakistan: Lahore is an important city in Pakistan, and, well, I’m a bit of a whore.”
Khubchandani added: “And Vagistan because I see the subcontinent as one, big, beautiful Vag … istan. Close your eyes and visualize it: India is the uterus-vagina, Pakistan and Bangladesh are the ovaries, Afghanistan, Nepal, Burma, and Bhutan are the fallopian tubes, and Sri Lanka is a little floating labia.”
Harvard and the Trump administration have been engaged in a protracted legal battle over the latter’s decision to revoke federal funding for the Ivy League university. In early September, U.S. District Court Judge Allison Burroughs, appointed to the bench by former President Barack Obama, ordered that the Trump administration must reverse over $2.6 billion in funding cuts to Harvard University.
According to Judge Burroughs, the funding freeze was an act of retaliation against Harvard for rejecting changes the administration sought in the university’s governance and policies. Burroughs’s decision ensures that Harvard’s federal grants cannot be terminated for the time being, pending a possible appeal by the Trump administration.
Image by Adam Fagen.
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