ABSTRACT
Teaching in times of anti-intellectualism is nothing new, lately the sense of provocation feels intensified. Likely every generation can narrate its own experiences of conservatives claiming that new additions to the canon upset understandings of what knowledge should and can be. The practices that remove knowledge or ridicule knowledge increasingly provoke anti-academic responses to teaching in higher education as well. Arguments cautioning about the end of critical inquiry, if inclusion is taken too far or if safety is emphasized over criticality, suggest that the academic world has become biased toward diversity. It takes a fair amount of willful unknowing to think that those who are different have already won the academic game and control curricula, pedagogy, and policy. The greater attention to contextualization of LGBTQ issues in higher education entails reminding participants that universities, especially land grant universities, have long had a responsibility to encourage access and learning.
