
The mission of the Pride Center is to provide academic and social support for the LGBTQ+ community at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. We strive to be a space for all members of the UT community to engage with and explore issues relating to gender and sexuality. Our mission is accomplished through our educational programming focusing on gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation; our contributions to and maintenance of a campus LGBTQ+ community; and advocating for equitable access for LGBTQ+ students, faculty, and staff on campus.


“Hi, my name is Reagan Yessler, I use the they/them pronouns, and I am a fourth year PhD candidate in the Department of Geography and Sustainability. I received a Pride scholarship in the 2023-2024 academic year, and it helped with my dissertation research. I study how different spaces allow you to challenge stereotypes about gender and sexuality, and I do that primarily by looking at anime conventions—so the way that you can dress up, cosplay, and act as characters from different media, particularly like animated Japanese media. What this scholarship has allowed me to do is expand my research pool and start looking at Renaissance fairs and look at the way that representing past cultures and fictionalized cultures, like fairy tales and mythology, kind of acts alongside other ways of challenging these same stereotypes. It has allowed me to expand my dissertation study, it has allowed me to gain more publications, and I think it’s made me a better scholar and made me more friends. So I am grateful every day to our Pride Center and to the scholarships they provide students.”
132 days ago by Kate BrimerDonors
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