Harvard University has sparked major conversations online after announcing that it has hired a popular drag performer as a visiting professor in its Studies of Gender and Sexuality program. The Ivy League school confirmed that Kareem Khubchandani, an associate professor at Tufts University, will be teaching courses at Harvard over the next academic year. But Khubchandani is better known by his bold stage name, “LaWhore Vagistan”, a drag persona he has performed with for more than a decade, sometimes even using it to teach classes.
In fact, Khubchandani often lectures fully in drag, blending entertainment with education. His persona has also inspired creative projects, including a music video titled Sari.
Explaining the meaning of the unusual stage name in an earlier interview, he said:
At Harvard, he is expected to teach two classes: “Queer Ethnography” this fall and “RuPaulitics: Drag, Race, and Desire” in the spring, the latter focused on the hit TV show RuPaul’s Drag Race. Khubchandani is not new to academia, he is the author of Decolonize Drag and Ishtyle: Accenting Gay Indian Nightlife, and will be releasing a new book this fall titled Lessons in Drag: A Queer Manual for Academics, Artists, and Aunties.
The appointment, however, comes at a politically sensitive time. Just days earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump had announced the release of $2.4 billion in frozen federal grants to Harvard, with conditions that the school would fund new trade schools. This unusual mix of politics, academia, and drag performance has left many people talking, with some praising Harvard for embracing diversity, while others criticize the move.
