The movement for queer studies at Harvard passed a milestone this week—it now has a name.

And within the next month a group of Harvard professors plan to submit a proposal to the administration for the establishment of a permanent committee to be called the Committee on Studies of Gender and Sexuality.

This marks the first formal attempt to establish at Harvard a home for a discipline already officially recognized by many other universities.

This discipline involves the study of queer theory—which focuses on deconstructing and questioning society’s definitions of gender and sexuality—and the study of gay and lesbian lifestyles and identity.

“Queer studies is about what thinking about sexuality can teach us about identity and desire in general,” says Lecturer on Literature Heather K. Love ’91.

But, given the recent weariness of the Harvard Faculty to add new departments and committees—especially ones that revolve around a specific subculture—the proponents of the new queer studies committee hope to show that their field concerns more than a narrow part of the population.

“Everyone has a gender and a sexuality—this field is not narrow, but rather incredibly expansive,” Love says.

University President Lawrence H. Summers says he agrees that queer studies could potentially effect a broad range of disciplines.

“I don’t think that there is any question that issues of identity...is crucial in a range of intellectual areas,” Summers says.

Love and Professor of Romance Languages and Literature Bradley S. Epps have served as the organizers of the group of around a dozen Faculty members who will push the administration to consider adding queer studies as an official standing Faculty committee.

Supporters say this committee—which would not be a formal department or even grant degrees—would provide “curricular space” for work that Harvard students are already pursuing in queer and gay and lesbian studies.

“We want to go about developing some sense of how one would go about pursuing an interest in this field in a logical way,” Love says.

Such work could include compiling lists of courses that would fall into the category of queer studies as well as informing students of Faculty members who would be willing to serve as advisors for theses on queer topics.

“As it is now, classes that address these issues are housed in various departments and are often hard for students to find,” Epps said.

And this leads to frustration among students interested in queer studies, says Daniel R. Tremitiere ’02-’03, co-president of the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and Supporters’ Alliance (BGLTSA).