WGS lecturer Caroline Light, the program’s director of undergraduate studies, wrote in an email that “the University has been supportive of the development of our program’s LGBT track and our LGBT secondary field.”

But McCarthy said that many WGS courses are taught by lecturers or visiting faculty members, leading to rapid turnover in the course catalog.

“You don't have courses that are offered year in and year out that would help establish LGBTQ studies as a legitimate subject of academic study at the University,” he said.

Lekus, who studies post-World War II LGBTQ movements, said he does not recommend Harvard to prospective graduate students seeking advice on where to pursue a degree in LGBTQ history.

“At least in the field of history, there would be no one to work with,” Lekus said. “It would be a waste of [graduate students’] time. It would be a waste of their money.”

One of the recommendations made in 2011 by the Working Group on BGLTQ Student Life called for “a thorough review of curricular offerings related to BGLTQ topics.”

Eck, who co-chaired the working group, and McCarthy, a member, both said they have yet to see any changes resulting from that recommendation.

In an emailed statement, FAS spokesperson Jeff Neal wrote that the College’s first priority following the release of the recommendations was to find a director to oversee the new Office of BGLTQ Student Life.

“With those recommendations enacted, the College and the Director now have the opportunity in the coming year to focus on the report’s other recommendations,” Neal wrote.

Both Lekus and Page also said they encountered resistance to LGBTQ studies among scholars of more mainstream academic disciplines at Harvard.

“Within Harvard academic departments, there’s some degree of suspicion and perhaps a lack of respect for queer studies,” Page said.

For Lekus, promoting LGBTQ scholarship at Harvard was “just plain exhausting.”

“You’re not fighting–by and large–the open bigotry of raging homophobes,” Lekus said. “You’re fighting the quiet, don’t-rock-the-boat complacency of the people who have made it at Harvard.”

FILLING THE VOID