The students were offended when she introduced them to the work of R. Crumb, who is provocative, but come on.
The College Fix reports:
Meet the ballsy art professor students tried — and failed — to cancelA tenured University of Michigan associate professor in the school of art and design survived an onslaught of allegations that she engaged in repeated microaggressions against her students, forcing them to copy “racist” and “misogynist” cartoons without providing trigger warnings or context.Phoebe Gloeckner (pictured), a professor specializing in comics, had faced complaints from students distraught that her curriculum involves provocative cartoons from artists such as R. Crumb, a seminal figure in the underground comics movement.Some students had filed complaints with the school in fall of 2020 and winter of 2021 that Crumb’s comics are “misogynistic” and “racially insensitive,” and Gloeckner was forcing them to study the images, according to a June 25 investigative article in The Michigan Daily.Although the investigation is closed and Gloeckner was fully cleared and still teaches, the article reignited debate about her curriculum and teaching methods. She stands by them.“Comics are, by nature, a provocative art form,” Gloeckner told The College Fix in an emailed statement. “Some comics reflect fantasy worlds that reveal our desires, dreams and nightmares. Other comics offer a grotesque reflection of humanity that we would rather not see.”Gloeckner gained national fame from her 2002 graphic novel “The Diary of a Teenage Girl,” which was made into a movie in 2015. She has taught at U of M since 2004.“Students expressed their discomfort towards being assigned homework on an artist that is known for drawing racist cartoons,” one complaint read, referring to Crumb. “Students expressed their discomfort towards the depiction of the female body in the illustration, as they felt it was misogynistic and uncomfortable to draw.”After the students complained, Gloeckner required them to watch a documentary on Crumb, “implying that our discomfort towards misogyny and racism is something to be fixed.”
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