There are stories you read on the internet and immediately assume somebody made them up.
This isn’t one of them.
Harvard really did appoint a visiting professor who performs in drag under the name LaWhore Vagistan.
And Harvard really did offer a four-credit course called “RuPaulitics: Drag, Race, and Power.”
I’ll give you a moment.
Because before anybody accuses me of exaggerating this for effect, let’s establish the facts.
Kareem Khubchandani is not some random nightclub performer Harvard plucked off the street. He is an associate professor at Tufts University, holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University, has written several books and has received academic awards.
That’s important context.
It also makes the larger question more interesting, not less:
What does Harvard now consider worthy of a Harvard education?
The official course description says students would study the worldwide popularity of RuPaul’s Drag Race, examine historical and contemporary drag archives and read material concerning race, gender and queer and trans cultures.
Students would also participate in performance exercises, attend local drag shows and receive visits from artists.
Again, I’m not making this up.
And here’s where people will inevitably retreat to their respective corners.
One side will shout, “See! Harvard has gone insane!”
The other will respond, “You’re just afraid of drag queens!”
I’m interested in a different question.
Where are the academic standards?
Because my objection isn’t that somebody performs in drag.
Go to a drag show. Don’t go to a drag show. Enjoy it. Hate it. That’s the beauty of living in a free country.
And LaWhore Vagistan isn’t the punchline here.
Harvard is.
This is one of the most prestigious universities on Earth. Its graduates become judges, attorneys, CEOs, physicians, journalists, professors and government officials. Its name still carries enormous weight throughout American society.
For the 2026–27 academic year, Harvard lists tuition, fees, housing and food at more than $91,000 before additional estimated expenses.
For that kind of money, asking what constitutes serious academic study isn’t intolerance.
It’s a perfectly reasonable question.
And that question becomes particularly interesting when an Ivy League university offers academic credit for a class that includes attending drag performances and performance-based exercises.
Perhaps Harvard has an answer.
Maybe its faculty believes studying drag provides a useful window into race, gender, commercialization, performance and American culture. That’s essentially the academic case Harvard’s own course description makes.
Fine.
Make that case.
But the rest of us are also allowed to ask whether elite universities have become so fascinated with cultural identity and performance that they sometimes lose sight of the distinction between studying culture and turning cultural trends into academic disciplines.
That’s not censorship.
That’s debate.
And debate is supposedly what universities are for.
There is also something almost wonderfully absurd about the whole thing.
Harvard’s motto is Veritas.
Truth.
For generations, the name Harvard represented intellectual seriousness almost by definition.
Today you can open Harvard’s course catalog and find RuPaulitics: Drag, Race, and Power.
Maybe you believe that represents higher education expanding its intellectual horizons.
Maybe you believe it represents higher education disappearing into self-parody.
Either way, it’s worth talking about.
Because Harvard isn’t simply educating students.
Harvard helps define what the American academic establishment considers important.
And when one of the world’s most influential universities puts its name, faculty and academic credits behind something, the rest of us are entitled to examine it—and occasionally laugh at it.
So no, my problem isn’t with LaWhore Vagistan.
In fact, the professor may be the least surprising part of this entire story. Khubchandani has built an academic career studying precisely these subjects. Harvard knew exactly whom it was bringing to Cambridge.
My question is for Harvard:
At more than $91,000 a year in billed tuition, fees, housing and food, is this really where one of America’s greatest universities believes higher education should be heading?
That’s not a punchline.
That’s a legitimate question.
Although these days, Harvard sometimes makes it awfully difficult to tell the difference.
