For our study, we are interested in examining how Greek-letter organizations create spaces that include and/or exclude transgender/non-binary and people of color in their spaces. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The long-standing secretive and exclusive nature of what is commonly called “Greek life” on college campuses limits access to knowledge about how these organizations operate; Most people, including college students, aren't sure what Greek life is or why fraternities and sororities on college campuses are “Greek.” The association of the word "Greek" with social clubs is often debated by researchers since Greek is conventionally considered a nationality. The only reason GLOs are affiliated with the word “Greek” is the fact that these social clubs use Greek letters (like alpha Α, gamma Γ, delta Δ, and theta Θ) to distinguish groups – it's really that simple. By the end of the 18th century, Ancient Greek studies were a common part of the American university curriculum; It was this branch of knowledge that inspired five white male students at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Pennsylvania, to name their secret social organization after three letters of the Greek alphabet: Phi Beta Kappa. Founded in 1776, Phi Beta Kappa is the first social fraternity, or Greek letter organization (GLO) in the United States. Social GLOs differ from professional societies, which bring together people of a particular profession or professional field; honor societies, which recognize academic achievement; and service societies, which recruit members for the purpose of carrying out community outreach and humanitarian work. Our study focuses on the perceptions, attitudes, and lived experiences of current and former affiliates of Greek letter social organizations on the Beloit College campus as they navigate social life in their fraternities/sororities. Our research will be conducted primarily with collaborators located on the Beloit College campus. Beloit College is a private (non-profit) coeducational college in the rural Midwestern town of Beloit, Wisconsin, United States, where approximately 1,400 students are currently pursuing graduate studies. All active Greek-letter organizations at Beloit College will be considered in our search and includes three fraternities: Phi Kappa Psi (ФКѰ) Wisconsin Gamma, Sigma Chi (ΣХ) Alpha Zeta, and Tau Kappa (ТКЕ) Epsilon Kappa; and three fraternities: Alpha Sigma Tau (АΣТ) Delta Nu, Kappa Delta (ΔК) Upsilon, and Theta Pi Gamma (ΘПГ). Greek letter organizations have an undeniable influence on social life on college campuses in the United States. According to Beloit College's 2010 Student Affairs Survey, 22 percent of students participated in Greek life. While 44.2% believe Greek life contributes positively to the campus community, only 29.1% of students believe being a member of a Greek organization at Beloit College is a positive experience. This research project aims to explore the gap in these statistics and their broader implications through an overarching inquiry: How do their own identities shape their experience in Greek life at Beloit College? In 2010, J. Patrick Biddix wrote an editorial article, Not Greek Unless You are from Greece: Working to Identify Inclusive Search Terms, which addresses the classification problems that many researchers face when studying GLOs. Biddix claims that useof the phrase "Greek letter organization" is not incorrect, but it is imprecise and parallels the use of the word "Hispanic" versus the use of the word "Latin, generally used in education." In subsequent research, Biddix's (2014) research team omits the word "Greek" from their study and instead uses the phrase "fraternal organization," which they believe is a more inclusive way to describe both fraternities and sororities; the couple acknowledges"not all fraternities and sororities are single-sex, socially oriented organizations belonging to a major organizational body, such as the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC), the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), or the North American Interfraternity Conference (IFC)". We argue that the use of the phrase “fraternal organization” is problematic as it inherently favors male-identifying people and not only (inadvertently) excludes sororities but also the very identities we are studying (transgender/non-binary people). Instead, we chose to use the phrase “Greek letter organization” (GLO) for the purposes of our project as it respects the reasons outlined above for not exclusively referring to these organizations as “Greek” and includes non-male identities. In general, transgender refers to an individual who does not identify or know that they are the gender associated with their assigned sex. Nonbinary refers to an individual whose gender identity does not match their assigned sex but also does not fit into the commonly accepted male-female binary (which can only be a man or a woman). Nonbinary is an umbrella term that encompasses a variety of gender identities including, but not limited to: agender (no gender), polygender (many genders), bigender (two or more genders), demiboy/girl (nonbinary but aware for me more a man or a woman) and two spirit (a specific term used for indigenous people outside the binary). For the purposes of our study, don't think of gender in terms of a line where man is at one end and woman at the other, think of it more like a paint palette that has been used multiple times with different layers and blends of colors, each shade of a different kind. Additionally, we use the terms transgender and nonbinary interchangeably. You can think of this as the rectangle-square definition: a rectangle is a square but a square is not a rectangle. Likewise, nonbinary can be considered a transgender identity, but not all transgender people are nonbinary. Ultimately, it is up to collaborators to identify in whatever way they know to be true about themselves. Finally, we define a person of color (POC) as any individual who identifies as non-white. Throughout ethnography we can use terms like “Latinx,” “Phillipinx,” and “Black.” “Latinx” and “Phillipinx” are gender-inclusive terms based on “Latino/a” and “Phillipino/a. The use of a capital black 'B' is used to denote members of the African diaspora whose ancestors were enslaved and sold during the Atlantic slave trade. The use of "black" is intended to acknowledge the erasure of tribal identity. While we have these definitions of the terms above, it is ultimately up to our contributors to choose what they prefer to be called. Greek-lettered organizations are inherently exclusive groups. GLOs can be studied from their days in pre-war boys' schools to modern-day college and university campuses. Many factors such as class, religiosity, race, sexuality, athleticism, intelligence, and recklessness have contributed to particular versions of “brotherly masculinity” at different times. Historically, GLOs are reserved exclusively for white, cisgender, heterosexual menand elite within the higher education system; the birth of the GLO has its roots in racism, cis-heteropatriarchy and capitalism. After centuries of reproducing ideological knowledge, many elite GLOs have created cultures that encourage and reward adherence to rigid gender binaries, and will actively reject offers of non-white promise – in practice elite GLOs have shown no evidence of integration despite negative media attention. While GLOs have since become racially integrated and many are becoming progressive and inclusive of queer members, the roots of their birth appear to make it difficult to fully integrate organizations into them if you are not a member of the white, heterosexual male identity and elite cisgender. Furthermore, although this type of integration has occurred on paper, there is still a disproportionate number of white people compared to people of color and non-queer people compared to queer individuals. The creation of Greek letter organizations and the resulting modes of oppression they embody affect campus audiences, not only through exclusion from the organizations themselves, but often from university life more generally. Fraternity men often demonstrated their masculinity through exclusionary practices and using their classmates as obstacles. The culture of sexual exploitation was deeply rooted in college fraternities in the 1920s and continues to persist today. The history of white college fraternities and (subsequently all GLOs) has broad implications regarding youthful, sexually aggressive masculinity in the United States. “These rigid formulations contribute to maladaptive behaviors and beliefs, such as eating disorders, body image distortions, homophobia, rape, and other sexual misconduct.” Unfortunately, Greek letter organizations today still exhibit some of the above behaviors. Progress has undeniably been made, but there is still a long way to go for true inclusion. Research indicates that trans/nonbinary and POC individuals often experience “marginalization and interpersonal victimization” within college environments. Research indicates that historically white, male-centered GLOs, whose members participate in competitive collegiate athletics, are more likely to exhibit maladaptive behaviors and beliefs. Missing from much of the literature is a discussion of what can be done to address such patterns in higher education, based on data collected from transgender and gender non-conforming students, staff, and faculty. This research aims to not only gather information but also create suggestions for creating a more inclusive environment for transgender/non-binary members and members of color. Following the ethnographic study, our research team will compile and consolidate our findings to not only write a comprehensive ethnography, but also to work with Greek letter organizations that have an interest in creating such an inclusive space. This type of work is not only needed at Beloit College, but also at other colleges and universities across the country. Given interest from other GLOs outside of the Beloit College community, our team would be happy to share our findings and collaborate with organizations to find improvements that will work for their contexts. "In Bodies That Matter, renowned theorist and philosopher Judith Butler argues that theories of gender must return to the most material dimension of sex and sexuality: the body. Butler offers a brilliant reworking of the body, examining how the power of heterosexual hegemony form the "matter" of bodies, sex and gender.