QUILL: Queer Interpersonal Life skills Lab
Spring 2025
In-person meetings from 5:45pm – 7:15pm every Thursday, January 23th through May 1.
QUILL is a 13-week peer-lead lgbtq+ community growth and learning course. QUILL is open to undergraduate, graduate, and special students looking to explore interpersonal skill development, hone their communication skills, conflict styles, build community connections, develop deeper sense of self and identity, and build personal and community resiliency.
What to expect
As part of QUILL, you can look forward to:
- Meeting and building connections with other students invested in queer community building
- Developing conflict resolution, boundary setting, negotiation, and accountability practices
- Participating in a semester-long project that will help you build connections between your communities and relationships
- Leaving with a stronger sense of self after exploring your own relationships (romantic, academic, platonic, professional) and identities via identity models, queer narratives, and intersectional work
Sign up!
We can take registrants up through the first week of the Spring semester. Sign up below:
Questions about the curriculum, the project, or getting involved? Contact the facilitators below.
QUELP: Queer Emerging Leadership Program
Spring 2024: on pause
QUELP is a 14-week peer-lead lgbtq+ personal and community enrichment course. QUELP is open to undergraduate, graduate, and special students looking to share community space while exploring queer studies topics across intersectional identities – and understanding how positive leadership, especially across movement work, is expansive and full of opportunities for personal and community growth.
What to expect
As part of QUELP, you can look forward to:
- Engaging with queer studies through a community lens
- Seeing yourself as an active participant in a long history of movement-building and organizing
- Building relationships with other people in the class and peer instructors
- Completing a final project toward making change on campus and in the community
Sign up!
We are on pause for Spring 2024- keep an eye out for future iterations of the course.
FAQ
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How can I get academic or Leadership Certificate credit?
We have faculty partners who can help sponsor your participation for credit with successful completion of the program.
- QUILL: you can register for Counseling Psych 105, section 003, just like any other course
- QUELP: you can register for a 699 one-credit independent study in Gender and Women’s Studies by working with the facilitators
You may also count QUELP for 30 hours of Out-of-Class Learning Hours toward the CfLI Leadership Certificate. This is the maximum number of hours allowed toward Out-of-Class Learning. Please contact us with any questions.
Will I get a letter grade?
Each student will earn a letter grade based on class and/or service project participation, journal reflections, and/or final presentations. QUELP has more readings, while QUILL has more activities in session.
The grades will be most useful for folks getting academic credit, but will also help everyone gauge progress throughout the semester. You get as much out of our courses as you put into it!
Are the courses for grad students or community members?
You’re welcome to join us as graduate students! You may choose to contact facilitators to chat about your particular goals for joining the courses. Students of all statuses are welcome, including part-time, special, and professional students.
Unfortunately, courses are only for UW-Madison students. Community members are always welcome at Gender and Sexuality Campus Center public events, including speaker series, movie screenings, and socials.
I'm straight and not trans. Am I welcome?
We know that many straight-identified, non-trans people practice allyship around LGBTQ issues in their personal and professional lives. You are invited to join QUELP or QUILL with the expectation and intention that queer lives and experiences will be the focus of the readings and discussions.
Why do you use the term "queer"?
“Queer” is definitely a term with a complicated history. We have seen a movement in student groups and youth organizing towards using “queer” as an umbrella term for many gender and sexual minority identities. In other words, it can be more inclusive than most other terms. Also, it tends to carry a political meaning– “queering” systems can mean disrupting an oppressive status quo.
We also recognize that many people see “queer” as claimed by/applying to only a particular subset of people. QUELP and QUILL are still growing and developing. If you are interested, we would love your help in developing the courses’ focus and content to be more inclusive of gender and sexual identities that don’t necessarily fit under an LGBTQ model.
I need accommodations to participate. What should I do?
We want everyone to be able to participate. Whether you have specific accessibility requirements (large print or digital format, low-fragrance space, etc) or just know what you need to fully engage with the program, please contact us.
