Hello @sociology & etc, if you're planning first-day-of-class (or etc) introductions, and you want to be inclusive of trans/non-binary folks, can I suggest (as a trans professor with a lot of trans & non-binary students) including pronouns as *optional* rather than required?
Pronouns in go-rounds & on name-tags & etc are great in many ways, bc they signal "we don't assume anyone's gender identity/pronouns here" and also "we're trying to be inclusive of trans & non-binary people."
But: (cont)
... BUT they're also deeply uncomfortable for anyone not ready to share for any reason.
I would have hated hated hated them when I was a not-yet-out-as-trans college student, and when I've made pronoun-sharing optional & explained why, I've gotten a lot of appreciation from my trans & NB students.
I also dislike them now, though I appreciate the intent a lot.
I come out as trans on the first day in every class I teach, and when we get to them introducing themselves I tell them that pronouns are optional because I would have hated to have to do it.
What I do instead is A) have students write down all their important info on a card, including pronouns if they want to share, + ask them to answer some ice-breaker type questions B) ask them to say name, class year, pronoun *if they want* and one other thing they wrote down.
@daniel_laurison also, some pronoun sets can be... somewhat stigmatized, particularly neopronouns (like my headmate uses -F) and it/its pronouns (hi those are mine -F)
being required to share pronouns immediately puts us on the spot, having to decide do we trust these people to be respectful about it pronouns or zhe pronouns, or do we just say they pronouns
(the plurality aspect also complicates things in our specific case, but we're just talking about the pronouns here)
-F/R
Daniel Laurison
the Hearth 