BAH GNDS 2021
"My name is Danny McLaren, I use they/them pronouns, and I am a current gender studies MA student at Queen’s University.
I chose Queen’s for my graduate studies in gender studies because this department has always made me feel at home. Every faculty, staff member, and TA I have encountered is generous with their knowledge and time. The experience of being so thoroughly welcomed as an undergraduate student - and now as an incoming MA student - has allowed me to learn and grow tremendously. This department has been a place of refuge, a place to seek advice and mentorship, and the site of great personal growth over the last four years, and I believe the work here is not yet finished for me. I have always been encouraged by my professors to pursue my more unconventional and creative ideas in the classroom, and these have been received with an openness and warmth I have rarely found outside this department. I am especially grateful for the willingness of faculty members to learn from me and with me as I explore research into the rather small and newly blossoming field of queer game studies. I look forward to seeing how my graduate research takes shape here at Queen's and the exciting places it can go with this support.”