Harvard Hires Drag Queen As Visiting "Professor"

October 2, 2025

Harvard Hires Drag Queen As Visiting “Professor”

by Lisa Carr in Cultural Issues Post Comment

Imagine your child having dreams of going to Harvard. Imagine he or she gets the acceptance letter, graduates high school and you make your first 6-figure/annually tuition payment to find out this:

One of the “professors” of the lecture halls your brilliant, oh-so-smart kiddo is sitting in is a guest “professor” and drag queen named LaWhore Vagistan.

“LaWhore”‘s real name is Kareem Khubchandani. “Vagistan” will be “teaching” a class on the TV show, RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Namaslay B*tches. Imagine paying $3,534 per credit hour for this.

My name is LaWhore Vagistan, my preferred pronouns are ‘“she’ or ‘aunty.’ I chose ‘LaWhore’ because my family traces its origins to Pakistan: Lahore is an important city in Pakistan, and, well, I’m a bit of a whore.”-LaWhore Vagistan

So, why not just “Lahore” without the “w” to give off a sexual connotation? I know, it’s drag. But Pakistan? Kareem DOES realize that if HE were to venture into Pakistan, hairy chest and all in a sari, he would probably be thrown off a damn building. That’s just for the drag. Nevermind the “being a bit of a whore”. As far as where “Vagistan” comes from?

…And Vagistan because I see the subcontinent as one, big, beautiful Vag . . . istan. Close your eyes and visualize it: India is the uterus-vagina, Pakistan and Bangladesh are the ovaries, Afghanistan, Nepal, Burma, and Bhutan are the fallopian tubes, and Sri Lanka is a little floating labia.”–LaWhore Vagistan

The motherland as one, big “vag”. Classy. How is this not misogyny?

Oh, come on now. At this point Harvard can’t even be a real university.

I suppose 15 to 20 years from now a clown college will have more merit than any accreditation from Harvard.

They just don’t realize it yet. Mostly because they have their heads shoved so far up their… pic.twitter.com/Ki2zetdIMM

— Drew P. Sack (Skeptical/Suspicious) (@LocumRex) October 2, 2025

The announcement to bring “LaWhore” on board comes after President Trump unfroze $2.4 billion in federal grants to Harvard after an agreement that the institution would focus (somewhat) on the trades. Vagistan-Khubchandani will teach several classes in addition to the one on RuPaul’s Drag Race as part of the Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality program, for those still pursuing useless degrees.

Let’s get this straight (no pun intended here). Harvard just hired a MAN who cosplays as an Indian woman “auntie” to “teach” for the WOMEN’S studies department. How much are they paying HIM?

Professor Khubchandani is Associate Professor of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies at Tufts University. He is the author of Decolonize Drag (OR Books) and Ishtyle: Accenting Gay Indian Nightlife (University of Michigan Press), which received the 2019 CLAGS: Center for LGBTQ Studies Fellowship award, the 2021 Dance Studies Association de la Torre Bueno best book award, and the 2021 ATHE Outstanding Book Award.

His next book, Lessons in Drag: A Queer Manual for Academics, Artists, and Aunties is forthcoming from Brandeis University Press in October 2025.

He is co-editor of Queer Nightlife (University of Michigan Press) and curator of www.criticalauntystudies.com. He holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University, and previously served as Embrey Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.”-Harvard University

(GASP!) I thought HIS preferred pronouns were “she” and “auntie”. Did HARVARD just misgender Mr. Vagina?! Shame on you all! Shame. Shame. SHAME.

LaWhore Vagistan is everyone’s favorite South Asian drag academic auntie. She brings the nightclub to the classroom and vice-versa.”– Hyperallergic

Bringing the nightclub to the classroom for $3,000 a pop. These kids are going to be so well-prepared for the real world.

Dr. Kareem Khubchandani, (yes a DOCTOR of education) explains his pedagogy (excuse me while I throw up in my mouth for uttering that word):

The art form I study shows up on dance floors and nightlife stages—spaces that aren’t typically seen as standard sites for dance. Oftentimes, when people think of dance, they imagine theatre or concert stages. So within performance and theatre studies, I’m not always legible.

And when I move into gender studies, I’m a performer whose knowledge isn’t only written and published in books, but it’s also embodied and staged. I end up looking different from people who do the kind of scholarship that most understand as ‘legitimate.’

So I’m in this interdisciplinary space where practice and scholarship constantly make each other. I’m not always legible to all of my colleagues, and it’s not always easy for people to place me—and that’s okay. I know some folks don’t quite know how to collaborate or co-think with me, but I don’t think that’s set me back.”–LaWhore Vagistan

Translation: This drag queen is an academic who made his way through graduate school (kudos) with a focus on nightclub life and hooking up (he admitted it). Good for him for bringing some “real world” experience with him. How does this apply to the “real world”? Well, he’s not always “legible”, you see. Some of his oh-so-smart colleagues don’t know how to read him or “place” him in practical situations. They just don’t know how to co-think and collaborate with him, but he forgives them.