Background

James T. Sears was born on August 12, 1951, in Tipton, Indiana, The United States to Virgil M. (an optometrist) and Kathy (a dog groomer; maiden name, Cooper) Sears.

Education

Seares graduated from Southern Illinois University, where he earned a bachelor's degree. He earned a master's degree in secondary education from Indiana University, followed by another master's degree in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Ph.D. from Indiana University, which later gave him the Distinguished Alumni award.

Career

Sears began his career as an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina in 1984. He became an associate professor in 1989 and a full professor three years later. He was a visiting professor at Trinity University, the University of Southern California, the College of Charleston, and Harvard University. Additionally, he served as a consultant to the J Paul Getty Foundation, the South Carolina Policy Center, and the Brazilian government and was a Fulbright Southeast Asia Scholar and a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Queensland.

Sears is an author of many works on sexuality, identity, and sex education, and the history of homosexuality and the gay rights movement in the United States. He also edited three journals: Empathy (1989-1993), Teaching Education (1989-1998), and the Journal of LGBT Youth (2007-present) and served a guest editor for several other academic journals as well as a member of several journal editorial boards.

Achievements

• Sears is a well-known gay rights activist, whose prolific work towards the establishment of equality for gay and straight people, made him a respected specialist in this area. His books received high praise from critics and several of his books became bestsellers.
  
  Sears was awarded several grants and awards from LGBTQ society.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Overcoming heterosexism and homophobia : strategies that work (eBook, 1997) [WorldCat.org]

    (Providing strategies for educators, counsellors, communit...)

    1997
  • Youth, education, and sexualities : an international encyclopedia (eBook, 2011) [WorldCat.org]

    (Featuring more than 200 entries written by an internation...)

    2005
  • A Dangerous Knowing

    (An unusually international collection--with contributions...)

    1999
  • Growing Older : Perspectives on LGBT Aging. (eBook, 2013) [WorldCat.org]

    (This book presents a diverse group of scholars, activists...)

    2010
  • Rebels, Rubyfruit, and Rhinestones

    (While Scarlett O'Hara may resemble a drag queen, and Mard...)

    2001
  • Lonely Hunters

    (This is the story of Southern gays and lesbians in the tw...)

    1997
  • Growing Up Gay in the South

    (Weaves personal portraits of lesbian and gay Southerners ...)

    1991
  • Curriculum work as a public moral enterprise (Book, 2004) [WorldCat.org]

    (This collection engages readers in the complicated conver...)

    2004
  • Curriculum, Religion, and Public Education: Conversations For an Enlarging Public Square

    (Edited book based on Sears controversial experience and c...)

    1998
  • Turning points in curriculum : a contemporary American memoir (Book, 2000) [WorldCat.org]

    (illustrates how changes in American society and culture c...)

    2000
  • GLBT Issues in Education

    (Leading international educators and scholars examine pers...)

    2005
  • Queering elementary education : advancing the dialogue about sexualities and schooling (Book, 1999) [WorldCat.org]

    (Award-winning book explores taken-for-granted assumptions...)

    1999
  • The Greenwood encyclopedia of love, courtship, & sexuality through history. Vol. 6, The modern world (eBook, 2010) [WorldCat.org]

    (Provides entries, ranging in length from 1,000 to 3,000 w...)

    2008
  • Edwin and John

    (In Edwin and John: A Personal History of the American Sou...)

    2009
  • Sexuality and the curriculum : the politics and practices of sexuality education (Book, 1992) [WorldCat.org]

    (Early groundbreaking collection of essays challenging ort...)

    1992
  • Teaching and thinking about curriculum : critical inquiries (Book, 1993) [WorldCat.org]

    (this volume focuses on educational empowerment through cu...)

    1990
  • Democratic curriculum theory & practice : retrieving public spaces (Book, 2001) [WorldCat.org]

    (Edited collection from 2000 conference on curriculum and ...)

    2001
  • When best doesn't equal good : educational reform and teacher recruitment - a longitudinal study (Book, 1994) [WorldCat.org] 194

• dissertation

  • A critical ethnography of teacher education programs at Indiana University : an inquiry into the perceptions of students and faculty regarding the quality and effectiveness (Book, 1984) [WorldCat.org]

    (Controversial and award-nominated dissertation about the ...)

    1984

Views

Sears is an active LGBTQ + rights activist. He raises attention to equality problems in the United States and abroad.

Membership

Sears was a chairperson of Lesbian and Gay Studies Special Interest Group in 1988-1992. He was also a president of the National Curriculum Teachers Network in 1987-1988.

• American Educational Research Association

• Society of Curriculum Professors

• Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development

• American Association of University Professors

• National Writers Union

• National Sex Equity Network

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• Boston Globe: "One of the preeminent scholars of southern gay culture."
  
  Pat Robertson, 700 Club, "Satan of the university."

Connections

Sears is a longtime openly gay man, now living in Nicaragua.

Father:

Virgil M. Sears

Mother:

Kathy (Cooper) Sears

References

• Contemporary Authors, Vol. 164
  1998
• Understanding curriculum : an introduction to the study of historical and contemporary curriculum discourses (eBook, 1995) [WorldCat.org]
  1995
• James T Sears Wikipedia Bio
  2020
• International Handbook of Curriculum Research Entries on Sears' work on sexualities and curriculum
  2014