A professor in the Boston College Classics Department went wild in his “Beast Literature”
lesson plans. By “went wild” I don’t mean “made the students read Beowulf’s original text.” I mean “brought furries into a lecture.”
Associate Professor Christopher Polt earned his PhD from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and normally teaches courses on literature and the environment in the Ancient world. In his personal life, Polt—or should I say Tofte, as he is known to the furry community—is “happily mated” to his partner who prefers “they/them” pronouns and owns a human-sized cat costume.
This semester, the administration gave Polt free rein to implement “Fursuit Fridays” in the Catholic university classroom. Polt shared photos on his Twitter, claiming February 23 was “the most amazing class” he’s ever had.
Unfortunately, alpaca-identifying Polt has recently gone private on social media.
The furry community overwhelmingly claims the “furdom” (furry fandom) is merely an interest in anthropomorphic animals and not necessarily a fetish.
Prior to protecting his Tweets, Polt explained that for one assignment, he required his students to create “fursonas”—in other words, submit a description of themselves as furries. Afterword, he brought the students cakes reading, “Sorry for making you furries.”
Polt addressed early backlash with zero apology for his teaching style, if you can call it that. He Tweeted, “I wholly stand by my teaching decisions and welcome *any* member of the administration to attend *any* of my classes, including the furry ones.”
After all this attention, Polt, understandably, is very excited for Spring Break. Perhaps he’ll tell his Dean, “Alpaca my things,” before skipping off for a week!