"Trannie U. Transsexualism is one of the few areas of queer study that earns a comprehensive on-line classroom. Brown University student Lexi Adams and a group of her classmates have erected "Transtudies," an on-line course project that comes complete with syllabus and discussion questions designed to take you through 14 weeks of head-spinning gender wackiness. Round up some curious friends and take the plunge into multimedia education, reading texts as disparate as Kate Bornstein's Gender Outlaw and the American Psychiatric Association's guide to mental disorders and watching films like The Crying Game. While you'll have to seek out the books and movies on your own, you can link to other educational and activist spots on the Web, broadening your education beyond the virtual classroom. Adams sees cyberspace as the best place to learn about trans issues. "I think that Internet will help us get beyond identity politics," she says. "Cutting-edge subject matter in a cutting edge format might help us realize the hyperreality of stuff that a lot of people want to think is pretty concrete." Our thoughts exactly.

TRANSTUDIES: www.angelfire.com/on/transtudies