Poor Queer Studies: Confronting Elitism in the University

Description

"POOR QUEER STUDIES contextualizes the material conditions under which Queer Theory is produced in the academy. Locating elite universities as the primary loci of Queer Theory, and as producers of and investors in racialized class stratification, Matt Brim interrogates what role Queer Theory has in shoring up class and racial disparities. How, Brim asks, is Queer Theory-a field theoretically dedicated to disrupting structures of power and inequality-implicated in the classed structures of the academy? Brim contends that, in its current formation, Queer Theory-or what he dubs "Rich Queer Theory"-is propelled by universities who refuse to serve poor students and only hire faculty who have graduated from the "prestige pipeline." Moreover, Brim argues that class as an analytic has effectively dropped out of Queer Theory scholarship. To counter these trends, Brim argues for a "Poor Queer Studies" that attends to class differences within the queer academy by examining the material reality through which "subversive" and "antinormative" Rich Queer Theory is produced. For Brim, the "Poor" in Poor Queer Studies allows for two connotations: the lack of material resources at under-resourced and non-elite universities, and the theoretical "holes" around class and racialized class positions in Rich Queer Studies. In chapter 1 Brim offers a case study of his own institution-The College of Staten Island, CUNY-by way of contextualizing the need for a Poor Queer Studies. In chapter 2 Brim expands his introductory argument that the exclusion of low-income students and working-class faculty from Queer Theory is a field-defining feature. In chapter 3 Brim offers a "vocational Queer Studies" that forces academics to consider how Queer Studies prepares students for labor outside of the academy. Chapter 4 is an examination of how students who are mothers have shaped Brim's understanding of Poor Queer Studies. In chapter 5 Brim centers John Keene's 2015 book, Counternarratives, to arrive at a conversation about learning how to read Black queer literature. In the conclusion, Brim proposes a notion of "queer ferrying" by which resources are shared between rich and poor institutions. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of queer studies, black queer studies, American studies, higher education studies, and labor studies"--

Get the book

Amazon.com

Search the book

eBay.com

Search the book

Other editions

• 

  Poor Queer Studies: Confronting Elitism in the University

  • 2020-03-06
  • 264 pages
  • Ebook
  • Duke University Press

Similar books

• 

  After Sex?: On Writing Since Queer Theory

  By Andrew Parker, Janet Halley

  Prominent participants in the development of queer theory explore the field in relation to their own intellectual itineraries, reflecting on its accomplishments, limitations, and critical potential.

• 

  Queering the Countryside: New Frontiers in Rural Queer Studies

  By Mary L. Gray, Colin R. Johnson, Brian J. Gilley

  This collection of original essays confronts the assumption that queer desires depend upon urban life for meaning.

• 

  One-Dimensional Queer

  By Roderick A. Ferguson

  This forceful book joins the call to reimagine and reconnect the fight for social justice in all its varied forms.

• 

  Imagining Queer Methods

  By Matt Brim, Amin Ghaziani

  And, following Lorde's and Rich's commitment to learning, we understood our project needed to be open access, available for free to any curious person interested in learning. Our method is queer. As collaborators, our creative and ...

• 

  The Cambridge Companion to Performance Studies

  By Tracy C. Davis

  The collection is designed to reflect the diversity of outlooks and provide a guide for students as well as scholars seeking a perspective on research trends.

• 

  Queer Theory, Gender Theory: An Instant Primer (Large Print 16pt)

  By Riki Wilchins

  An Instant Primer (Large Print 16pt) Riki Wilchins ... the size of an atom, or the hardness of rock, but make almost no sense when it comes to highly politicized bodily characteristics such as sex, gender, desire, or race.

• 

  The Big Gamble: The Migration of Eritreans to Europe

  By Milena Belloni

  Balancing encounters with refugees and their families, smugglers, and visa officers, The Big Gamble contributes to ongoing debates about blurred boundaries between forced and voluntary migration, the complications of transnational marriages ...

• 

  The Small Book of Hip Checks: On Queer Gender, Race, and Writing

  By Erica Rand

  ... On the Visuals of Gendering Athleticism,” in Queer Difficulty in Art and Poetry: Re-thinking the Sexed Body in Verse and Visual Culture, edited by Jongwoo Jeremy Kim and Christopher Reed (New York: Routledge, 2017), 154 – 67.

• 

  Disturbing Attachments: Genet, Modern Pederasty, and Queer History

  By Kadji Amin

  In Disturbing Attachments, Kadji Amin challenges the idealization of Genet as a paradigmatic figure within queer studies to illuminate the methodological dilemmas at the heart of queer theory.

• 

  James Baldwin and the Queer Imagination

  By Matt Brim

  Matt Brim’s James Baldwin and the Queer Imagination draws on the contributions of queer theory and black queer studies to critically engage with and complicate the project of queering Baldwin and his work.