Browsing by Subject "Queer Theory"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Bi/ology: Biologism, Masculinity and Pedagogy in Bi+ Theory and Activism
    (2024) Shackelford, Luke
    Through a combination of queer/trans philosophical methods, rhetorical history, and modified grounded theory, this project seeks to contribute to both the Rhetoric of Health and Medicine and Writing Pedagogy in the analysis of Bisexuality and bisexual masculinity in historical and digital communities. First, the project establishes a conceptual argument that bisexuality in medical rhetoric functions as both a foundational nexus for western medical taxonomy, and a threat to the conceptual boundaries in that same taxonomy, centering on the destabilizing effect of bisexual men on concepts of gender and sexuality. By challenging the bio/logics associated with stable categories, yet still expressing partial legibility as a category itself, bisexuality provides a useful conceptual lens to study processes like medicalization of identity categories, and the interaction between expert and public medical rhetorics. Then, the project looks at the function of bisexuality and masculinity in activist rhetoric and community pedagogy. By analyzing three historical activists as paradigm cases through archival materials and oral historic interviews, the study finds bisexual men articulate their masculinity as a form of pedagogy. In promoting radical inclusivity, utilizing irreverent humor, and agonistic divestment from neoliberal identity politics, bisexual men involve themselves in community through sexual health activism, conference and archive organizing, social work, and state policy implementation. In doing so, bisexual men knowingly or unknowingly respond to the public spread of medical bio/logics, shifting the conversation away from trace logics of identity and to community engagement and support. Finally, this project moves to grounded theorycrafting in studying the conversations of contemporary digital communities founded by and for bi+ masc folk. By incorporating existing scholarship and the paradigm cases alongside in-vivo coding and abstraction, my research ensures these communities remain anonymous–however, they still provide valuable insights into the way bisexual men continue to move alongside, with, or against bio/logical discourse. By tackling interpersonal and ethical considerations of polyamory, intra-community misogyny, gender expression, and considerations of self-mastery, this project finds that these bisexual men value nuance, fair treatment, and utilizing their desire to erode the binary of masculinity and femininity, even while they may often resort to hegemonic tropes of masculinity in their self-understanding. In the interest of developing pedagogical interventions to connect these values to political solidarity, this project finally proposes ways to orient academic and public pedagogy around such values. This project ends with a theoretical speculation on the nature of bisexual community, and the possibility that bisexual politics necessitates the metaphorical death of such communities.
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    Queering Pedagogy: How Disruptive Tinkering Leads to Safer and More Inclusive Schools for LGBTQ+ Youth
    (2023-11) Sundstrom, Scott
    Recently, attention surrounding LGBTQ+ people, perspectives, and histories in K-12 schools have been subject to renewed public debate. In 2023, state legislatures in the United States have passed more anti-queer laws than ever before, many of which target queer youth (HRC, 2023). Some of these state laws ban the teaching of and about queer people in elementary schools, while at the same time, research proposes that the inclusion of LGBTQ+ perspectives positively impact the health, safety, and achievement of queer youth (Snapp et al., 2015). This project seeks to illustrate how elementary teachers might include queer perspectives in their teaching to create safer and more inclusive schools. Utilizing a constant comparative approach as method (Constas, 1992; Lincoln & Guba, 1985) and queer theory as theoretical framework (Butler, 1990; de Lauretis, 1991; Sedgwick, 1990; Warner, 1990), I explore how six elementary teachers “queered” their existing instruction. Drawing upon interviews with participants, classroom observations of their teaching and accompanying post-observation conversations, and my reflective memos, I highlight five themes that emerged from the data: (a) disruptive tinkering, (b) deepening consciousness, (c) student agency, (d) moving through fear, and (e) connection to citizenship. I argue that these five themes developed from participants’ focus on method (queering instruction) over content (direct representation of LGBTQ+ people). By bringing a queer lens to their overall teaching practices, participants made incremental changes—by way of disruptive tinkering—that significantly impacted their daily instruction. Over time, as participants became more comfortable with queering instruction and deepened their consciousness around this practice, they allowed for more student agency in the classroom, and ultimately, provided space for students to critique systems and structures that keep queer people marginalized. Participants linked their queering efforts to their students’ future citizenship, emphasizing how starting this work in the elementary grades will not only build empathy but will provide the foundation for justice-oriented citizenship (Westheimer and Kahne, 2004). In addition, this research suggests that elementary teachers must continuously and simultaneously move through fear as they queer their instruction: the fear of stepping away from neutrality, of doing something wrong, and of conflict/resistance. Participants in the study recognized fear as part of the process of queering their instruction, and frequently reflected on how they could overcome their fears to implement queer pedagogy in their classrooms. The findings from this research imply that a focus on method (queer pedagogy) over content (LGBTQ+ direct representation) in both university and K-12 settings might yield stronger results in creating safer and more inclusive learning environments for queer children as well as disrupting systems of oppression that keep queer people marginalized. Furthermore, the field of education alone cannot be responsible for ensuring the safety and well-being of queer youth. Education scholars must present research-based results and solutions advocating for laws and policies that support queer youth to policy makers. For without LGBTQ+ friendly laws and policies, there is little hope that teachers will adopt and implement queer pedagogy. Keywords: Queer Pedagogy, Queer Theory, Disruptive Tinkering, Justice-Oriented Citizenship, Elementary Instruction
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    User Resistance in HIV Technology Design: Toward a Critical Participatory Rhetoric for Technical and Professional Communication
    (2021-05) Green, McKinley
    This dissertation investigates the digital risk communication practices of 14 young people living with HIV, part of a community-driven initiative to involve youth as participants in developing a digital tool to support HIV risk reduction. While many health practitioners and technical communication scholars involve end-users as participants in design settings, and researchers have pointed to digital health technologies as opportunities to reach vulnerable populations and mitigate health disparities, this study found that youth often resisted digital infrastructures to encourage risk reduction. Participants rarely listed their serostatus on dating applications, interacted with HIV-focused social media pages, or incorporated digital platforms into their healthcare management. This study extends on participatory theories in technical communication and technology design by focusing on these moments of resistance, when individuals refuse technology-based initiatives or subvert systems designed to include them. Drawing from histories of resistance in queer theory and HIV activism, this study argues that these unruly and resistant user experiences complicate dominant narratives about sexual health and envision alternative epistemologies of HIV risk. Developing participatory infrastructures that center on these ulterior health practices can enable more equitable healthcare arrangements that reflect the situated risk communication expertise of people living with HIV.
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    “You Will See Yourself In This Class”: A Case Study of Rendering Absent Narratives Visible
    (2020-02) Bordwell, Daniel
    Gender and sexuality are taught in schools through explicit, implicit, and null curricula (Thornton, 2002). In social studies, this teaching reifies a problematic status quo presenting as a false binary between male-female or masculine-feminine (List, 2018) and sexuality through heteronormative lenses (Thornton, 2002, 2003; Schmidt, 2013). This creates a discourse of invisibility (Ladson-Billings, 2003) whereby students are forced to subtract (Valenzuela, 1999) part of themselves when they enter the school building or interact with the social studies curriculum. In this study, I explore a case study (Merriam, 1998; Stake, 1995) of Mr. Jones, a cis-gender straight white male social studies teacher as he teaches gender, sexuality, and other aspects of identity in two social studies courses, an elective Multicultural Perspectives course and a required U.S. History Course. Through observations, interviews, and exploring student work, I look at how he teaches about identity and contrast the two courses. My analysis is driven through queer theory to expose the problematic assumptions of binary thinking within normative culture. I find Mr. Jones to be more successful in disrupting binary thinking and challenging assumptions and values in the elective course than in the U.S. History course. However, both classes had moments where Mr. Jones challenged student thinking on the topics of gender and sexuality. I specifically explore the themes of positionality, resonance, subject/object, and relationships to unpack Mr. Jones’s teaching. This study shows what happens as one social studies teacher attempts to teach beyond the binaries and create a space where all voices can be heard and absent narratives rendered visible.