Matt Brim

"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"--

Confronting Elitism in the University

Poor Queer Studies

Amin Ghaziani

This issue of WSQ reframes the question what is queer theory, to how is the work of queer theory done? "

Queer Methods

Reimagines the field of queer studies by asking “How do we do queer theory?” Imagining Queer Methods showcases the methodological renaissance unfolding in queer scholarship. This volume brings together emerging and esteemed researchers from all corners of the academy who are defining new directions for the field. From critical race studies, history, journalism, lesbian feminist studies, literature, media studies, and performance studies to anthropology, education, psychology, sociology, and urban planning, this impressive interdisciplinary collection covers topics such as humanistic approaches to reading, theorizing, and interpreting, as well as scientific appeals to measurement, modeling, sampling, and statistics. By bringing together these diverse voices into an unprecedented single volume, Amin Ghaziani and Matt Brim inspire us with innovative ways of thinking about methods and methodologies in queer studies.

Imagining Queer Methods

Stepping back to examine the relationship between James Baldwin and queer theory, Brim unveils new critical insights that their complicated pairing provides

James Baldwin and the Queer Imagination

Yvette Taylor

Churnjeet Mahn

Queer Precarity in Higher Education looks at queer scholars pushing against institutional structures, and the queer knowledge that gets pushed out by universities. It provides insight into the work of, in and beyond academia as it is un-done in the contemporary (post)Covid moment, not least by queer academic-activists. This radical un-doing represents cycles of queer precarity, pragmatism and participation both situating and questioning the 'queer arrival' of institutionalized programmes and presences (e.g. queer and gender studies degrees, prominent and public feminist academics). In this book, the contributors push back against contemporary educational precarity, mobilizing queer insight and insistence; and push back against confinement of the University, socially and spatially. The collection brings together academic-activist perspectives to extend understandings of experiences of marginalization and inequality in higher education. It also documents the diversity of tactics with which queers negotiate and resist the various, shifting and interconnected forms of precarity and privilege found on the edges of academia. Contributors consider these issues from inside/outside academia and across career course, challenging the 'queer arrival' as emanating outward from the university to the community, from the academic to the activist, or from a state of privilege to a place of precarity.

Matt Brim

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