WATCH: Queer & Trans Perspectives in Academia

For Pride month, SAGE Publishing hosted a panel discussing the importance of LGBTQ+ narratives in academia. During the discussion we explored how queer methodology can positively disrupt the social sciences and higher education in general. Through an intersectional and interdisciplinary lens, the talk went beyond gender identity and sexual orientation to also cover topics such as the power of the archive and having an abolitionist perspective.

Andrew Delatolla, lecturer of Middle Eastern Studies at the School of Languages, Cultures, and societies in Leeds University, began by championing queer methodology’s capacity to disrupt the established racial, sexual, and cultural hierarchies which inform our worldview and moral attitudes. Megan Todd, senior lecturer of Sociology at the University of Central Lancashire, considered the importance of LGBT heritage at universities and what it can inform us about universities’ relationships with their staff and students as well as the towns and cities they are situated in. Lastly, Marquis Bey, assistant professor of African American Studies at Northwestern University, whose research focus is on the intersection of blackness and transness, reflected on the constraints of prison systems and the gender binary.

These ideas were all underpinned by the desire to question how people view and interact with our most pressing social problems. Over the course of the discussion, some salient questions were posed: are settled ideas of gender needed for the advancement of feminist goals? How can we negotiate our contemporary understanding of sexuality and identity in researching the history of the LGBTQ+ community? The conversation invited attendees to consider how universities and academic research could further engage with these topics, whilst challenging the limited beliefs and norms around gender and sexuality.