Queerness as Being in Higher Education

Narrating the Insider/Outsider Paradox as LGBTQ+ Scholars and Practitioners

Antonio Duran, Ryan A. Miller, T.J. Jourian, Jesus Cisneros, Antonio Duran, Ryan A. Miller, T.J. Jourian, Jesus Cisneros

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781032185859
• eBook ISBN: 9781000787122
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Drawing on autotheoretical methods, this insightful volume explores how LGBTQ+ scholars, practitioners, and scholar-practitioners exist within and negotiate an insider/outsider paradox within higher education, highlighting issues of affect, legibility, and embodiment.

The first of a two-volume series, this book foregrounds the experiences of LGBTQ+ higher education scholars and practitioners in the United States as they navigate cisheteronormative culture, structures, practices, and policies on campus. Through theorization of contributors' lived experiences in relation to identity and the concept of queerness as being, the volume posits queer identity as embodied resistance and demonstrates how this plays out within an insider/outsider paradox. An innovative theoretical framing, this text artfully exemplifies how queer and trans people exist simultaneously as both insider and outsider in university communities and deepens understanding of how critical narratives might inform institutional transformation and drives toward equity. The book then looks to the future, discussing implications for research and practice, using the lessons learned from the chapter authors.

Embellished with a plethora of diverse firsthand contributions and innovative scholarship, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of queer and trans studies, student affairs, gender and sexuality studies, and higher education, as well as those seeking to understand the experiences of LGBTQ+ higher education scholars and practitioners as they navigate central tensions in their practice.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Contributors
• 1 Introduction: Unpacking the Insider/Outsider Paradox and the Concept of Queerness as Being
• 2 It Has Occasional Costs to Your Soul: Ministering to LGBTQIA+ Communities in Higher Education
• 3 Persistence: Finding Support for LGBTQIA+ Identities in the Field
• 4 Doubling-Down: Emotional Double-Burdens in LGBTQ+ Professionals’ Practice
• 5 Promises of Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity: A Conversation of Cruel Optimism Between Two Feminist Queer Latinas
• 6 We Got Work to Do: Testimonios of Queer Black and Latinx Practitioner-Scholar-Advocates Navigating the Insider/Outsider Paradox Within the Ivory Tower
• 7 So, How Exactly do I “Bring my Full Self” to the Profession?: Queer, Latino, and Undocumented in Student Affairs
• 8 Unapologetically Trans, Apologetically Masculine: A Paradox of Uncertainty
• 9 An Outsider Within: Navigating the Internal Insider/Outsider Paradox
• 10 Caricature of the Queer Hegemony: Reflections on Institutional Prestige, Career Advancement, and Community
• 11 Cripping the Insider/Outsider Paradox: The Experiences of a Disabled, Queer, Non-Binary Educator
• 12 Impressions of the (Gay and Autistic) Scholar in the Glass: An Emerging Academic’s Journey
• 13 Too Queer for the Country, Too Country for College: It’s Hard to Find Home as a Queer, Rural Kid
• 14 Finding our Place … Again: An Autoethnography of Sexually Minoritized Mid-Level Practitioners Beginning Doctoral Studies
• 15 The InBetweeners: Queer and Allied Insider/Outsider Experiences and Perspectives from Higher Education in an Evolving Ireland
• 16 Conclusion: Insights on the Insider/Outsider Paradox as LGBTQ+ Scholars and Practitioners
• Index