[ecrea] CFP- Queer Communication Pedagogy: Intersectionality and Activism

CFP

Queer Communication Pedagogy: Intersectionality and Activism

Considering the dynamics of current queer discourse, it is important for 
scholars and educators of communication studies to reflect on pedagogies 
that are infused with queer sensibilities and points of view. The goal 
of this edited collection is to focus on queer communication pedagogy 
and its implications within the classroom and beyond. Hence, this book 
has various aims: to create a dialogue among scholars within 
communication pedagogy and queer studies to address queer issues and 
current events from a communication perspective; to identify 
institutional and educational barriers, oppressions, and issues 
pertaining to queer lives in the context of higher education; to 
theorize the possibility of queer communication pedagogy; and to offer 
paths toward and innovative ideas about materializing queer 
communication pedagogy as a discipline.

While the presence of queer scholarship has been growing within the 
communication studies field, not much intradisciplinary research has 
focused on queer pedagogy or queer lives in the communication classroom, 
higher education, or teaching strategies in everyday life. Even though 
queer communication scholarship has had a great impact on carving out a 
space to articulate sexuality and gender, there is a notable gap when 
creating a discourse around queer communication pedagogy. The goal of 
this edited book is to bridge the gap between scholarship on critical 
communication pedagogy and queer studies. Therefore, this project builds 
on the idea of intersectionality in various sub-areas within the discipline.

Following the critical map created by Freire, Fassett and Warren (2007) 
situated critical pedagogy within communication studies by 
conceptualizing critical communication pedagogy (CCP). Fassett and 
Warren argued that critical communication pedagogy requires a commitment 
to pedagogy as praxis, which requires that teachers and students work 
together to observe, understand, and solve pedagogical issues that 
influence and shape their learning environments and processes. They also 
emphasized that critical communication educators engage in dialogue to 
create change; therefore, they are committed to social justice-centered 
educational models and pedagogies.Similar to critical pedagogy, queer 
pedagogy takes a deconstructive and decolonizing approach to teaching 
and aims to create a space for diverse students to voice their 
experiences within existing oppressive systems, including higher 
education. Furthermore, it also allows pedagogies to build on the notion 
of intersectionality by highlighting the importance of sexuality in 
identity and oppression discourse. Yep (2002) argues that effective 
queer pedagogy highlights existing homophobia and institutional 
violence, and aims to attack heteronormativity for the purpose of 
diminishing the power structures created by these oppressive ideological 
and social practices.

This edited volume has eight major interrelated aims:

1.To bridge the gap between critical communication pedagogy (CCP) and 
queer communication studies (QCS) by developing a queer communication 
pedagogy (QCP) approach. Queer communication pedagogy borrows from and 
embodies aspects of both CCP and QCS. Therefore, in this book our goal 
is to highlight the connections between these areas as we build queer 
communication pedagogy as an approach. This approach takes a critical, 
dialogic, self-reflexive and intersectional approach to pedagogy and 
aims to queer academic/educational culture.

2.QCP builds on the idea of questioning, challenging, and deconstructing 
the oppressive structures in our culture and education system. It shines 
a spotlight on oppressive ideologies that mark and remark our bodies and 
cultural identities, and questions the ways in which identity 
performances are named. Finally, QCP embodies social justice oriented 
pedagogies that highlight oppressive systems and aim to open up spaces 
for activism to create social change. Hence, in this book, our goal is 
to theorize on these disciplinary intersections.

3.Even though CCP acknowledges and questions existing oppressive 
systems, it does not make clear and direct connections to queer lives 
and experiences, such as using queer pedagogy in the classroom. Our goal 
is to contribute to CCP’s discourse by emphasizing the queer experience.

4.Since we cannot isolate one identity category or formation and focus 
on it exclusively to examine how it is constructed and performed, QCP 
takes an intersectional perspective. QCP argues that in order to 
understand queer experiences, we have to consider the intersections 
between sexuality, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, class, age and 
ability. Only in this way can queer experiences truly be understood, 
considering that queer bodies experience different oppressions and 
privileges based on their other identity markings.

5.We believe that QCP can be a productive approach to make sense of 
past, current, and ongoing queer discourse, including the latest events 
in our nation. Furthermore, we hope that this approach can provide 
students with new perspectives in order to achieve acceptance and 
respect for diversity and diverse lives and lifestyles.

6.In this book, we recognize that QCP should foster dialogue, encourage 
self-reflexivity, promote self-transformations, emphasize the importance 
of praxis in pedagogy and highlight the intersectionality of identities. 
Hence, the goal of this book is to present academic voices that embody 
and synthesize these aspects.

7.Finally, we aim to offer various queer pedagogies that deconstruct and 
decolonize traditional and critical pedagogies that bypass queer 
experiences.

8.In keeping with queer theory, we aim to interrogate how pedagogical 
patterns and processes (of teaching, of learning, of constructing 
knowledge) come to be normalized, along with the implications of such 
normalization.

Possible topics include but not limited to:

1-Theorizing queer communication pedagogy.

2- Decolonizing and deconstructing communication pedagogy to include 
queer voices.

3- Intersectionality and queer experiences in the classroom.

4- Intersectionality and queer experiences in academia.

5- Examples of queer communication pedagogies.

6- Queer communication pedagogy to create social justice.

7- Queering pedagogical discourse.

Abstracts are due by October 1, 2016, with a word length of up to no 
more than 500 words, along with pertinent references, and a short 
biographic blurb of 300 words. Full-length manuscripts are due on March 
1, 2017, with a word length of no more than 6,000 words and in APA 
style, including references, endnotes, and so forth. Abstracts should be 
emailed as Word documents to both co-editors Ahmet Atay 
((aatay /at/ wooster.edu)) and Sandy Pensoneau-Conway ((sandypc /at/ siu.edu)) for an 
initial review.



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