A Discourse of Silence: Queer Voices in the University

Proposed Thesis/Lead: While queer voices are beginning to enter into academia, representation of actual queer people continues to evade the university discourses. Much of the knowledge generated about LGBTQ people continues to come from academics whose identities do not align with the identities of those about whom they are producing discourse. Those who do identify within LGBTQ spectrum — such as myself — can be led to believe their own lived experience gives them less authority than the voices of academics with no embodied knowledge.

The Reporting/Writing: While my experience allows me to be a central voice in the story, I also plan to seek out narratives of other queer individuals in the university system. Speaking to academic who teach queer studies would be helpful, and I would want to look at statistics regarding LGBTQ populations attending and teaching at universities. Furthermore, photographing/documenting physical representations of LGBTQ academic would provide some layering to the story. My personal narration would be the largest literary component to this story, and my current thesis work centers around the idea of speaking as a gay man about gay and bisexual men’s literature.