Waite, Stacey
(2011)
Teaching Queer: Possibilities for Writing, Reading, and Knowing.
Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
This dissertation explores intersections between queer theory and pedagogy for the teaching of undergraduates—with particular attention to the teaching of writing. Queer theory has made significant contributions to the ways we understand gender, sexuality, identity, discourse and material bodies. My dissertation extends the work of queer theory, opening its insights to the practices of teaching while also considering teaching as a way to reflect back on the central questions of queer theory. Some scholars have called the intersections between queer theory and teaching "queer pedagogy," though this term is still fraught, still in the process of being understood, and just beginning to be written about in terms of teaching practices and methodology. This work, grounded both in queer theory and in my experience of a specific writing course, is part of this generative beginning. In this dissertation I explore, in depth, what I see as the crucial next steps in investigating what queer pedagogies might look like, who can enact them, and how they may be powerful methods in the teaching of undergraduate writing. My work puts some pressure on the previous emphasis on identity politics in scholarship on queer pedagogies. Over the past fifteen years, a series of notable texts emerged in thinking about the relationship between teaching and queer studies; these early texts are primarily identity-based and construct limiting theoretical notions of identity itself. However, my work in queer theory and my own pedagogical experiences have led me to think of identity as always, to some degree, fluid and unstable. I argue that queer pedagogies, when enacted in the spirit of queer theory, can offer more than a way of conceptualizing identity politics in the classroom and can become queer methodologies, queer practices of teaching. I understand queer pedagogies as approaches, as theories of teaching that can be practiced by teachers and students occupying multiple, shifting, and varied subject positions. My dissertation offers these very practices, drawing from work in composition studies, from queer theory, and from the work of students.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
|
| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
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| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
30 September 2011 |
| Date Type: |
Completion |
| Defense Date: |
16 June 2011 |
| Approval Date: |
30 September 2011 |
| Submission Date: |
31 July 2011 |
| Access Restriction: |
5 year -- Restrict access to University of Pittsburgh for a period of 5 years. |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > English |
| Degree: |
PhD - Doctor of Philosophy |
| Thesis Type: |
Doctoral Dissertation |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
composition; educational theory; gender studies; literacy; pedagogy; queer theory |
| Other ID: |
http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-07312011-184007/, etd-07312011-184007 |
| Date Deposited: |
10 Nov 2011 19:55 |
| Last Modified: |
15 Nov 2016 13:47 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/8781 |
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