Entangling past, present, and future to examine queerness and white privilege in academia

J Lesbian Stud. 2020;24(4):348-361. doi: 10.1080/10894160.2019.1666447. Epub 2019 Sep 18.

Abstract

Lesbians have limited visibility or representation in educational research, and there has been even less consideration of the ways that lesbians' experiences are racialized. Using a methodological approach that entwines Karen Barad's concept of queer temporalities with Kimberlé Crenshaw's discussion of single-axis intersectionality, this paper uses critical autoethnography to offer narrative examinations of the author's queerness as constantly enmeshed with her Whiteness. The author considers the degrees to which being situated in the socio-politically conservative U.S. South have influenced her experiences as a queer lesbian academic, even as White privilege has, intentionally and unintentionally, shaped her scholarship.

Keywords: education; autoethnography; intersectionality; narratives; race; white privilege.

MeSH terms

  • Academic Performance*
  • Anthropology, Cultural
  • Educational Personnel*
  • Female
  • Gender Identity
  • Homosexuality, Female*
  • Humans
  • Racism*
  • Sexual and Gender Minorities
  • United States
  • White People*