Teaching Queerly: Beginning from Desire and Non-Normativity

As a queer student and teacher, I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about and working to enact queer pedagogies in my classroom and in my Writing Center tutoring practices. Just as queer theory focuses on pushing back against heteronormativity, queer pedagogy works to move beyond just building an inclusive classroom space, though a value of inclusivity and radical social justice is an important motivator for those who seek to teach queerly. Thus, not all queer-identified instructors enact queer pedagogies, and likewise I would argue that not all those who teach queerly identify as queer.I want to be clear, though, that enacting these practices does not necessarily mean you are doing queer work– because of the nebulous nature of queerness, such a contention is difficult to make for anyone. Instead, this blog post is aimed at providing some queer ways to think about your own pedagogical practices and activities, especially if you are concerned with issues of identity and activism.