"Please State Your Name and Pronoun": Ritualizing Gender Diversity Inclusion in K–12 and Higher Education

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 51
  In Roundtable Session: Queer Experiences and Practices in Higher Education

Abstract

Whereas sexual diversity inclusion or ‘anti-homophobia’ efforts are endemic in many North American public schools, familiar initiatives like Gay-Straight Alliances and Pink Shirt Day may have little relevance to gender diversity. However, everyday strategies of gender diversity inclusion long practiced in transgender communities have begun to enter and become stabilized as ‘best practices’ in educational institutions. As a case study, the paper engages the ‘gender pronoun ritual:’ private or public instances wherein people ask about and share their pronouns. Exploring pedagogical examples and drawing on theories of affect, I offer a critical ambivalence to the pronoun ritual, arguing for its necessity and against any institutionalization of the ritual (or any gender diversity inclusion strategy) in educational sites.

Author

• Lee Airton, Queen's University