Jotería and Queer Chisme as Organizational Sensemaking for Queer and/or Trans Latinx Leaders at Community Colleges

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 11:40 am Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Graduate Students, Staff, and Faculty of Color Collectives (Table 12)

Abstract

Empirical studies remain scarce regarding Latinx leadership, however scholars are beginning to unsettle methodological and epistemological boundaries for research that centers experiences of queer and/or trans Latinx peoples in various contexts, including community colleges. As cisheterosexists and traditionally heterogendered institutions, QT Latinx leaders are left to navigate the oppressive terrains of leadership, make sense of their organizations, and strive to lead in such conditions. While it has long been studied that sensemaking is a key facet to leading and changing organizations, less is argued around who gets to make sense of what and who’s rendered as nonsensical. In this paper I highlight how jotería and queer chisme served Latinx community college leaders as a counterspace to engage in organizational sensemaking.

Author

• Angel D. Gonzalez, California State University - Fresno