Divination Dialogues as a Liberatory Method for Engaging Queer and Trans* Communities in Education Research

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 9:50 am Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Queering Theory and Method: Divinatory, Embodied, and Relational Ways of Knowing (Table 4)

Abstract

As a growing number of scholars discuss ways to “queer” research methods, this shift towards queerness often is rooted in scholarship and thought that prioritizes white, Eurocentric, colonial modes of knowledge production - coloniality that is at odds with the nature of queer and trans* (QT) subjectivities. This methodological paper adopts decolonial trans* feminism and queer occultism as theoretical approaches to advance an approach to queering research methods we name “divination dialogues,” or the conversations and knowledge production co-produced following a divinatory practice. This work situates spirituality and divination as decolonial and queer epistemologies, highlights how they can be used to shape methodological praxis, and imagines the liberatory potential of these practices for QT communities in education.

Authors

• Justin A. Gutzwa, Michigan State University

• Sergio A. Gonzalez, University of Pittsburgh