Creating Community by Making Space: A Genealogy of Queer of Color Analysis in Education

• In Event: Celebrating 15 Years of "Making Space": Reflections and New Trajectories of Race, Sexuality, and Justice in Education

Abstract

McCready’s Making Space for Diverse Masculinities: Difference, Intersectionality, and Engagement in an Urban High School (2010) marks an inflection point in queer of color analysis in education. Prior to its publication, scholarly analyses of queer youth in educational contexts were limited to Kumashiro’s trailblazing edited volume (2001) and a paltry yet innovative set of peer-reviewed journal articles by authors like McCready (2004a, 2004b), Blackburn (2002, 2005), and Cruz (2001, 2008). In this paper, I trace how the scholarly community-building enabled by Making Space and led by its author created the conditions for a more visible and robust body of queer of color analysis in educational studies.

As one of McCready’s frequent collaborators, I have witnessed and learned from his numerous efforts to make space for analyses of queer of color epistemologies and ontologies within educational contexts. Drawing upon digital artifacts, written excerpts, and testimonies from eight initiatives that McCready and I have participated in and/or contributed to since the mid-2000s, the genealogy that I present in this paper illustrates the roles played by McCready and Making Space in shaping and expanding the landscape for queer of color educational scholarship. The eight initiatives that I draw upon are as follows:

1. An unofficial queer of color pre-conference session at the 2007 AERA Annual Meeting;
2. A Division G-sponsored 2009 AERA Annual Meeting session titled “Anxious Manhoods: Black Masculinity Studies Across Educational Contexts;”
3. A 2012 panel discussion on Black queer youth at the Black Gay Research Summit;
4. A 2013 special issue of Curriculum Inquiry on Queers of Color and Anti-Oppressive Knowledge Production;
5. A 2014 AESA Conference session titled “Unjust Matters: Queer Youth of Color and Educational Discontent;”
6. A 2019 special issue of Equity & Excellence in Education on Queeruptions;
7. A Queer Studies SIG-sponsored 2023 AERA Annual Meeting symposium titled “Black Queer World-Making and the Pursuit of Truth in Educational Research;”
8. A 2023-2024 queer of color online writing group.

While additional evidence exists of both McCready’s and Making Space’s significance in molding queer of color scholarship in education, the initiatives listed above speak to five themes that I explore in this paper:

1. The importance of queer of color scholarly community-building outside of formal educational institutions and professional organizations;
2. The affordances and challenges of situating queer of color educational scholarship beyond the field of educational studies;
3. The affordances of and tensions between “Black” and “queer of color” as both intellectual and community-building frameworks;
4. The challenges of making queer of color analysis legible to professional and disciplinary gatekeepers within educational studies;
5. The roles of elders, newcomers, and co-conspirators in shaping and refining the direction of queer of color scholarship in education.

Along with providing an opportunity to document and reflect on the history of this field of study, the genealogy offered in this paper addresses the 2025 Annual Meeting theme by identifying key lessons for positioning queer of color knowledge production as a site and source of remedy, repair, and resistance in education.

Author

• Ed Brockenbrough, University of Pennsylvania