Forging Queer Solidarities: Exploring Queer Campus Spaces Through Cellphilms and Zine Production

• In Event: Creating Digital Counter-Spaces: Exploring Social Media, Science, and Culture in the Data Age

Abstract

Disregarding queer, trans, and non-binary students' experiences can have dire consequences on students’ well-being at school and in society. In this comparative study, we explore the ways queer university students from Trinidad and Tobago and New Brunswick, Canada utilize arts-based approaches—zines and cellphilms (cellphone + film production + intention)—to share their experiences, make calls for change, and forge solidarities across racial, cultural, and national contexts. Our study disrupts the erasure of the experiences of queer, trans, and non-binary university students in Trinidad and Tobago, and hegemonic whiteness in the context of queer campus spaces in New Brunswick, Canada. Through cellphilm and zine production, participants crafted narratives that highlight systemic barriers, and speak back to micro and macro aggressions.

Authors

• Casey Megan Burkholder, University of New Brunswick

• Alicia Noreiga, University of New Brunswick

• Megan Hill, Trent University

• Sabine Lebel, University of New Brunswick