Learning to be Queer on Campus

• In Event: 090 - Section on Sociology of Sexualities Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 05. The Production of Sexualities in Higher Education

Abstract

“Queer” is becoming a common identity adopted by women students on college campuses. This paper uses the case of the University of California, Santa Barbara, to analyze how students come to embrace the identity queer and what the identity means to them. Grounding our analysis in queer theory, structural identity theory, and collective identity theory, we find that queer is both an individual and collective identity that connotes fluidity of desire and behavior, a rejection of stable and binary sexualities and genders, and a political commitment to the queer community. Students learn about queer identity primarily when they arrive on campus, through queer organizations and coursework, showing how Giddens’ concept of the double hermeneutic is at work in the development of the identity queer.

Authors

• Leila J. Rupp, University of California-Santa Barbara

• Shae Miller, University of California-Santa Barbara