Queering the (Inter)National Classroom: Andragogies and Pedagogies of Compliance and Resistance

• In Event: International Committee Talkshop II: Pedagogies of Dissent in A Global Context

Abstract

The queer classroom in national and international contexts becomes an ambivalent space of resistance and compliance. Teaching in Ankara, Turkey, Southern Indiana (Bloomington and Evansville) and in Newark, New Jersey have provided me with various platforms to express queer pedagogy and andragogy. Although queer theory and queer praxis are integral parts of my scholarship and my intellectual perspectives/background, the truth remains that it is not always safe to teach queer(ly) and to be openly queer in the classroom. Issues of safety, propriety, and rebellion all coalesce to shape the ways in which teachers choose or reject readings, films, and media. Following Sedgwick’s work in Epistemology of the Closet this paper will investigate the various classroom contexts in the U.S. and abroad that force teachers and students to enact strategies of compliance and resistance. These survival strategies, though beneficial at times due to context, become a form of coding and secrecy that inevitably affects the dynamics between the class, the teacher, and the content.

Author

• Christopher Rivera, Essex County College