Unsettling Epistemological and Methodological Underpinnings of Queer Latina/o/x Research in Higher Education

• In Event: Chicana/Latina Feminista Pláticas in Educational Research: Methodological Considerations and Tensions

Abstract

Objective: Recent developments of research examining the experiences of queer Latinx/a/o people in higher education call for epistemological and methodological underpinnings that more accurately reflect this community (Author, 2020; Author, 2021). In this paper, we assert the need to examine queer Latinx/a/o knowledges and experiences using epistemologies and methodologies that help to build community in the process. We highlight how we come to build knowledges with our co-creators and collaborators in our individual research (i.e., dissertations) as a form of queer Latinx/a/o kinships. More specifically, we offer the ways pláticas as a method alongside queer chisme, jotería identity and consciousness, and the path of conocimiento serve as ruptures, or what Delgado Bernal (2020) names disrupting epistemological boundaries, to traditional ways of knowing.

Theoretical Framework: We ground our work in Chicana/Latina feminist lens and perspectives. Delgado Bernal (2019) called on researchers who assert Chicana and Latina feminism to pay homage to the genealogical foundations of this early work. Chicana feminism at its core “constitutes a political stance that confronts and undermines patriarchy as it cross-cuts forms of disempowerment and silencing such as racism, homophobia, class inequality, and nationalism” (Arrendondo et al., 2003). Additionally, several lesbian and queer Chicanas and Latinas assert the coupling of racialized gender and sexualities (Anzaldúa, 1987; Anzaldúa & Moraga, 1981; Moraga, 1983; Pérez, 1999) that challenge heteronormative assumptions of Latinx/a/o people.

Methods and Data Sources: Data was collected utilizing various methods such as pláticas, queer chisme, and testimonio across three different dissertations. Co-constructors ranged from being queer and trans Latinx/a/o graduate students, alumni reflecting on their undergraduate activism, and professionals from public four-year institutions, private predominantly white institutions, and community colleges. Collectively, we engaged with 68 co-constructors across multiple regions and institutions of the country, including 40 graduate students, 15 alumni, and 13 community college professionals, respectively.

Findings: Our pláticas, queer chisme, and testimonios in our individual dissertations center queer Latinx/a/o epistemologies. In a collective matter our findings demonstrate how queer chisme as a space to make meaning of sentimientos encontrados, exposing violence and power experienced across all sectors of higher education. Second, the use of jotería identity and consciousness in academia, emerges as a “process of reclaiming and documenting [queer Latinx] testimonies and experiences” (Tijerina Revilla & Santillana, 2014, p. 167). And lastly, Anzaldúa’s (2002) conocimiento brings forward a new paradigm of reflective consciousness and interrogates conventional ways of knowing, distorting a socialized reality for the co-constructors who participated. These frameworks encapsulate how queer Latinx/a/o people experience continual negotiation of identities and ways of knowing connected to time and space.

Scholarly Significance: Building on the call by Delgado Bernal (2019), we assert the need to interrogate how research on queer Latinx/a/o people can benefit from culturally congruent epistemological and methodological frameworks rooted in queer Latinx/a/o knowledges and experiences. From a methodological perspective, pláticas, queer chisme, and testimonios serve as disruptive tools of truth telling, to deconstruct structures of cisheteropatriarchy in higher education practices and institutions.

Authors

• Angel D. Gonzalez, California State University - Fresno

• Sergio A Gonzalez, Duquesne University

• Roberto C. Orozco, University of Minnesota