“Queernormativity: Norms, values, and practices in social justice fandom.” in Sexualities

What, if anything, is the queer project? Queer theorists have detailed the ways that gays and lesbians, and transgender people, de-radicalize a potentially queer upsetting of heteronormative systems. Homonormativity and transnormativity have been used to describe the ways that marginalized sexualities and genders are rendered heteronormative. These concepts are important, yet incomplete to capture the experiences of queer people for two reasons. First, they equate ‘normativity’ always with ‘heteronormativity,’ surrendering the ability to define ‘the normal’ to heteronormative constructions. Second, they render invisible the work done by queer people to redefine the normative in ways that dismantle heteronormativity and affirm queer identities. Through interviews (n = 39), my study works to rectify these twin issues by illuminating the ways queer social actors actively work to redefine what it means to be normative, resulting in queernormativity.

“Dissonant Discourses in Institutional Communications on Sexual Violence.” in Journal of Women, Politics, & Policy.

This article is a discourse analysis of a large Northwestern research university’s official communications regarding sexual violence for a 15-month time frame. Through close reading of these communications, we found that concurrent with high levels of criticism in the spring of 2014 over the university’s handling of a high-profile rape case, the university advanced dissonant discourses of risk and responsibility in its communications regarding sexual violence. At both the institutional and individual levels, these dissonant discourses work to construct who is at risk of committing or experiencing sexual violence, and who is responsible for preventing and responding to it. In conclusion, we discuss possible implications for these dissonant discourses on the future of campus sexual violence prevention and university response.

Co-authored with Malori A. Musselman, Andrea P. Herrera, Diego Contreras-Medrano, Nicole A. Francisco & Larissa Petrucci.