Starting with queer : an enigmatic concept for higher education research and practice

This chapter explores some of the challenging questions that higher education researchers encounter as they ‘start with queer.’ We begin by tracing the origins and development of the term queer. We then identify three possible ways of using queer in research—as an identity, a practice, and a form of politics—and explore the methodological implications for each of these forms of use. While higher education researchers have been slower to embrace queer concepts, in this chapter we explore the existing work in the field. We find that most higher education studies use queer in identity-based ways, rather than taking an anti-identitarian stance. To give these conversations some empirical flesh, we foreground the results of an empirical study called “Uneasy Feelings” conducted by the authors. This work drew on conceptual resources associated with queer theorists to interrogate normative accounts of emotion and politics within doctoral education research. In sharing this case, we examine how queer can be used as a resource for questioning meanings that have come to be regarded as ‘straightforward’ and ‘commonsense.’ Ultimately, through this chapter we position queer as an enigmatic and mutating concept that has rich potential for usage in higher education research