Solitude and Solidarity:Understanding Public Pedagogy through Queer Discourses on YouTube

Working alongside five queer-identified theatre artists, using critical arts-based participatory action research, this research project worked through a creative process in which the research team identified, deconstructed, and disrupted normative queer discourses on the video-sharing website YouTube. Using notions from queer theory, cultural studies, and anti-oppression education, along with embodied analysis as a deconstructive strategy, the research team used collective theorizing and performance to facilitate an analysis of the online videos. In this thesis, I discuss embodied knowing by analyzing performative moments in the creative workshop undertaken by the research team. I then provide a thematic analysis of the online videos, followed by an analysis of how the research team used collective creation and personal narrative to produce a counter-hegemonic response video. Finally, I conclude with a discussion on how to engage video creation as a form of anti-oppression education that queers public pedagogy.MAS