Queerness as Being in Higher Education

Antonio Duran, Ph.D. (he/him/él) is Assistant Professor in the Higher and Postsecondary Education program at Arizona State University. Antonio received a Ph.D. in higher education and student affairs from The Ohio State University, an M.S. in student affairs in higher education from Miami University, and a B.A. in English and American literature from New York University. Antonio’s research examines how historical and contemporary legacies of oppression influence college student development, experiences, and success. In particular, he is interested in understanding and centering the lives of queer and trans people with multiple minoritized identities in postsecondary education settings. Ryan A. Miller, Ph.D. (he/him/his), is Associate Professor of Higher Education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he teaches courses on college student development, student affairs administration, and higher education leadership. His research agenda focuses on (1) the experiences of minoritized social groups in higher education, with emphases on disabled and LGBTQ+ people; and (2) the institutionalization of diversity and equity initiatives within higher education, in curricular, administrative, and student affairs contexts. T.J. Jourian, Ph.D. (he/him/his), is an independent scholar and consultant with Trans*Formational Change and an instructional designer with LifeLabs Learning. Previously, he served as Assistant Professor of Higher Education Leadership at Oakland University. T.J. earned his doctorate in higher education from Loyola University Chicago, studying how trans masculine students conceptualize masculinity. He earned his M.A. in student affairs administration with a Multicultural Education cognate from Michigan State University and has experience as a practitioner in Gender and Sexuality Centers and Residential Life. Centering trans and queer people of color’s experiences and epistemologies, his research examines race, gender, and sexuality in higher education, with particular attention to masculinity, transness, and racialization; campus gender and sexuality centers and practitioners; and trans*ing constructs and methodologies. Jesus Cisneros, Ph.D. (he/him/his), is Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Foundations at the University of Texas at El Paso. Jesus obtained a doctorate in education policy and evaluation from Arizona State University, a master’s degree in higher education administration from Texas A&M University, and a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communications from New Mexico State University. He brings his knowledge of higher education research and practice to highlight the intersection of education and immigration. His research moves gender, sexuality, and immigration status, and their conceptual margins, to the center of analysis in an effort to explore and understand the way politics and identity interact with various axes of inequality.

1. Introduction: Unpacking the Insider/Outsider Paradox and the Concept of Queerness as Being. 2. It Has Occasional Costs to Your Soul: Ministering to LGBTQIA+ Communities in Higher Education. 3. Persistance: Finding Support for LGBTQIA+ Identities in the Field. 4. Doubling-Down: Emotional Double-Burdens in LGBTQ+ Professionals' Practice. 5. Promises of Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity: A Conversation of Cruel Optimism Between Two Feminist Queer Latinas. 6. We Got Work to Do: Testimonios of Queer Black and Latinx Practitioner-Scholar-Advocates Navigating the Insider/Outsider Paradox within the Ivory Tower. 7. So, How Exactly do I "Bring my Full Self" to the Profession? Queer, Latino, and Undocumented in Student Affairs. 8. Unapologetically Trans, Apologetically Masculine: A Paradox of Uncertainty. 9. An Outsider Within: Navigating the Internal Insider/Outsider Paradox. 10. Caricature of the Queer Hegemony: Reflections on Insitutional Prestige, Career Advancement, and Community. 11. Cripping the Insider/Outsider Paradox: The Experiences of a Disabled QT Educator. 12. Impressions of the (Gay and Autistic) Scholar in the Glass: An Emerging Academic's Journey. 13. Too Queer for the Country, Too Country for College: It's Hard to Find Home as a Queer, Rural Kid. 14. Finding our Place...Again: An Autoethnography of Sexually Minoritized Mid-Level Practitioners Beginning Doctoral Studies. 15. The InBetweeners: Queer and Allied Insider/Outsider Experiences and Perspectives from Higher Education in an Evolving Ireland. 16. Conclusion: Insights on the Insider/Outsider Paradox as LGBTQ+ Scholars and Practitioners.