Educators Queering Academia
Critical Memoirs
Series:
Edited By sj Miller and Nelson M. Rodriguez
Chapter Seventeen: Smear the Queer: A Critical Memoir
Extract
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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Smear the Queer: A Critical Memoir
SCOTTY M. SECRIST
INTRODUCTION
This is a piece of art, because I am an artist. I am an artist of many media. I draw. I paint. I play piano. I am also a scholar. My professional training in higher educational research has conditioned me to express my thoughts in very particular ways. However, you will not find a nice, tight argument, wrapped with a bow, in this piece. Actually, this piece is an artistic experiment, one in which I infuse my body and my voice into an artifact for others to view and ponder.
I have been greatly inspired by Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (2012). While the concept of borderlands is quite powerful and can probably be applied to many of the stories that I share in this piece, I hesitate to make such comparisons. Rather, I draw inspiration from Anzaldúa’s way of working and thinking, her methods and methodology. For this piece, I dig deep, drawing upon both my past experiences and my interpretations of those experiences. Throughout this essay, I try to honor my spiritual experiences. In short, Anzaldúa has challenged me to be open and vulnerable, and to find my voice in doing so.
Vulnerability is a form of violence. When we think about vulnerability in education, we usually think about a person choosing to...
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