Ashgate Research Companion to Queer Theory

Noreen Giffney is the series editor of Queer Interventions at Ashgate Publishing. Her research focuses on queer theory, feminist theory, psychoanalysis, posthumanism and cultural studies. She is undertaking clinical training in psychoanalysis at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. Michael O’Rourke is the series editor of Queer Interventions at Ashgate Publishing. His research concentrates on the intersections between queer theory and Continental philosophy, especially Derrida, Delueze and Guattari, Ranciére, Foucault, Irigaray, Caputo and Nancy.

• Introduction: the 'q' word, Noreen Giffney; Part I Identity: On being post-normal: heterosexuality after queer theory, Calvin Thomas; Why 5 sexes are not enough, Iain Morland; 'The scholars formerly known as ...': bisexuality, queerness and identity politics, Jonathan Alexander and Karen Yescavage; The curious persistence of lesbian studies, Linda Garber; Making it like a drag king: female-to-male masculinity and the trans culture of boyhood, Bobby Noble; Phenomenology, embodiment and the political efficacy of contingent identity claims, Annabelle Willox; Queer posthumanism: cyborgs, animals, monsters, perverts, Patricia MacCormack. Part II Discourse: Queering, cripping, Todd R. Ramlow; Generic definitions: taxonomies of identity in AIDS discourse, Meredith Raimondo; Rethinking the place of queer and the erotic within geographies of sexualities, Jon Binnie; 'To play the sodomits': a query in 5 actions, Garrett P.J. Epp; Queer but classless?, Yvette Taylor; Queer-in the sociology of sport, Jayne Caudwell; 'Things that have the potential to go terribly wrong': homosexuality, paedophilia and the Kincora Boys' Home scandal, Margot Gayle Backus. Part III Normativity: Queer theory goes to Taiwan, Song Hwee Lim; Queer theory meets archaeology: disrupting epistemological privilege and heteronormativity in constructing the past, Thomas A. Dowson; A queer case of judicial diversity: sexuality, law and judicial studies, Leslie J. Moran; Queerying lesbian and gay psychology's 'coming of age': was the past just kids' stuff?, Peter Hegarty; 'Nothing to hide ... nothing to fear': discriminatory surveillance and queer visibility in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Kathryn Conrad; Biologically queer, Myra J. Hird; The new queer cartoon, Noreen Giffney; Post-queer considerations, David V. Ruffolo. Part IV Relationality: Intimate counter-normativities: a queer analysis of personal life in the early 21st century, Sasha Roseneil; Queer middle ages, Steven F. Kruger; Smacking my bitch up: queer or what?, Nikki Sullivan; 'Quare' studies, or (almost) everything I know about queer studies I learned from my grandmother, E. Patrick Johnson; 'A strange perversity': bringing out desire between women in Frankenstein, Mair Rigby; Sex and the lubricative ethic, Dinesh Wadiwel; All Foucault and no knickers: assessing claims for a queer-political erotics, Tamsin Wilton. Index.

'This collection ambitiously convokes established and emerging scholars across a wide spectrum of disciplines to critically address, in new and original ways, the field of queer theory. Divided into major categories of queer concern: identity, discourse, normativity, and relationality, the essays chart genealogies, track changes, and pose questions about the travels of this elusive term, the work it does, and the challenges it faces.' Carla Freccero, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA 'Far more than a retrospective reference work, this indispensable collection of essays does more than reassess most of the familiar themes in queer theory’s development over the past two decades. It takes the field in provocative new directions, suggesting many lines other than race, class, sexuality, and gender along which a critical queerness can perform its perversely enlightening operations.' Susan Stryker, Indiana University, USA 'Those invigorated by the multiple facets and faces of queerness will welcome this handy, heady, interdisciplinary tome... Recommended.' Choice 'The Ashgate Research Companion to Queer Theory is a solid collection providing an overview of the past, present and future applications of queer theory. The Companion confidently lives up to its name as a research companion offering useful theories and methodologies for the reader to utilise queer theory in their own work... an absolute pleasure to read...' M/C Reviews Culture & Media '... the collection introduces some exciting new ideas in relatively unexplored terrain... the contributors of this volume are cunning linguists who deliver intelligent appreciations and deprecations of the strangeness of language, discourses and social phenomena. In combination, they seem to offer a sharp new ’voice’ for the field. Their writing is in general witty, cheeky, at times laugh-out-loud funny, shocking, sexy and always academic enough to challenge general readers... The book is essential reading fo