© 2016 Stina Soderling ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
© 2016 Stina Soderling ALL RIGHTS RESERVED IN THE CREVICES OF CAPITALISM: RURAL QUEER COMMUNITY FORMATION by STINA MARIA SODERLING A dissertation submitted to the Graduate School-New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Women's and Gender Studies Written under the direction of Ethel Brooks ------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------- New Brunswick, New Jersey MAY, 2016 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION In the Crevices of Global Capitalism: Rural Queer Community Formation By STINA SODERLING Dissertation Director: Ethel Brooks “In the Crevices of Global Capitalism: Rural Queer Community Formation” is an interdisciplinary study of a cluster of intentional communities in Tennessee, referred to by residents as the “Gayborhood.” As an interdisciplinary project, the dissertation draws on multiple methods, primarily ethnographic fieldwork, archival research, oral history, and media analysis. The project studies the Gayborhood not just from an LGBT history view, but more crucially from the perspective of the history of the land on which it is located. It argues that the creation of a queer community in rural Tennessee is predicated on several waves of displacement of other groups from the land, through an ongoing process of settler colonialism and capitalist exploitation. The dissertation makes four main interventions in the field of Queer Studies: First, it provides a reading of the concept of “labor of belonging.” The Gayborhood is created through constant labor, which is for the most part unremunerated, and not always acknowledged. This labor creates a multifaceted belonging: people belonging to a community, land belonging to people, and people belonging to the land. Second, the dissertation presents a theory of materiality and excess. The Gayborhood is in several ii ways built on waste: the utilizing of literal trash in building, discarded food in cooking, and also being located in a metaphorical post-industrial wasteland. Third, the project places rural queer intentional communities within the landscape of settler colonialism. The dissertation shows how the claiming of land by queer groups is predicated on the naturalization of white US citizenship, and the erasure of histories and presents of Native presence on the land. Fourth, the dissertation uses the concept of fermentation as metaphor and method. It poses that the process of fermentation, whereby microorganisms interact with feedstock materials in a process that combines decomposition and creation, can be used to explain how locations such as the Gayborhood become possible, and how they change. iii Acknowledgments The first and foremost thank-you for this dissertation getting written – and the process being intellectually exciting – goes to all members, past and present, of the bio.cultures writing group: Kim Cunningham, Kate Jenkins, Alison Cool, Miriam Tola, Grzegorz Sokol, Carolina Alonso, Aaron Weeks, Jasmin Young, Bryce Renniger, Sasha Rodriguez, Paul Edwards, and Jenna Brager. bio.cultures is the dissertation support network of dreams: always seeing the best in each other and our writing, constantly asking incisive questions and helping each other make our work the best it can be. It is the kind of collective that gives me hope for the possibilities and realities of cross-disciplinary intellectual collaboration and partnership. Two other writing groups have also been important along the way. In the early stages of writing, while figuring out what this dissertation was about and why I wanted to write it, I received immensely important support and feedback from the Writers Solidarity Project group. Thank you especially to Natty, Asoka, and Kylie for co-creating such a wonderful space for writing as a mutually nurturing yet challenging process. A group of Rutgers WGS alumnae have continued to meet to read each other's projects; thank you to Ashley Falzetti, Anahi Russo Garrido, Stephanie Clare, and Agatha Beins. The members of my dissertation committee have encouraged me to explore the sometimes unconventional paths I stumbled upon in my writing and research, and gently nudged me back when I strayed too far. Many thanks to Temma Kaplan, Jasbir Puar, Kyla Schuller, Nancy Hewitt, and Karen Tongson, and especially to my advisor, Ethel Brooks. Some of the key ideas and methods I engage with developed during a year-long iv seminar on “Generations and Degenerations” organized by the Institute for Research on Women at Rutgers. Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel, Sarah Tobias, and Marlene Importico created a friendly and collegial space for sharing ideas and thinking together. In the Women's and Gender Studies Department office, Suzy Kiefer and Monique Gregory guided me through Rutgers bureaucracy. Without them, none of the work of the department, including this dissertation, would be possible. Thank you both. Much of the writing of this dissertation took place during a Five College pre- doctoral fellowship year at Mount Holyoke College. At Mount Holyoke, Christian Gundermann, Angie Wiley, Jacquelyne Luce, Susanne Mrozik, Becky Packard, and Bridget Barrett provided collegiality and material and intellectual resources. The MHC young faculty crew reminded each other of the importance of work-life balance with hikes and rock climbing, which made me a better writer and thinker. Thank you to Sue Dickman and Nate Therien at the Five Colleges for organizing the fellowship program, and to Catherine Chou, Valeria Jimenez, and Lokeilani Kaimana, the kindest and friendliest “fellow fellows” anyone could ask for. At Rutgers and Mt Holyoke, the amazing Women's and Gender Studies librarians, Kayo Denda and Julie Adamo, helped me find invaluable sources, including many I didn't know I was looking for. Likewise, the staff at county and state archives in Tennessee helped locate land deeds and other records. Before going to graduate school, my love of Women's Studies was kindled by the faculty at Smith College, in particular Elisabeth Armstrong, Jennifer Guglielmo, Helen Horowitz, Martha Ackelsberg, Marina Kaplan, and Chaia Heller. They taught me that Women's and Gender Studies research and teaching at its best is expansive yet rigorous, v tied to social justice but not dogmatic. Professor Mohammad Jiyad gave me my first teaching job, sparking my curiosity for a career in adult education. The people living at all the land projects I visited in my research were extraordinarily welcoming, feeding me, engaging in conversation, and putting me to work. From the gayborhood, I would like to thank MaxZine, Spree, Clutch, Neighbor Lee, Talka, Tom Foolery, Mona, Beef, Becca, Merril, and Emily. From HOWL, thank you to Vanessa and Laura, and to Crow who was an active member of the women's land community up until her death earlier this year. A big thank you to Sacha at Fancyland, who not only showed me around the land, but also asked questions and shared thoughts that deepened my analysis of queer land. In the Gayborhood and the other places I did research, I met many people who engaged me in conversation and pushed my thinking further. My thinking about queer land has been provoked and expanded thanks to Hanna King, Shawna, Ramona, Wye, Chi Mei Tam, Finn Cunningham, Finn McLeod, Ellice, Howl, Che, Janey, Aren Aizura, and Simon Strikeback. I was also joined on some of these fieldtrip by companions who drove cars, shared ideas, and last but not least provided bus-ride entertainment: Emma Roderick, Ellice Litwak, Amy Seidenverg, Elvis Bakaitis, and Elsbet Servay. Researching and writing a dissertation would not have been possible without a great deal of invisibilized labor. I want to especially thank all the Greyhound and Amtrak drivers and conductors who got me to my fieldwork sites, and the people who operate the post office and bus stop in middle Tennessee where I arrived and departed and conducted correspondence. They went above and beyond in locating lost luggage, holding buses when I was running late, and sending and receiving packages. vi During the 2011-12, I did much of my thinking about community and property in Zuccotti Park. Neither the dissertation nor graduate school would have been the same were it not for the work and play that took place there. Thank you to Caro, Miriam, Ethan, Amy, Marlisa, Benedict, Joshua, Conor, Samantha, Mark, Sully, and everyone else who made that space both home and strange. And an especially big thank-you to everyone, named and unnamed, who participated in the People's Kitchen, day in and day out practicing the work of feeding community and dislodging objectifying relations. Being a doctoral candidate at Rutgers has meant teaching throughout almost the whole process, and this has continuously shaped and reshaped my research and writing. Even more importantly, teaching constantly reminds me of what is worthwhile about academia. Thank you to all of my students, and especially to everyone in the Queer Ecologies course at Mount Holyoke, who thought through big questions of time and materiality, and indulged me in exploring the boundaries of feminist and queer learning. While subject to the ever-increasing constraints posed by privatization and corporatization, working conditions