ABSTRACT DOING JUSTICE: ADDRESSING THE LGBTQ-RELIGIOUS JUNCTION IN ENGLISH STUDIES by Gina Rebekah Joan Patterson This dissertation addresses a relative silence in the English Studies pedagogical archive around lgbtq issues and religious discourse. Specifically, this research limits its focus to (conservative) Christian responses to lgbtq issues in the context of the United States. As indicated by its title, this dissertation aims to assist teachers (and administrators) in addressing the lgbtq-religious junction in critical, ethical, and socially just ways. To accomplish this task, I designed a two-phase, person-based research project. In the first phase, I conducted a nationally circulated, online survey that asked English Studies teachers to reflect upon their experiences at the lgbtq-religious junction. In the second phase, I engaged in follow-up interviews with a number of these survey respondents. My results indicate that the difficulty of addressing this intersection has little to do with a lack of socially just responses to anti-lgbtq, (conservative) Christian arguments. Rather, participants indicated three pressures of navigating the lgbtq-religious junction: First, survey and interview data reveal that participants' experiences of institutional violence contributed to a climate of fear, where teachers feel they must steer away from the lgbtq-religious junction (if not lgbtq issues in general) altogether for fear of jeopardizing their career, if not their physical and/or emotional safety. Second, participants' responses indicate that another difficulty of addressing this intersection in the classroom hinges upon having to simultaneously cope with their previous emotional experiences at the lgbtq-religious junction. Finally, my data indicates that, in an attempt to address the lgbtq- religious junction in socially just ways, participants must also contend with the neoliberal expectation (from students, parents, colleagues, administrators, and politicians) that pedagogy ought to be neutral. In the conclusion, I provide readers with suggestions for thinking about the lgbtq-religious junction in socially just ways. I also call on readers to leverage their institutional and/or social privilege to transform oppressive institutional cultures that hinder critical, ethical, and socially just pedagogies at the lgbtq-religious junction (among other similarly volatile intersections) in the first place. DOING JUSTICE: ADDRESSING THE LGBTQ-RELIGIOUS JUNCTION IN ENGLISH STUDIES A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of Miami University in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy English Department by Gina Rebekah Joan Patterson Miami University Oxford, Ohio 2013 Dissertation Director: Dr. Madelyn Detloff Dissertation Director: Dr. Heidi McKee Reader: Dr. John Tassoni Reader: Dr. Lisa Weems © Gina Rebekah Joan Patterson 2013 Table of Contents Chapter 1 ............................................................................................................................................................. 1 Getting Schooled: Teaching at the Intersection of LGBTQ Issues and Religious Discourse .......... 1 Chapter 2 ........................................................................................................................................................... 20 Interrogating Pedagogical Narratives at the LGBTQ-Religious Junction .......................................... 20 Chapter 3 ........................................................................................................................................................... 50 Toward a Methodology of Risk: Bodies, Emotions, and Methods ..................................................... 50 Chapter 4 ........................................................................................................................................................... 72 Surveying Teachers' Experiences at the LGBTQ-RD ........................................................................... 72 Interchapter ....................................................................................................................................................... 90 Participant Introductions ........................................................................................................................... 90 Chapter 5 ........................................................................................................................................................... 94 The Teacher's Body in Institutional Space .............................................................................................. 94 Chapter 6 ......................................................................................................................................................... 122 Intimate Encounters at the LGBTQ-Religious Junction .................................................................... 122 Chapter 7 ......................................................................................................................................................... 160 The Unbearable Weight of Pedagogical Neutrality at the LGBTQ-Religious Junction ................. 160 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................................... 197 Getting Schooled Again: Notes on "Doing Justice" at the LGBTQ-RD ......................................... 197 Works Cited .................................................................................................................................................... 229 Appendix A ..................................................................................................................................................... 237 Appendix B ..................................................................................................................................................... 239 Appendix C ..................................................................................................................................................... 241 Endnotes ......................................................................................................................................................... 243 iii Table of Figures Figure 1. Survey Questions ............................................................................................................................. 61 Figure 2. Participants' Willingness to Address the LGBTQ-RD .............................................................. 62 Figure 3. LGBTQ Participants' Assessment of Risk .................................................................................. 62 Figure 4. Post-Survey Interview Questions ................................................................................................. 64 Figure 5. Codes and Themes for Chapters 4-6 ........................................................................................... 70 Figure 6. Frequency of Religious Discourse in LGBTQ Contexts .......................................................... 74 Figure 7. Factors that Influence Students' Responses to LGBTQ Issues ............................................... 75 Figure 8. Frequency of Students' Use of Religious/Values Discourse in LGBTQ Contexts .............. 77 Figure 9. Characterization of Class Discussions at the LGBTQ-RD ...................................................... 78 Figure 10. Assessment of Disciplinary Resources for Navigating the LGBTQ-RD ............................. 79 Figure 11. Participants' Attitudes Toward Addressing the LGBTQ-RD ................................................ 81 Figure 12. LGBTQ Participants' Assessment of Risk ................................................................................ 86 iv Dedication For Ben Stokes, the Chef of Love —and for all of our queer saints v Acknowledgments This has been an intellectually and emotionally challenging project for me, and I am so thankful for the folks who have taken this journey with me. I'd like to send a big thank you out to my co-chairs, Madelyn Detloff and Heidi McKee, who "adopted" me later on in the research process. I really couldn't have finished without their direction and encouragement. I'm also thankful to John Tassoni, also a member of my committee, who encouraged me (many years back) to reflect on how the students in my Literature and Sexuality class helped me to prepare for my comprehensive exam. Had he not offered me the opportunity to reflect on this question, I might not have written this dissertation. I'm also indebted to my outside reader, Lisa Weems, for talking to me about feminist and queer methodologies and for introducing me to important contacts along the way. It seems only fair to thank all of the people who participated in my research. Had folks not taken my online survey, I would have been in a real mess. I'd also like to thank those of my participants who agreed to do follow-up interviews with me. While I couldn't include all of these interviews in my dissertation, I truly enjoyed talking pedagogy with all of my interview participants. I am especially grateful to the nine participants whose stories I included in my project: José de la Garza, Aiden Gliesberg, Michelle Gibson, Kami Day, Will Banks, Trixie Smith, TJ Geiger, and finally "Lynn" and "Jo." Though it is true that my project wouldn't have been nearly as successful without their generosity, I am most grateful for the friendships