Revisiting ‘Our’ Place on Campus: A Queer(ed) and In-depth Interview Study of QT Resource Professionals in Higher Education

Author

Kristopher Andrew Oliveira, University of South Florida

Graduation Year

2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Ph.D.

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Degree Granting Department

Sociology

Major Professor

Elizabeth Hordge-Freeman, Ph.D.

Co-Major Professor

Maralee Mayberry, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Jason (Jay) Garvey, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Lakshmi Jayaram, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Will Tyson, Ph.D.

Keywords

Sociology of Education, Higher Education, QT Resource Centers, Student Affairs, Queer Theory

Abstract

This dissertation offers an interactional, structural, and theoretical analysis of the experiences of Queer and Trans (QT) resource professionals in higher education. Data from the empirical chapters draws on 41 in-depth semi-structured interviews that conducted with QT resource professionals from 19 different states across the United States. The interactional and structural chapters reveal tensions between institutional commitments to doing equity work on college campuses and the neoliberal and institutional barriers that QT resource professionals experience in promoting and fostering institutional equity on campus. The third substantive chapter offers a queer of color critique – through Muñoz’s (2019) notion of queer futurity – of QT resource center work to implore institutions to adopt queer(ed) strategies for promoting livable and thrivable futures for QT stakeholders on campus. The overarching findings suggest that, through a lens of queer futurity, salient issues and structural challenges open possibilities for queer futures in higher education.

Scholar Commons Citation

Oliveira, Kristopher Andrew, "Revisiting ‘Our’ Place on Campus: A Queer(ed) and In-depth Interview Study of QT Resource Professionals in Higher Education" (2022). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/10339