QUEER STUDIES AGAINST ACADEMIC ELITISM: Poor queer studies, by Matt Brim.

Poor Queer Studies, de Matt Brim

Abstract

Matt Brim's book Poor Queer Studies (2020) offers a critical reflection on the material conditions in which Queer Studies develop in impoverished academic contexts, using his own teaching experience at the College of Staten Island (CUNY) as a laboratory. In contrast to elite universities, Brim highlights how institutional neglect, being the first generation to attend university, racialised belonging, and the need to balance study, work, and care profoundly mark the education of his students. His methodological approach is based on ethnographic and pedagogical observation of everyday life in the classroom, valuing everyday situations – such as mothers bringing their children to class or students adapting readings to the family environment – as practices that broaden the meaning of queer pedagogy. The author advocates the construction of “poor queer studies”, which recognise precariousness as a constitutive component of the field and as a critical force against academic elitism. By emphasising archives, experiences and peripheral knowledge, Brim proposes networks of solidarity and knowledge circulation that confront not only gender and sexuality normativity, but also the socioeconomic inequality that structures the university itself.