Queer Methods

Queer studies is pivoting toward questions of research design, data, and analysis. However, efforts among scholars to bring into dialogue the notions of “queer” with “methods” has unearthed a paradox: the former celebrates fluidity, ephemerality, and unstable classificatory systems while the latter is defined by order and disciplinary techniques. What productive avenues of inquiry exist between these seemingly orthogonal elements? And what inferential and interpretive possibilities arise at its nexus? This chapter offers four provocations for the emerging field of queer methods: how to identify new types of data (“queer methods”); how to modify existing protocols to better resonate with queer theoretical frameworks (“queering methods”); how to challenge methodological norms of coherence, generalizability, and reliability (“queering methodology”); and how to outline the pedagogical implications of queer methods (“queer pedagogy”). These provocations satisfy the dual mandates for queer methods: to outline the conditions of queer world-making and to clarify, but not over-determine, the conditions that make those lives more livable.