Join Matt Brim (Professor of Queer Studies, College of Staten Island, CUNY) for a conversation about his new book, Poor Queer Studies: Confronting Elitism in the University, with Melissa Maldonado-Salcedo (Department of Anthropology, NYU), Justin T. Brown (Executive Director of CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies, CUNY Graduate Center), and Greg Newton (co-founder of the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division).

In Poor Queer Studies Matt Brim shifts queer studies away from its familiar sites of elite education toward poor and working-class people, places, and pedagogies. Brim shows how queer studies also takes place beyond the halls of flagship institutions: in night school; after a three-hour commute; in overflowing classrooms at no-name colleges; with no research budget; without access to decent food; with kids in tow; in a state of homelessness. Drawing on the everyday experiences of teaching and learning queer studies at the College of Staten Island, Brim outlines the ways the field has been driven by the material and intellectual resources of those institutions that neglect and rarely serve poor and minority students. By exploring poor and working-class queer ideas and laying bare the structural and disciplinary mechanisms of inequality that suppress them, Brim jumpstarts a queer-class knowledge project committed to anti-elitist and anti-racist education. Poor Queer Studies is essential for all of those who care about the state of higher education and building a more equitable academy.

This is a free event, but donations to support the Bureau’s work are always welcome! You can make a donation when you register for the event. Thank you for your support!

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Matt Brim is professor of queer studies at the City University of New York’s College of Staten Island and The Graduate Center. He writes about queer class and race relations in the academy, as well as queer literature and culture. His most recent book, Poor Queer Studies: Confronting Elitism in the University (Duke UP, 2020), reorients the field of queer studies away from exclusionary institutions of higher education and toward working-class colleges, students, theories, and pedagogies.

Melissa Maldonado-Salcedo is a medical anthropologist, experimental ethnographer, and artist who writes about Latin America and Latinx communities. Her work intersects gender and sexuality, health, justice, and art with a focus on immigrant/diasporic communities and identity. She earned her doctorate from The Graduate Center, CUNY, and currently teaches in the NYU department of anthropology and in the department of Technology, Culture, and Society (Tandon School of Engineering).

Justin T. Brown, PhD, MPH , is the executive director of CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies at The Graduate Center, CUNY. He is an associate professor of health sciences at LaGuardia Community College, CUNY, as well as Program Director for the Public & Community Health Program. Brown teaches courses in public health and human services. His collaborative research focuses on addressing health inequities among persons of color, LGBTQ, and youth.

Greg Newton co-founded the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division with his partner, Donnie Jochum, in 2012. Together they have worked with volunteers to continuously operate this queer bookstore, event space, and cultural center in New York City. Prior to establishing the Bureau, Newton completed his coursework and examinations for a PhD in art history at the CUNY Graduate Center while serving as an instructor and coordinator of the first year writing course at Parsons The New School for Design.