by Lisa Moore and Karma R. Chávez
They grow so fast.
LGBTQ Studies started in 2017 after years of planning by Founding Director (and lesbian academic rock star) Ann Cvetkovich, with support from then-Director of the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies, Sue Heinzelman, the staff of CWGS, and LGBTQ Studies/Sexuality Research Cluster faculty. The hiring of part-time Program Coordinator Grayson Hunt was our first (and very lucky) hire: Grayson founded the Transgender Studies Reading Group, still going strong after attracting up to 60 participants from around the world to Zoom sessions during the pandemic. Ann and Grayson started strong with an unforgettable Queer Camaraderie Symposium: not your typical academic event, but what Ann called, with her signature eloquent irreverence, “part gay cabaret, part lesbian potluck.” LGBTQ Studies faculty members invited their queer comrades and comadres, resulting in a dazzling lineup of artists and activists: Kim Tallbear, Xandra Ibarra/La Chica Boom, Ernesto Martínez, Joshua Javier Gúzman, and Rod Ferguson. Topics ranged from “Critical Polyamory” to “Awkwardness” to “The Bookshop of Black Queer Diaspora.” A tone was set: in our program, Indigeneity, Blackness and race are at the center of queerness, artists are indispensable, and the whole enterprise is undeniably trans feminist.
When Ann left for her home and native land, joining the faculty at Carleton University in Ottawa in January 2019, she left big shoes to fill. Thankfully, Lisa Moore’s feet were just the right size! As the first scholar hired at UT on the basis of queer studies doctoral research, a renowned scholar of LGBTQ literature and culture, and an activist who had protested guns on campus by suing our employer, Lisa’s peers agreed that she would make an ideal next director. As incoming Director, Lisa knew she had a winner in the Queer Camaraderie Series, so we kept it up. Guests that year included Talia Bettcher, Martin Manalansan, E. Patrick Johnson, and Samiya Bashir.
Now comes the Jaws music: DUHN-dun-DUHN-dun. We had three incredible events lined up for Spring 2020, centered around the visits of Akemi Nishida, Thomas DeFrantz, and Ryan Conrad. Akemi’s visit happened March 5-6, and was unforgettable for many reasons. It was the queer crip care workshop we knew we needed—but that we didn’t know would be our last time to gather in person for about two years. We still remember nestling on the floor of that Burdine conference room in low light, giving each other massages and hugs and attentive listening. Grayson and Lisa did wonder if we were supposed to be taking some other kinds of precautions, but we must admit, we didn’t know any better at the time.
We’ll take some of the lessons of Zoomademia with us, though. Our Fall 2020 international conference, Trans Thinking/Thinking Trans, attracted more than 500 participants, making us realize that online could sometimes mean elevating the accessible rather than bowing to the inevitable. Throughout the pandemic and since, we’ve worked hard on our online content, including publishing eight issues of QT Voices. Our current issue reflects on five years of this unique program, which has weathered some unimaginable challenges. With more than 250 students enrolled in our programs (undergraduate minor and certificate, graduate portfolio track), more than 30 faculty affiliates, a thriving Transgender Feminisms Reading Group, internship placements each semester at half-a-dozen LGBTQ-serving organizations including the Texas LGBTQ+ Legislative Caucus, and the establishment of the McKittrick Endowed Excellence Fund, our program is solidly established, even flourishing. We look forward to more.
We have some gems for you in this issue, some that look back, some that take stock of the current moment, and some that look forward. Karma and Lisa finally got to have the conversation about queers and queer studies at UT that we’ve been wanting to have since we started the magazine as co-editors in 2020, and you can hear the results in our signature podcast. As always, we have reports from our student interns, who this time around worked at the KIND Clinic and the Gender and Sexuality Center. A sassy review of Björk’s new album by our new colleague in the LGBTQ Studies office, Sawyer Tedder. Transformative pedagogical practice written up like a dream by Kairos Looney. A photo collage that will put a smile on your face, from our fall celebration at allgo, celebrating the 20-year anniversary of the Austin Project. And writing from that event by Amanda Johnston and Jack Isaac Pryor. Binge, dip in and out, or a little of both. This queer scholarship, art, teaching, learning, love and joy is just for you.
And we couldn’t need a little uplift even more than we do right now. As we were putting the finishing touches on this introduction, we learned about the massacre at Club Q in Colorado Springs. This, the latest attack against our communities, and on the eve of Transgender Day of Remembrance, no less. We are again gutted, and we commit to affirming and uplifting our queer and trans communities today and always. As we celebrate LGBTQ Studies’ fifth birthday, our hearts go out to those most impacted among us. And we reaffirm our resolve to battle those systems of oppression that we should not have to live through or die from.
Kelly Loving, Daniel Aston, Derrick Rump, Ashley Paugh and Raymond Green Vance: Presente.
Karma R. Chávez is Bobby and Sherri Patton Professor and Chair in the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at The University of Texas at Austin.
Lisa L. Moore is Archibald A. Hill Professor of English and Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. She is the author or editor of five books, including Sister Arts: The Erotics of Lesbian Landscapes, which won the Lambda Literary Award.
