Animating failure: digital collaboration at the intersection of sex, race and culture

Abstract

This paper throws a provocative light on marginalizing practices around race and religion within lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and questioning communities, as explored and expressed through a community consultation and animation programme, Teaching Diversities, in Melbourne, Australia. Drawing on Kumashiro's (2001, [2004] 2009) urge to return queerness to social action, and Halberstam's (2011) identification of the queer possibility in failure, this paper argues that working at the intersection of race, sexualities and culture has never been more explosive, especially set against increasingly conservative educational and global flows. For sexualities researchers who are concerned with the nexus between cultural diversities and the religious/secular ideological divide, this article offers possibilities for recreating queer for the twenty-first century.

Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges the contribution of the anonymous reviewers and their valuable critical feedback which has significantly strengthened this article.

Notes

^1. Pseudonyms are used for all participants to protect their anonymity.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anne Harris

Dr Anne Harris is a Senior Lecturer in Education at Monash University (Melbourne), and has published over fourty peer reviewed articles or chapters in the areas of creativity and diversities. Her research interests include the intersection of cultural, sexual, and gender diversities, including the ways in which creativity and the arts can be used for social and educational change. She has worked professionally as a playwright and journalist in her native New York, where she earned a BFA and MFA from New York University. Her latest book The Creative Turn: Toward a new aesthetic imaginary (Sense) is forthcoming in December 2013.