Disciplinary-Interdisciplinary GLBTQ (Identity) Studies and Hecht's Layering Perspective

Abstract

In spite of the seeming proliferation of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer (GLBTQ) scholarship in the 1980s and 1990s, such inquiries in the communication discipline lack recognition and visibility. Interdisciplinary GLBTQ studies can inform communication research/theory, while communication research/theory (adopting a GLBTQ sensibility) can also contribute to the interdisciplinary enterprise. In this paper, GLBTQ academic literature is identified from different social science disciplines. Hecht's (1993) layering perspective is applied to help create a roadmap of the interdisciplinary body of work associated with GLBTQ identity in an effort to explore the way humans use multiple and different interconnected measures to constitute/perceive their sexual identity.

Keywords:

• Bisexual
• Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Issues
• Gay
• Hecht's
• Layering Perspective
• Lesbian
• Transgender and Queer Studies

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cheryl L. Nicholas

Cheryl L. Nicholas (PhD, University of Oklahoma, 2004) is an assistant professor in the Department of Speech Communication, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901.