Abstract
This study seeks to understand the daily violence endured by queer youth. We use Queer Battle Fatigue, Ahmed’s cultural politics of emotion, and STEM identity theories to make meaning of youth’s experience. We draw from audio recordings and transcriptions of 15 queer youth over the course of a summer and fall LGBTQ + maker camp in a rural town in the Intermountain Western part of the United States. Findings show that the maker camp environment provided queer campers casual conversations about microaggressions and violence endured at school. In this context, STEM served as a cover (concealed goals) in three ways: emotion, validation/advice, and safety. This particular environment provided them recognition and validation of both their STEM and queer identities, allowing the group to be able to casually mention these instances of violence they had endured.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 For the purposes of this manuscript, we use the term “queer” to mean anyone who identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, intersex, transgender, gender nonbinary, nonconforming, among other non-cisnormative or heteronormative categories.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Mario I. Suárez
Mario I. Suárez is Assistant Professor in the School of Teacher Education and Leadership at Utah State University.
Andrea M. Hawkman
Andrea M. Hawkman is Assistant Professor in the School of Teacher Education and Leadership at Utah State University.
Colby Tofel-Grehl
Colby Tofel-Grehl is Associate Professor in the School of Teacher Education and Leadership at Utah State University.
Beth L. MacDonald
Beth L. MacDonald is Associate Professor in the School of Teacher Education and Leadership at Utah State University.
Kristin Searle
Kristin Searle is Assistant Professor of Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences at Utah State University.
David F. Feldon
David F. Feldon is Professor of Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences at Utah State University.
Taryn Sommers
Taryn Sommers is an undergraduate research assistant in the Chaos Learning Lab in the Emma E. Jones College of Education and Human Services at Utah State University.
Michael Hernandez
Michael Hernandez is an undergraduate research assistant in the Chaos Learning Lab in the Emma E. Jones College of Education and Human Services at Utah State University.