Scientific research should be “explicitly queer” and “unabashedly value-laden and political in its aims,” argues an archeologist at New York’s Binghamton University.
This assertion is found in a recent doctoral dissertation, “The Status of Queer Theories in Archaeology: An Ethnographic and Philosophical Exploration.”
It is authored by Binghamton University’s Nathan Klembara. He says researchers should “unshackle ourselves from heteronormative interpretations of the past” that undergird mainstream science and archeology.
“A queer approach to the philosophy of science and archaeology would demand that we shed epistemic realism; that we forgo the belief that we are always (or approximately) accurately portraying the past,” Klembara says. Instead, scientists should recognize that “we are likely wrong.” Scientists can then “use the values of radical queer politics to select those hypotheses” that are “politically, socially, and emotionally in line with queer politics.”
Some anthropologists are not enthusiastic about Klembara’s queer approach to knowledge. “Looking at the past through a ‘queer theory’ lens will not revolutionize archaeological methods or theories; it will destroy archaeology by turning it into identity politics,” says Professor Elizabeth Weiss. Weiss is an anthropologist who wrote books such as “Repatriation and Erasing the Past” and “Paleopathology in Perspective: Bone Health and Disease through Time.”
Klembara’s thesis focused on two questions:
(1) what is the status of queer people and queer ideas in archaeology, and how does the current composition of the field impact the production of queer vs. heteronormative knowledge;
and (2) how do we create more equitable and queer approaches to theorizing and doing archaeology?
At Saint Mary’s University in London, a researcher is working to inject “trans theory” into the study of international relations.
Cornell University has a class teaching “Queer Marxism.”
Wellesley College offers a “Queer Bible” course as part of its Jewish Studies program. It provides an “introduction to the Bible at the intersection of queer theory” and “biblical interpretation.”
Colleges have also offered courses on “Queering God” and “How To Be A Bitch.” Divinity schools have proclaimed that Jesus was “queer,” and have attacked marriage, capitalism, and monogamy.
The University of Chicago course “Queering God” questions if God is queer and explores what queerness has to do with the concept of God. “What does queerness have to do with Judaism, Christianity, or Islam?” the course description reads.
Occidental College offers the course “Black Queer Thought.” The course critiques “the demands of heteronormativity, white supremacy, patriarchy and capitalism.”
The University of California at Berkeley hosted a taxpayer-funded lecture on the “Queering of Agriculture.”
