Queer Lit

Graphic designer Marwan Kaabour has created a stunning book that is so much more than your average glossary. Join me and Marwan to talk about what makes The Queer Arab Glossary so special: from the illustrations that powerfully reclaim slurs to the essays that explore the queer methodology of the book. It was an absolute pleasure chatting to Marwan about the journey that led him to start his amazing platform @takweer_ and learn about how the community he created through Takweer helped him shape the Glossary.

Listen now to learn about Marwan’s favourite word in the book (Qāyiso-l-mā’), my favourite word (boya) and follow @ustaz_marwan and @queerlitpodcast on Instagram to learn more.  

References:
@takweer_
Haitham Haddad
Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam
Lot
Qāyiso-l-mā’
boya
Māl al-Ḥūṭa
Bahrain
Sophie Chamas
@ustaz_marwan
Cinema Fouad
Mohamed Soueid
Oscar Al-Halabiye 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDtRCpWxB1Q  

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:

1.      Why did Marwan begin the queer Arab glossary?
2.      Which three notions of queer Arabic language does Marwan speak about when explaining the submission process for the glossary?
3.      How do we define when a word is hurtful or playful? Why does Marwan decide he cannot make that distinction in the glossary?
4.      Which countries make up the Arab speaking world? We mention some of them in the episode. Please look up the rest.
5.      Marwan speaks about water as a central element in the book. Why is that? Can you relate to this?

Let’s go on a field trip! New York City is an amazing city for book shopping and LGBTQIA2S+ activism. Bluestockings Cooperative offers both. This amazing bookstore and community space almost feels too good to be true: nestled into the Lower East Side, Bluestockings has provided dyke dating, community support and all kinds of activism for well over two decades years now. Tune in today to hear lovely bookseller Raquel tell me more about the shop and its history.

And did you know? All the cool queers follow @bluestockingsnyc, @raqthebookseller and @queerlitpodcast on Instagram.  

References:
Kathryn Welsh (now Grantham, owner of Black Bird Bookstore in California)
Gay’s The Word
Sara Ahmed
Transparency
Black and Pink New York
@Blackandpinknyc
Bluestockings.com
@bluestockingsnyc
@bluestockingscares
Samuel R. Delany’s Time Square Red, Time Square Blue
Rudy Giuliani  

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:

1.      If you could dream up an LGBTQIA2S+ space, what would it look like?
2.      What is your favourite thing about going to community-run spaces?
3.      Raquel speaks a lot about trust. Why do you think it is that supposedly inclusive spaces do not always feel inclusive? What might we do to change this?
4.      Which of the activist organisations or activities that Raquel mentions are you going to check out?  

Queer television is clearly having a moment and I got to learn more about this from my new favourite LGBTQ TV expert: Hollis Griffin. From the problematic categorisation of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ representation to watching telly at the gay bar, we talk about what queer TV can and can’t do and why it’s so enjoyable even when it’s bad.  Hollis shares expert knowledge, personal anecdotes and an amazing Lauren Berlant quote: “Nobody like their pleasure undone by somebody with a theory.”

References:
Gentrification Imaginaries Conference
Freiburg University
Maria Sulimma
Hollis Griffin's Feeling Normal: Sexuality and Media Criticism in the Digital Age (Indiana, 2017) 
Hollis Griffin (ed) Television Studies in Queer Times (Routledge, 2023)
Hollis Griffin's Securing the Big Apple: Television and the Gentrification of New York (forthcoming)
Will and Grace
Lauren Berlant’s Desire/Love
Cael Keegan’s “In Praise of the Bad Transgender Object: Sleepaway Camp” (2020)
https://www.flowjournal.org/2020/07/in-praise-of-the-bad-sleepaway/
Allison Page’s Media and the Affective Life of Slavery (2022)
Melrose Place
Aaron Spelling
Interview with the Vampire Isaac
Fellman’s Dead Collection
Susan Stryker
The Fathers Project 
Hunter Hargraves  

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:

1.      What does representation mean? In how far it is a useful category?
2.      What can ‘bad objects’ teach us? Do you have an example?
3.      What are places where one might watch queer TV and how do these places influence viewing behaviour?
4.      Why is there pleasure in watching TV? Which shows do you enjoy?
5.      Please look up at least one of the scholars that you learned about in this episode and find out more about their work.  

If I hadn’t already been a massive fan of Nicola Dinan, I would have become one after this! I was beyond excited to get to speak to Nicola at Surrey New Writers Festival and was extremely grateful that she was able to take some time after our panel to tell me more about her incredible debut novel Bellies (2023), about capitalism and queerness, about food and affection, and so much more. Find Nicola and the podcast on Instagram: @nicoladinan and @queerlitpodcast.

Thank you to the amazing Sharlene Teo for creating this space and for inviting me to be a part of it!  

References:
Nicola Dinan’s Bellies (2023)
Disappoint Me (forthcoming in 2025)
Rowan Hisayo Buchanan
Homo Sapiens Podcast
James Baldwin’s Another Country
Francis Bacon  

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:

1.      Bellies is a love story told from the perspective of both lovers. What would you imagine this entails for the plot? What do we learn that we would not learn from a ‘one-sided’ love story?
2.      In the episode, we speak quite a bit about ways of living together. How do you think queerness, class and nationality affect expectations of how, where and with whom we may want to live?
3.      Nicola comments on questions about Bellies no longer being exclusively about transition. Why do you think this is?
4.      Is food connected to affection in your mind? Why or why not?  

Meet your new favourite theory podcast! Theoryish is a brilliant audio journey that may just meet all your academic needs. Paola and Hannah are an amazing team and bring you everything from an introduction to queer studies to a deep dive into a critique of #girlboss. If you’re looking for a fun and relatable entry point to that particular theory you were always wondering about, come, follow me…

For quality academic memes, follow @theoryish_pod on Instagram and check out @queerlitpodcast too!  

References:
Third Reich
Queer/Disrupt 
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/research/centres/queerhistory/queeringthequarantine/
Nick Cherryman
Linda Nochlin “Why Are There No Great Women Artists”
Igor Ahmedov
Kierkegaard
Susan Sontag
Notes on Camp 
bell hooks
Adebayo Quadry-Adekanbi
Sue Lemos
Jennifer V. Evans
Meaghan Allen
Julia Kristeva’s Powers of Horror
Herbert Tobias
Anna Hájková
Medina-Gonzalez, P. "Appropriateness, Consent, and Intergenerational Kinship: Discussions of Herbert Tobias’sManfred Schubert",New Fascisms Syllabus.
https://newfascismsyllabus.com/contributions/roundtable_queer_art_history/appropriateness-consent-and-intergenerational-kinship-discussions-of-herbert-tobiass-manfred-schubert/
José Esteban Muñoz’s Cruising Utopia
Hannah Ayres; Where Do We Reside?: Queer Space, Existences, and Future Imaginings. (Book Review) TSQ 1 November 2023; 10 (3-4): 550–552.
https://read.dukeupress.edu/tsq/article/10/3-4/550/385682/Where-Do-We-Reside-Queer-Space-Existences-and?guestAccessKey=6c2ea6ad-9141-4784-b86b-e0498ad955b1 
Karen Tongson 
https://www.hannahayres.co.uk/
@Miss_HVA
Jack Halberstam’s The Queer Art of Failure
Pinky and the Brain
@paolaMedGonz
@theoryish_pod  

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:

1.      Why did Hannah and Paola start Theoryish? Can you relate?
2.      Paola explains the complexity of theory as layers. What does Theoryish do to break through the layers and make theory more accessible?
3.      How does disciplinary knowledge play into the Theoryish approach?
4.      How do Hannah and Paola describe queer knowledge production and/or pedagogical practice?
5.      Do podcasts help you access new knowledge?

Combine the age-old art of conversation with easy access to digital dissemination and you get: podcasting! Hannah McGregor is THE expert on scholarly podcasting, new approaches to peer review and (although we only mention this briefly) feminist lesbian dinosaurs. In this episode, we chat about how Hannah approaches podcasting, what it can and can’t do, and why it is such a useful tool in queer knowledge production. Whether you’re interested in podcasting, queer scholarship or changing the very nature of academic discourse, this episode is for you.

Learn more about Hannah’s work (and fabulous style) on Instagram (@hkpmcgregor) and give @queerlitpodcast a follow while you’re there.  

References:
https://www.hannahmcgregor.com/
Witch Please
The Secret Feminist Agenda
Material Girls
Amplify Podcast Network
Hannah McGregor’s A Sentimental Education (2022)
Lori Beckstead, Ian M. Cook, and Hannah McGregor’s Podcast or Perish (2024)
Hannah McGregor’s Clever Girl (2024)
Siobhan McMenemy
Marcelle Kosman
Brenna Clarke Gray’s “The University Cannot Love You”
Jenny Odell’s Saving Time and How To Do Nothing
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna Samarasinha's Care Work  

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:

1.      What is Hannah’s definition of knowledge production?
2.      How do podcasts produce knowledge? Do they do this queerly?
3.      Which academic format does Hannah liken podcast conversations to? Would you agree with this comparison or have you had a different experience?
4.      Towards the end of the episode, Hannah and I speak about the body in academia. Why is embodiment relevant in scholarship and podcasting?
5.     Have you ever produced knowledge through conversation? What did that feel like?  

Narratives can help us make sense of trauma – but what if these trauma narratives do not fit into preconceived structures of storytelling? Nora Parr joins me to speak about the role of narrative in trauma, in mental health and in understanding national, cultural and individual identity construction. Nora talks about how Palestinian literature forges its own narratives, why Palestinian literary history has so often been made invisible, and what genre conventions have to do with all of this.

Learn more about Nora’s work by following @noraehp on Instagram!

References:
Novel Palestine: Nation through the Works of Ibrahim Nasrallah (2023) by Nora Parr
Susan Lanser
Narrative Conference (ISSN)
https://www.thenarrativesociety.org/2024-conference-1
The Palestine Trauma Centre
https://www.palestinetraumacentre.uk/
Nakba
Road to Beersheva by Ethel Mannin (to see how some Arab critics received her work see this translation in the Journal of Arabic Literature https://doi.org/10.1163/1570064x-12341510)
Bab al-Shams (trans. as Gate of the Sun) by Elias Khoury
Children of the Ghetto series
https://rayaagency.org/book-author/khoury-elias/
Don’t Look Left: Diary of a Genocide by Atef Abu Saif, translated and published by Comma Press in Manchester
Ellipses (the first instance that really got Nora thinking is addressed in chapter 4 of the book Novel Palestine, page 77 has an image of the ellipses in question!) https://luminosoa.org/site/books/10.1525/luminos.168/read/?loc=001.xhtml
This article looks the problem of ‘eloquent silence’ from a different angle. 
https://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/ep/0003/2018/229/7792/
Minor Detail by Adania Shibli
J.M. Coetzee (writing on this is in a forthcoming chapter in Teaching Politically from Fordham Uni press, eds May Hawwas and Bruce Robbins)
https://www.gazapassages.com/
https://www.instagram.com/wizard_bisan1/
https://www.instagram.com/motaz_azaiza/
https://www.instagram.com/omarherzshow/
The Tale of a Wall by Nasser Abu Srour
Maya Abu Al-Hayat 
Memory of Forgetfulness by Mahmoud Darwish
Maria Sulimma
Trees for the Absentees by Ahlam Bsharat
Rights4Time
https://rights4time.com/nora-parr/

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:

1. Throughout the podcast, Nora mentions how genre and genre expectations (for YA literature, science fiction, and serial narratives, for example) impact how we perceive narratives. Do you have an example for this?
2. What does Nora say about the temporal structure of trauma and storytelling?
3. What might the study of narrative have to do with mental health?
4. Which narratives can social media convey about everyday life in Gaza? Which examples does Nora give?
5. How willing are you to engage with narratives that are uncomfortable?

Did you know that lesbians sporting sportswear is a queer tradition dating back centuries? Or that 1910s Japanese lesbians liked to don a yukata to send subtle signals about their gender identity and sexual orientation? My favourite foremost expert in lesbian fashion history, Eleanor Medhurst, is gracing the podcast with a return performance, sharing her vast knowledge about all of these topics and more.

Listen now to learn all about how queer and gendernonconforming people dressed through the ages and follow @dressingdykes and @queerlitpodcast on Instagram to stay up-to-date and to book your tickets for Ellie’s book tour!  

References:
@dressingdykes
Unsuitable: A History of Lesbian Fashion
https://dressingdykes.com/
Lesbian Lives Conference
Anne Lister
Sarah Wingrove
Queen Christina of Sweden
Radclyffe Hall
The Well of Loneliness
Crufts
Female Husbands
Jen Manion
Sappho
Meiji Era
Seitō
Sexology
Hiratsuka Raichō
Otake Kōkichi
Yukata
Kimono
Queering Desire: Lesbians, Gender and Subjectivity
Amy Tooth Murphy
Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home
“Ring of Keys”
Roots Lesbian Fashion
Gillian Anderson
Cameron Esposito
Queery (podcast)
Lesbian Chique
k.d. lang
Vanity Fair
The L Word
The Queery (Brighton)
The Feminist Bookshop
Freya Marske’s The Last Binding Trilogy
Kristen Stewart
Happiest Season  

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:

1.      Can you name at least three historical fashion icons we speak about in the episode?
2.      Eleanor explains why literature is important in fashion history. In which ways does Ellie use literary texts to learn about lesbian dress?
3.      We use multiple words to describe the people whose fashion Eleanor writes about in Unsuitable. Why is that and what are some of the difficulties with labelling a historical figure?
4.      Many of the people Ellie speaks about combine clothes with different gender connotations. Can you give an example of this? Do you think this is still relevant today?
5.      Do you think lesbians are fashionable?

Can you believe this is our 100th episode? Listen now to hear about some listeners’ favourite episodes, about future plans for the podcast and about how the cats are feeling these days.  

References:
https://ko-fi.com/queerlit
Karen Tongson
Normporn
Susan Stryker
Cate Sandilands
Kew Gardens
Elizabeth Freeman
Diane Watt
Briona Simone Jones
Yesterqueer’s Holigays
Out and Wild
https://www.outandwild.co.uk/ 
Alison Bechdel
Alex Iantaffi
Kai Cheng Thom
Sara Ahmed
Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Mo Moulton
Alberto Poza  

Questions I still have:

1.      What can I do to make my listeners even happier?
2.      Who are all these awesome people that spend their time with me and my guests?
3.      Will I really make another 100 episodes?
4.      When will Rufus take over as podcast host?

What could be more soothing than escaping your beautiful but complex queer life by watching a bunch of straight people remodel their suburban home in a new shade of beige? Karen Tongson joins me to explain why mainstream television can be so comforting and why admitting to having watched Gilmore Girls for the fourth time can feel a bit like sharing your browser history… In this curious entanglement of norms, shame, and self-soothing, Karen also shares insights into the shifting views of what is normal and what this means for queer life – televisually as well as geographically and sociopolitically.

Listen now to hear Karen speak about “surrendering to the spontaneous overflow of basic feelings” and don’t forget to follow Karen on Instagram @tongsonator to keep up to date with her work.  

References:
Karen Tongson’s Normporn: Queer Viewers and the TV That Soothes Us (2023)
Karen Tongson’s Relocations: Queer Suburban Imaginaries (2011)
Karen Tongson’s Why Karen Carpenter Matters (2021)
Karen Tongson’s Empty Orchestra (forthcoming)
The Ultimatum
Thirtysomething
Parenthood
True Blood
Gilmore Girls
José Esteban Muñoz
Catherine Zimmer
Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette
The Phantom of the Opera
Michael Crawford
Sailor Moon
Tuxedo Mask
Gestalt
The Traitors
Alan Cumming
@tongsonator
Karentongson.org  

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:

1.      Can you define ‘normporn’ and give an example of what might be a typical normporn show?
2.      What is the ‘porn’ in ‘normporn’? How does shame play into watching mainstream TV as queer escapism?
3.      What role does grief play in relation to normporn?
4.      Karen talks about discussions of normalcy as a throughline for all three of her currently published books. Which type of ‘normal’ does each monograph discuss?
5.      Which show do you find particularly soothing and why?