Queer Girls in Class

Contents: Lori Horvitz: Introduction - Carol Guess: Of Quarterbacks And Quarantine - Lee Ann Roripaugh: Personal, Political, Pedagogical, Performative, and Praxis: Queer in the Classroom - Five Not-So-Easy Pieces - Michelle Spiegel: The Personal as Productive?: Sexual Embodiment and Identity in the Women's Studies Classroom - Stacy Fox: Dear Diary: A Narrative Journal of My First Years as a 'Fag Teacher' - Jennifer Smith: Hey Virginia: What's the Writing on the Wall? - Sassafras Lowrey: From Classroom to Family - Maureen Seaton: The Queerosphere: Musings on Queer Studies and Creative Writing Classrooms (On Poetry, Creativity, and the Fleetingness of Things) - Liz Matelski: My Battle Armor - Laura M. André: We Weren't Queer Yet - Jessica Gardner: Mr. Short Hair - Bonnie J. Morris: The Week Matthew Shepard Died - Sarah B. Burghauser: Learning to Be in a Skin - Kristie Soares: «Who Do I Have to Move On From This Place?» Meditations from a Third World Feminist Lesbian - Lori Horvitz: Transitions - Jules Odendaul-James: Dr. 'Strange'love Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Start Loving (in) the Classroom Closet - Mara Hughes: Toward a Practice of Humility - Lissa Brown: A Teacher's Lesson - Cynthia Tyler: Physical Education - B.J. Epstein: Teaching Out - Barbara DiBernard: «Imagine My Surprise!» Being Out as a Lesbian Teacher, 1990-2000 - Sandy Woodson: Definition - Anne Balay: Playing With Gender for College Credit: Experiencing Gender, Sex and Sexuality - Shannon Weber: What My Women's College Taught Me About Being Enthusiastically Queer - Mary Clare Powell: Teacher Coming Out to Teachers - Anne Stebbins: Troubling the Coming-Out Discourse: The (Non) Outing of My Buzz Cut - Holly St. Jean: The Two-Step.

Lori Horvitz' short stories, poetry, and creative nonfiction have appeared in a variety of literary journals and anthologies including Southeast Review, Hotel Amerika, Thirteenth Moon and Quarter After Eight. The recipient of an MFA in Creative Writing from Brooklyn College, and a PhD in English from SUNY Albany, she has been awarded writing fellowships from Yaddo, Ragdale, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Blue Mountain Center, Cottages at Hedgebrook, and Fundación Valparaiso. She is Associate Professor of Literature and Language at UNC-Asheville, where she teaches courses in creative writing, literature and women's studies.

«Move over 'Mädchen in Uniform'! This collection takes us inside the classroom and offers wit, pathos, and wisdom from a diverse group of 'queer girls' who get schooled there. Find answers to the questions that don't show up on any standardized tests: What's behind the teacher's enigmatic looks? Who's that girl over in the back row by the window? Am I the only one? A brave and smart book, filled with invaluable lessons for life.» (Audrey Bilger, Faculty Director of the Writing Center and Associate Professor of Literature, Claremont McKenna College)
«Myriad voices tumble across the pages of this collection. From urban high school teachers, to lone lesbians in rural counties, to Queer Studies professors at elite colleges, these stories testify to the courage, uncertainties and risks lesbian and bisexual educators face as they find ways to teach openly (to varying degrees) in the classroom. For all of us who have known that woman, been that woman, or hoped to someday become her, this is a worthwhile read.» (Nancy Wadsworth, Queer Faculty Alliance Chair and Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Denver)
«The contributors to 'Queer Girls in Class' demonstrate that just because there may be queer content in the course curriculum does not mean it's easy for actual queer women - teachers or students - to thrive in the classroom. Decades after the first gender studies classes appeared in universities, the essays in this cogent collection prove there's still a lot of work to do. Many of the contributors offer helpful and insightful strategies for combating homophobia, whether it comes from other students, the faculty, or the administration and approaches that might be applied to any setting in which people of different backgrounds and belief systems interact.» (Terry Wolverton, author, 'Insurgent Muse: Life and Art at the Woman's Building')