Queer and Trans Drag Artists of Color on College Campus(es): A Black feminist Woven Ethnography
Restricted (Penn State Only)
- Author:
- Pulido, Gabriel
- Graduate Program:
- Higher Education
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- March 18, 2024
- Committee Members:
- Kevin Kinser, Program Head/Chair
Tiffany Nyachae, Outside Unit & Field Member
Sam Tenorio, Minor Field Member
Royel Johnson, Special Member
Wilson Okello, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
LaWanda Ward, Major Field Member - Keywords:
- Drag Artists
Queer and Trans Collegians
Queer and Trans Communities of Color
Black Feminist Thought
Ethnography
Higher Education - Abstract:
- In the United States, trans and queer people are subjected to harassment, discrimination, and other forms of brutality ranging from administrative violence to premature death (Spade, 2011; Seelman, 2016; Thoreson, 2020). The imperialistic, racist, cis-hetero-patriarchy is both an ideology and system of oppression that has direct material consequences on trans peoples’ lives (Goldberg, Kuvalanka & Black, 2019). While available research informs us about the lack of legal protections, and, specifically, how they impact the lives of trans and queer people (Restar et al., 2020), less is known about how they resist these forms of violence’s or conjure experiences of joy in suffocating and oppressive institutional environments. The purpose of this study was to investigate how drag, in addition to being an artistic form of expression, may also serve as a necessary tool for altering, disrupting, and questioning the gender binary. Given that drag artistry exists virtually in every imaginable space, I narrowed the scope by focusing on trans and queer drag artists of color who regularly perform on campus environments. A Black feminist theoretical framework was not only beneficial to the collaborators and study but to the methodology itself. In the past, ethnography has rightfully been criticized for it racist and exploitative origins (Deschner & Dorion, 2020; Mackie-Stephenson, 2022). Given this complicated and rich history, I found it necessary to draw on Black Feminism to conduct ethnographic research that was not only handled with a great amount of respect but a great sense of care, too. Specifically, I drew on Patricia Hill Collins’ three key themes in Black feminist thought, “the meaning of self-definition and self-evaluation, the interlocking nature of oppression, and the importance of redefining culture” (Collins, 1986, p.12). Although, this iteration of Black feminist thought has since been updated (Collins, 2022), I found this version most useful given the outsider within context for which it was theorized and written. The population of this research study consisted of 5 queer and trans drag artists of color who frequently perform in colleges located in central, PA. I utilized snowball sampling (Woodley & Lockard, 2016) and purposeful sampling (Coyne, 1997) to identify and secure their participation. The guiding questions were exploratory in nature and sought an intimate understanding of drag artists’ experiences. Specifically, the study was guided by the following research question: What are the experiences of drag artists of color performing at PWI’s? Additionally, the following secondary question was taken into consideration: In what ways do drag artists of color performances impact culture at PWI’s? To address the questions, each collaborator participated in an ethnographic study that required the following: two in-depth interviews ranging from one to two hours, preparation and performance observations ranging from two to four hours, artifact submissions, mediated writing, and a poetry writing workshop. This research study yielded to major findings. The first finding, Nature of Interlocking Oppression, entails the oppressive landscape (on and off college campuses) drag artists in this study maneuver and, more specifically, their unique strategies for navigating such tumultuous territories. The second finding, Experience(s) on College Campus(es), details the multiple ways drag artists impact, and are impacted by, their performances on predominantly white college campus(es). Although the results are presented as two major findings, it is critical to note how interconnected the findings are to one another. Whereas the first finding focuses on drag performers’ experiences navigating tumultuous and terrorizing territories as insider/outsiders to academia, the second finding highlights their unwavering commitment to remaining in place despite the multiple agency violations endured across university campuses. Recommendations for policy, practice, research, and theory were provided based on the findings, discussion, and existing literature. Finally, Drag of Color Epistemologies was introduced as a helpful tool for understanding, the many ways of being and doing, queer and trans drag artists of color engage in. This dissertation was transdisciplinary in nature as it drew and contributed to the fields of African American and Diaspora Studies, Higher Education, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.