Queer Studies Interdisciplinary Research Group

Queer Studies

Since 2006, and with support from UM’s Center for the Humanities, the Queer Studies Interdisciplinary Research Group has brought together scholars whose research and creative interests focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer studies. All participants maintain a commitment to interdisciplinarity and global perspectives. Faculty and graduate students from the University of Miami, Florida International University, Florida Atlantic University, and other local institutions of higher learning take an active role in the group.

Departmental affiliations include Anthropology, Art History, English, History, Modern Languages and Literatures (including linguistics), Religious Studies, and Sociology. We also welcome members from other fields of the humanities, social sciences, health professions and STEM who are interested in humanistic approaches to the study of gender, sex, and sexuality, as well as advanced undergraduates. 

The group gathers approximately three times per semester to consider recent scholarship in queer and trans* studies. These discussions are complemented by visits from prominent academics in the field. One not need be a member of the Queer Studies Interdisciplinary Research Group to attend these talks. 

If you would like your name added to the QSIRG listserv or if you'd like more information about readings from past meetings, please write to one of the co-conveners listed below.  

 

CALENDAR | 2024-2025

CO-CONVENERS

FALL 2024

MEETING 1

Wednesday, September 25, 2024 @12—1:30pm / Richter Library, Third Floor, Faculty Exploratory

 

MEETING 2

Wednesday. October 23, 2024 @12—1:30pm / Richter Library, Center for the Humanities Conference Room

 

MEETING 3

Tuesday, November 5, 2024: Special Virtual Event already Scheduled for Zoom

 

MEETING 4 

Wednesday, November 13, 2024: Faculty Exploratory

 

SPRING 2025 

MEETING 1

Wednesday, February 26, 2025 | 12pm-1:30pm - Center's Conference Room 

 

MEETING 2 + GUEST LECTURE

Thursday, March 27, 2025

12pm-1:30pm - Karen Jaime (Center's Conference Room)  

5pm - 6:30pm - Karen Jaime (Richter Library, 3rd Floor Conference Room)

 

MEETING 3

Wednesday, April 23, 2025 | 12pm-1:30pm - Center's Conference Room 

 

 

CO-CONVENER, FALL 2024 

Elizabeth Cornick, Ph.D. Student in English

Elizabeth is a second-year graduate student in the English Ph.D. program at the University of Miami with a M.A. in Comparative Literature from Dartmouth College. Her fields of interest include 20th-century American literature, queer studies, and digital humanities. She loves exchanging ideas with others and writing. 

CO-CONVENER, FALL 2024 + SPRING 2025

Ra Bacchus, Ph.D. Student in English

Ra is a second-year graduate student in the English Ph.D. program at the University of Miami. He holds an M.A. in Anthropology from Stanford University. His fields of specialization are the medical humanities, the digital humanities, and Caribbean Studies. Ra is also a recreational DJ and enjoys recombining media through a scholarly art practice called “literary DJing.”

CO-CONVENER, FALL 2024 

Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel, Professor, Modern Languages & Literatures

Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel specializes in colonial, postcolonial Latin American, and Caribbean literature. She teaches courses on critical theory, comparative coloniality, gender and sexuality studies, and Latinx, Latin American, and Caribbean studies. She has taught at Princeton University (1997-2000), Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey (2000-2003; 2008-2017), and the University of Pennsylvania (2003-2008). She recently co-edited two volumes: (with Michelle Stephens) Contemporary Archipelagic Thinking: Towards New Comparative Methodologies and Disciplinary Formations (Rowman and Littlefield, 2020).

CO-CONVENER, SPRING 2025

Steven F. Butterman, Professor, Modern Languages & Literatures

Steven F. Butterman is Professor of Portuguese and Director of the Portuguese Language Program at the University of Miami, where he has also directed the Women's and Gender Studies program, served as coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Studies programs and developed the minor in LGBTQ Studies. Professor Butterman's areas of expertise are in Brazilian/Global Lusophone Studies | Comparative Race and Ethnicity Studies (including Latinx Studies); Immigration/Globalization/Transnationalism/Diasporas; and Latin American Studies.

 

Overview of Queer Studies IRG

Recent invited speakers of the Queer Studies Interdisciplinary Research Groupinclude Karen Jaime, Kadji Amin, Matt Brim, and Sofian Merabet. The Queer Studies IRG has recently organized two important symposia, one of which resulted in the publication of a special issue of The Scholar & Feminist Online on the topic of "Thinking Queer Activism Transnationally," guest edited by Brenna Munro and Gema Pérez-Sánchez.

Two or three faculty and graduate students from different departments across the humanities co-convene the group each semester. Co-conveners must hail from at least two different departments to assure the interdisciplinary nature of our inquiries. Although the faculty co-convener must be a University of Miami member, the other co-convener(s) may belong to another institution. We also encourage graduate students to co-convene—a task that involves choosing the readings for and leading discussion on one of the semester’s meeting days. Graduate student co-conveners usually serve only for one semester.

The UM faculty co-convener(s) arranges the schedule of meetings, helps to choose the readings for the semester in consultation with the QSIRG members, secures venues for meetings, and seeks co-sponsors for events. 

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