Negotiating queer and religious identities in higher education: queering ‘progression’ in the ‘university experience’

Falconer, E. and Taylor, Y. 2017. Negotiating queer and religious identities in higher education: queering ‘progression’ in the ‘university experience’. British Journal of Sociology of Education. 38 (6), pp. 782-797. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2016.1182008

TitleNegotiating queer and religious identities in higher education: queering ‘progression’ in the ‘university experience’
TypeJournal article
AuthorsFalconer, E. and Taylor, Y.
Abstract

This article addresses the negotiation of ‘queer religious’ student identities in UK higher education. The ‘university experience’ has generally been characterised as a period of intense transformation and self-exploration, with complex and overlapping personal and social influences significantly shaping educational spaces, subjects and subjectivities. Engaging with ideas about progressive tolerance and becoming, often contrasted against ‘backwards’ religious homophobia as a sentiment/space/subject ‘outside’ education, this article follows the experiences and expectations of queer Christian students. In asking whether notions of ‘queering higher education’ (Rumens 2014 Rumens, N. 2014. “Queer Business: Towards Queering the Purpose of the Business School.” In The Entrepreneurial University: Public Engagements, Intersecting Impacts, edited by Y. Taylor, 82–104. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.) ‘fit’ with queer-identifying religious youth, the article explores how educational experiences are narrated and made sense of as ‘progressive’. Educational transitions allow (some) sexual-religious subjects to negotiate identities more freely, albeit with ongoing constraints. Yet perceptions of what, where and who is deemed ‘progressive’ and ‘backwards’ with regard to sexuality and religion need to be met with caution, where the ‘university experience’ can shape and shake sexual-religious identity.

KeywordsSexuality, religion, education, queer youth, transitions, diversity
JournalBritish Journal of Sociology of Education
Journal citation38 (6), pp. 782-797
ISSN0142-5692
Year2017
PublisherTaylor & Francis
Accepted author manuscript
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2016.1182008
Publication dates
Published16 Jun 2016
Published online16 Jun 2016
Published in print2017

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