Feminist Community Forum

Queer Spaces

An Interview with Professor Alison Mountz and Doctoral Candidate Amy Tweedy

This interview explores the work of Professor Alison Mountz (Geography) and Doctoral Candidate Amy Tweedy (Social Science) who are co-teaching a dynamic and constructive class called “Sexuality and Space.” The following paragraphs include discussions of the class and the contributions it makes to queering the curriculum here at Syracuse University as well the contributions the class will make towards an understanding of the role of queer communities in the city of Syracuse.

Talk a little about the course: how it came about, content, structure, subject matter, and community connections.

AM: This course came into being over a period of a few years. Amy and I met each other in classes that I was teaching on urban and feminist geography. Amy wanted to take a course on space and sexuality, but one did not yet exist. We did an independent study. At the same time, the Co-Directors of LGBT Studies (Margaret Himley and Andrew London) were putting together a Minor and asked me to contribute a class on sexuality from geography. Forces were coming together. I put together a very short syllabus to be included in their curriculum, but knew that Amy could develop a much more extensive one in her independent study. We agreed to have that be her culminating assignment, on the condition that we would work toward one day teaching the class together. Amy designed a fabulous syllabus that we have since tweaked to include community engagement and a lecture series, both of which center Syracuse as a site where we all work, study, and live the relationship between sexuality and space. With incredible support from LGBT Studies, Geography, the Social Science Program, the Graduate School, and Imagining America, we are excited to finally get to co-instruct this course.

AT: Though the initial syllabus has undergone numerous revisions to the course that is being offered today, the course is designed to begin with a theoretical introduction addressing the complexity of gender and sexuality in relation to geographical concepts of space and place. The course is then structured to explore sexuality in different places, both material and spatial, such as home, community, and the city. In addition, the course addresses several scales from local to global.

Talk a little about your own academic/activist trajectories. Where did this course come from for each of you on personal and political levels?

AT: My doctoral research is centered on the study of sexuality and space. My research is focused on a group of women who work for a particular gas station in the city, who I argue ‘queer’ that space at particular moments in particular times in particular ways. One of the most engaging aspects of the study of space is the recognition of all the forces at work, which includes not only our identity, but the influence of corporate expectations and practice, the impact of the global market and the physical spaces that we occupy.

AM: I come to this course from a number of places: as a researcher and instructor of feminist geographies that explore gender, sexuality as two among many components or axes that make up who we are and who I am at any given time or place; as an activist always hoping to engage social movements happening all around that are working to make this city a better place; as a queer city resident who cannot help but feel different levels of engagement, comfort, alienation, and desire in different urban spaces. Community engagement in the classroom for me has always been about connecting students and instructors with city spaces. To understand urban geography, one must get out into the city as much as possible to connect the ideas we read about the city with our daily paths through the city. This informs how I teach and how I do research.

What political projects does this class engage, particularly as it relates to academia at SU and the SU community more broadly?

AM: This class engages projects of inclusion and change happening on and off campus. We are humbly joining a wealth of longstanding political, social, and service-oriented organizations and community members that long pre-date our teaching here. We hope to learn from them, join them in their causes, and contribute what we can as students, researchers, and instructors exploring what it means to build queer communities.

AT: The overall question we hope to explore throughout the course is, “What does it mean to ‘queer’ Syracuse?” The question needs to be unpacked by examining the word queer and its implications and specific histories. The same is true for Syracuse as a city and community.

How does the speaker's series fit in with the course? What are the expectations for the speaker's series?

AT: The authors’ who will be visiting campus all work with the intersection of sexuality and space from unique and different perspectives. Halberstam’s work highlights the importance of time in relation to queer space, while continuing her work to disrupt neat categories of gender and sexuality. Valentine’s work recognizes the fragmented communities within a city and discounts the concepts of clear, ever-present queer spaces. Brown’s work reminds us to capture histories of queer communities in specific ways.

AM: Our speakers are pretty amazing, all leaders in their fields. We expect that they will add important and different dimensions to our intellectual and material explorations of city sites. Their writings, collectively, ask important questions. What does it mean to record collective queer community histories? What does it mean to explore sites organized by categories that are themselves contested, politicized, categories of identity that exclude at the same time that they include? How do these struggles manifest in the landscape?

Talk a little about the process of co-teaching/planning the course. How do two people share power in a classroom setting?

AT: I think this will be one of the most interesting parts of the experience for me. Undoubtedly, there are power relations in terms of our positions within the academy. However, I have found Professor Mountz to be extremely sensitive to this area and actively working to provide spaces of equality between us. While we are still early in the semester, equality in the classroom is an important topic that is part of our dialogue on a weekly basis, from planning who is speaking when and for how often in the classroom to who responds to student email. From a feminist perspective, I think the key is recognizing we both have something to offer, both to each other and the students.

AM: This is something always in progress for us. I have done some co-teaching before and loved it because it offers possibilities for creativity, multiple teaching perspectives, learning from each other, and taking turns with facilitation. We plan to take these turns with our students too, as facilitators and experts in various communities and interdisciplinary fields.

How does this class engage broader Syracuse communities?

AM: We are inviting and inciting the community to join us in dialogue and exploration of the queering of Syracuse. Right now, this looks like engagement through dialogue, collaborative exploration of city sites, an off-campus reading group, and a culminating queer event organized by students that will showcase these explorations and stage a culminating dialogue.