Introduction to Queer Theory and Decolonial Option: An Eastern European Perspective

The course introduces scholarship on the intersection of queer theory with crip theory, decolonial option, and critical race theory. We read theorists from Eastern Europe: Mayerchyk, Shymko, Szczygielska, Mantsevich, Plakhotnik, Syaivo, and others. And we explore critiques developed in the West/ Global North, including TallBear, El-Tayeb, Hedva, Lugones, and Preciado. We will seek a way out through non-normative modes of knowledge (‘theorizing from below’ and ‘reading sideways’), the decolonial turn, and queer-feminist practices of resistance and subversion.