Gabrielle Burnette
Research Mentor(s): monetc
Mentor Department: Education (English & Education)
Authors: Gabrielle Burnett, Monét Cooper
Session: Session 1 (9:00am – 9:50am)
Presentation Type: Creative Project
Abstract
As someone who identifies as a Black queer girl, I have internalized many interactions and experiences from my school that helped build the character I am now. Working on this research project about Black queer girls’ and gender nonconforming youths’ self-expression has allowed me to personalize the data I interacted with. This research allows for Black queer youths’ interiority (Alexander, 2004, Quashie, 2012) to be the topic of discussion. Which allows my interiority that is shamed and pushed to the side, to be validated and celebrated. Transcribing interviews of Black queer high school students who are also members of their school’s Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) was like listening to conversations I have had between my friends and myself. I kept a journal during this time and I recorded some of my reactions to what the students had to say, exploring how they expressed themselves through their literacy practices. Through this research, I’ve been affirmed by the interviews of the students in personalizing one of the project’s questions: What do I desire? Through a video, I will show how the interviews became personal and influential to me during this school year. – Black queer gender nonconforming youth cared about how they adorned themselves and how it was directly tied to their sexuality and gender identity. – A Black queer student at the High School’s GSA, said her adornment practices are how they physically present/introduce themselves to people – Two of our Black queer gender nonconforming student, relationships with their families affect how they choose to engage with their literacy practices. Cited Watkins, D. C. (2017). Rapid and Rigorous Qualitative Data Analysis: The “RADaR†Technique for Applied Research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 16(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406917712131 (Original work published 2017) Reder S, Davila E. CONTEXT AND LITERACY PRACTICES. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics. 2005;25:170-187. doi:10.1017/S0267190505000097
