1st Edition
Rural Education and Queer Identities Rural and (Out)Rooted
Foreword – Laura A. Belmonte
Introduction: A Pedagogy of Pride in Rural Schools – Amy Price Azano and Clint Whitten
SECTION 1: Rural Taproots
Chapter 1: Except for Just One Thing: Listening for Lee Howard’s Voice – George Ella Lyon
Chapter 2: A Tale of Two Matthews: The Laramie Project 25 Years Later – Matthew Greenberg
Chapter 3: From Kansas Cattle Ranch to Yale University to the Daily Yonder – Lane Wendell Fischer
Chapter 4: LGBTQ+ K-12 Students’ Experiences and Wellbeing in Rural Schools – Erin K. Gill
Chapter 5: Returning Home: Strength and Resilience in Rural Queerness – Christian D. Heasley and Samuel T. Baker
Chapter 6: The Insurrection Beard – Jeff Mann
SECTION 2: Rural Root Systems
Rooted in Classrooms
Chapter 7: My Queerness is My Teacherness – Willie Edward Taylor Carver Jr.
Chapter 8: “Part of Me Feels Bad That You Felt Like You Had to Ask…”: Support LGBTQ+ Students by Supporting LGBTQ+ Teachers – Cory M. Roseth
Chapter 9: Sparking Change in Rural Places – Lilianna McAllister
Chapter 10: Agents of Affirmation: The Importance of Rural Queer Educators – Josh Thompson
Chapter 11: Queer Timing and Community: Being a Queer Educator in Three Rural Settings – Summer Melody Pennell
Chapter 12: Redefining Home and Purpose in the Country – S. Luke Anderson
Chapter 13: Cornbread and Community: Queer-Affirming Learning in a Rural Southern High School – Stephanie Anne Shelton
Rooted in Leadership and Advocacy
Chapter 14: How Rural School Leaders Create a Culture of Care for Queer Students – Wilfred Cwikiel
Chapter 15: "There’s Nothing Here But Sports and Jesus”: Navigating Queer Adolescence in the Texas Panhandle – Shanna Peeples and Nicole M. Butkovich Kraus
Chapter 16: Duthchas and a Queer Journey on a Scottish Isle – Suzie Dick, James O’Neil, and Julia Harrison
Chapter 17: Rural Queer Dream-Spaces in Higher Education – Jessica C. Magness, Boni Richardson, and Thomas Glenn Iacovino
Chapter 18: World’s Best Dad(dy): Microvalidations in the Rural Educational Space – John Mark Day
Chapter 19: “It Is Easier to be Black than Gay”: The experiences of Black Rural Queer Educational Leaders – Jamon H. Flowers and David S. Hood
Rooted in Community
Chapter 20: Rural Alaskan Queer Safe Spaces: A Mini-Ethnographic Case Study in Transformative Queer Anthropology – M.C. MoHagani Magnetek
Chapter 21: Building Coalitions and Local Networks for Queer and Trans Educational Advocacy in a Small Southern Town – Ryan Schey, Daisy Griffin, and Michelle Hopf
Chapter 22: Finding Queer Joy in Mississippi: 2021 Oxford Pride in the Grove – Ellie Campbell
Chapter 23: Resilience and Resourcefulness: Informal Education Strategies in Rural Queer Contexts – Rhys Dreeszen Bowman
Chapter 24: Sustaining Rural Queer Joy with Camp Magic – Courtney I. P. Thomas and Bettie Iris Thomas
SECTION 3: Rural Aerial Roots
Rooted in Nature and the Body
Chapter 25: Wild Life – Cinde Wollenberg
Chapter 26: Exploring Queer Joy in Nature: Tales from the Rural Mountain West – Brody C Tate, Ty C. McNamee, and Roman Christiaens
Chapter 27: Pride of Rural Virginia – Beth O’Connor
Chapter 28: These Anarchic Bodies – Jasper Brown
Chapter 29: Sex Ed in Rural Schools: A Focus on Public Health and Community Viability – Mols Kwitny
Chapter 30: Sex Ed: Or the Class to Dread – Mason Gottschalk
Chapter 31: For Rest: (Un)Learning Lessons from my Forestry Curriculum – Kirby J. Schmidt
Rooted in Discovery and Selfhood
Chapter 32: We Keep Us Safe: Rendering Intersectional LGBTQ+ Student Experiences Visible at a Rural Public University – Ashley Barnes-Gilbert and Kristen A. Prock
Chapter 33: Transin’ Our Raisin’: The Necessity of Transversive Rural Education – Justin-Ray Dutton
Chapter 34: Two Steppin’ Between Insider and Outsider Status: A Poetic Exploration – Gretchen N. Cook and Leia K. Cain
Chapter 35: Seeing the Constellations in the Stars – Julianna P. Dodson
Chapter 36: From Service to the Circus: Finding Validation to Live – Justin Smith
Chapter 37: Rural Trans Livelihood in West Virginia – Jessie Lynn O’Quinn and Erin McHenry-Sorber
Chapter 38: The Cows at Sunset Have a Prismatic Aura – Eden Prime
Chapter 39: Cockless Rooster: Finding Self and Safety at a Rural School – Vaughn Zrain-Negley
Chapter 40: GirlBoy – Jay Kibble
Chapter 41: Are You Still There, Robert Indiana? – J.R. Jamison
Biography
Clint Whitten is Postdoctoral Associate in Youth Engagement at Virginia Tech, USA.
Amy Price Azano is Professor of Rural Education and Adolescent Literacy and directs the Center for Rural Education at Virginia Tech, USA.
Rural Education and Queer Identities is a poignant anthology. It brings a queer sensibility to rural belonging, spotlighting schools’ role in queer worldmaking. Editors Clint Whitten and Amy Price Azano curate narratives that challenge stereotypes and advocate for inclusivity. This book offers a call to action for visibility and acceptance for queer identities in every educational landscape, making it a must-read that will inspire and ignite the pressing conversations every school should be having.
Mary L. Gray, MacArthur Fellow
Out in the Country: Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in Rural America
I can’t think of a better, more important contribution to enhancing quality education in the nation than this on-the-ground exploration of being queer in rural America. Rural Education and Queer Identities shows, with equal parts heart and heft, that being queer and working with queer youth in the heartland is not what the stereotypes suggest. At a time when LGBTQ rights are being threatened, Confederate flags announce themselves with “I Ain’t Coming Down” banners, and school boards and libraries have turned into front lines in the culture wars, this is a necessary, urgent book.
Beth Macy, Dopesick
Rural Education and Queer Identities is a powerful and long overdue exploration of the diverse experiences of LGBTQIA2S+ students and teachers in rural school systems. From an island in rural Michigan to a small town in Alaska, from the deep South to rural Scotland, from the mountain West to central Appalachia these authors invite us into their lives, their educational experiences, and their teaching careers. They urge us to question our assumptions about rural communities and to full-heartedly support rural LGBTQIA2S+ youth and educators who are on the front lines of conservative political attacks against queer and trans people today. I wish I’d had this book to draw on when I taught in rural public schools in my home state of West Virginia years ago. I know it would have provided support and accompaniment I desperately needed. I can’t wait to send a copy to all the rural queer and trans teachers I know.
Rae Garringer, Founder and Director of Country Queers
Rural Education and Queer Identities is a critical, moving collection of research and narratives that center the intersection of queer identities and rurality. This book is a groundbreaking text that provides considerations and insights into how to advance equity and justice in rural education for LGBTQ+ educators and students. During a time of continued and increasing anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and policies, this book provides hope for creating more liberating, transformative spaces for learning.
Darris R. Means, Professor of Educational Leadership
