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Queering Professionalism

Queering Professionalism

Pitfalls and Possibilities

Edited by Adam Davies and Cameron Greensmith

Published by: University of Toronto Press

Imprint: University of Toronto Press

1 b&w illustration

Digital download
9781487550943
Published: December 2024

Digital download
9781487550936
Published: December 2024

Description
Contents
Authors

With a focus on neoliberalism and its intersection with systems of oppression, inequalities, and the regulation of queer knowledge and subjectivities, Queering Professionalism provides a distinct contribution to the emerging literature on the regulation and professionalization of 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals and others marginalized by cisheteronormativity within the “helping professions” and social services.

This collection seeks to queer and disrupt ideas and understandings of the helping professions as benevolent and inherently caring by bringing together a diverse range of authors from different fields within the helping professions, such as child and youth care, education, early childhood education, dietetics, and social work. The book draws connections between neoliberalism, professionalization, structures of cisheteronormativity, and other intersecting oppressions to examine the possibilities and pitfalls of professionalism.

Contributors come from various social service and helping professions to collectively critique how neoliberalism operates to silence and regulate marginalized perspectives within the various social service and education fields. By thinking with and employing queer theoretical frameworks, Queering Professionalism reimagines and disrupts neoliberal regimes that rationalize the violent conditions within and outside of helping institutions and orientations.

Acknowledgments

Foreword: Finding the “Correct” Emotional Register for Queers in Neoliberal Times
Ken Moffatt

Introduction
Adam Davies and Cameron Greensmith

Section I: Queering Professionalism

1. (Un)Becoming an Ethical Professional: Queer (Im)Possibilities and Pedagogical Practices
Jennifer White

2. Post-Secondary Education Killed the Buffalo: Queering Indigenization through an Indigenous Harm Reduction Approach
Lana Ray

3. From Liability to Asset: Queer/ing Teacher Professionalism
Jamie Anderson and Tonya Callaghan

4. Teacher Professionalism in a Neoliberal World
Trudy Keil and Pamela Osmond-Johnson

5. Heteroprofessionalism and Its Neoliberal (Dis)Contents: A Critical Review and Update
Robert C Mizzi

Section II: Queer Methods

6. You Better Werk: Disrupting and Queering Professionalism in Early Childhood Education & Care
Harny Carlos Chan Lim and Janelle Brady

7. Towards a More Caring Teaching Education: A Duoethnographic Exploration of Whiteness, Cisheteronormativity, Ableism, and Professionalism from Two Would-Be Teachers
Bishop Owis and Lee Iskander

8. Professor Drag: Queerness and Mess in the Neoliberal University
Ben Anderson-Nathe and Hazel (Bobbi) Ali Zaman

9. Leaning Sideways: Finding Queer Mad Moments in Teaching Early Childhood Education and Human Services
Adam Davies and Cameron Greensmith

Section III: Queering “Professional” Practice

10. Competently Queer: Reflections on Teaching my Queerness to Dietetic Students
Phillip Joy

11. The Art of Caring: Queering the Profession of a Nurse
Amy Roach

12. Black, Queer, and Here to Stay: Challenging White Professionalism in Higher Education, Sociology, and Anthropology
Malissa Bryan

Conclusion
Adam Davies and Cameron Greensmith

Epilogue: Queer Affect as Collective Refusal and Path to Deviate from Neoliberal Ethical Desires
Fritz Pino

Contributors
Index

Adam Davies (they/them/he/him/all) is a tenured associate professor in the School of Fine Arts and Music, College of Arts, University of Guelph and is a registered early childhood educator and Ontario certified teacher. Adam’s work investigates issues pertaining to social justice and equity in early childhood education, K–12 schooling, and higher education. Adam is a queer, neurodivergent, and Mad(dened) activist, scholar, and teacher/educator/practitioner. Adam holds a PhD in curriculum studies and teacher development with collaborative specializations in women and gender studies and sexual diversity studies from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. Adam recently co-edited the text Queering Professionalism: Pitfalls and Possibilities with Cameron Greensmith (University of Toronto Press).

Cameron Greensmith is an associate professor in the Department of Social Work and Human Services at Kennesaw State University.