January 1, 2012
The Q Factor
A publisher looks back at queer studies
By William Germano
http://chronicle.com/article/The-Q-Factor/130157/The closing of Series Q feels like a quiet end to a vivid chapter in academic publishing. It's difficult to remember what gay studies meant a decade ago, much less 30 years back. If you began graduate school in the early 1990s, and if you had an interest in the study of gender or sexuality, the start of Series Q may have a place in your own scholarly history. As Jeffrey Williams would note, you were probably reading theory journals back then, too. Much has changed since.
First, and maybe last, is the name. "Q"? What was meant by Q when the series debuted in 1993 had been simply "gay studies" a decade earlier. Other labels were used to describe the field—"gay and lesbian studies" or "lesbian and gay studies." (There was something charming about publishers reversing the terms, uncertainly, politely.) "Lesbian, gay, and bisexual studies" brought a third term into play. "Transgender" added a fourth. "Queer studies" sounded less neutral, more political, more in-your-face.
