In the Making: Queer Publishing and Transpedagogies

Abstract

Handbook: Supporting Queer and Trans Students in Art and Design Education is a practical guide and a collaborative intervention in art and design pedagogy. Handbook is also a collaboratively produced artist book with a hand-printed letterpress cover. Here I consider processes of studio production, physical “objectness,” and distribution of Handbook as models for pedagogy-in-the-making. The handmade is a methodology and an orientation, a connection point between publishing, transpedagogies, and embodied art practices. I argue that artist publishing and printmedia offer demanding and multifaceted forms of production for trans and queer pedagogy. I center on the studio as a site that both intertwines with and exceeds equity work. To see these methods of studio-based and collaborative work in action requires reading Handbook beyond its written content; a closer look at the materiality and processes of artist publishing reveals useful daily practices of support and survival of trans and queer life in academia and beyond.