Performing Queer of Color Joy Through Collective Crisis: Resistance, Social Science, and How I Learned to Dance Again

Abstract

Through the use performative writing and autoethnography, this piece reflects on the current state of collective crises and social science to reinvigorate our approaches to building more equitable futures. More specifically, I push back on the politics of violent visibility for marginalized subjects both inside and outside the academy. I argue that texts and images of minoritarian trauma and violence reify the structures of power that created those material conditions to begin with. Utilizing the process of queer of color worldmaking, I suggest that centering minoritarian joy becomes a tool for speaking back toward our current climate of collective crisis. The piece concludes displaying the potential of experiencing and writing through collective joy.