“The absence of a Poor Queer Studies paradigm that might counterbalance current state-of-the-field work is particularly curious in light of the fact that concerns about academic elitism within Queer Studies are an undeniable part of the field’s history. Perhaps we used to hear those charges rather more often than we do now. Notably, Jeffrey Escoffier in his 1990 essay ‘Inside the Ivory Closet: The Challenge Facing Lesbian and Gay Studies’ posited a split between post-Stonewall scholars who increasingly enjoyed and industriously courted institutional status within the Academy; and pre-Stonewall ground-roots gay-and-lesbian San Francisco and queer academic Berkeley in the 1980s and early 1990s, all writers and activists whose primary commitments were to their communities and to making scholarship accessible beyond the academy.” –Matt Brim (Poor Queer Studies: Confronting Elitism in the University)
I had to “negotiate” this disparity every day that I went from grassroots gay-and-lesbian San Francisco and queer academic Berkeley. When I shared a couple of queer academic texts with my friend Allan Bérubé he was incredulous, finding it both horrifying and risible.
Les K. Wright 