We are Kris Oliveira, Nick Daily, Kaity Prieto, and Cole Eskridge and we have spent the better part of a year developing this call for chapters to contribute to a book proposal that we will share with publishers later this year. This book will center the stories, experiences, and strategies that higher education scholars, practitioners, thinkers, and doers can reference to consider ways of queering higher education outside of the spaces where queer and trans student and employee support is traditionally housed. In this way, we move “beyond the (queer and trans resource) center.”
In a social world where equity work is purportedly everyone’s work and accountability is no one’s work, we aim to co-create an edited volume that considers strategies that scholars and practitioners across functional units have developed to make campuses more hospitable for us. Beyond the Center’s core argument is that equity and inclusion is everyone’s job and we want to have examples and strategies from people who are doing this outside of cultural centers or in community with them.
We have imagined this book as a love letter - for us, by us, and with us - in service of sustaining us. In fact, we will be asking contributors to craft a mini-love letter as a part of their final submission to represent the ethos and humanity of this collective work.
We seek chapter proposals from contributors who are working in and/or thinking about strategies and experiences to queer praxis within, between, and across functional areas of higher education. For this reason, we are particularly interested in chapters that:
Demonstrate strategies of praxis which center queer and trans people within functional areas outside of units traditionally tasked with trans & queer student and employee support
Demonstrate experiential, empirical, or theoretical insights about equity praxis
Will be written plainly and accessibly
Center strategies for supporting and uplifting the most marginalized
Demonstrate a partnership between a DEI unit and another area
Offer promising praxes and practices that our colleagues can reference and incorporate into their own work and lives
Are authored as a collaboration between a seasoned professional and a graduate or new professional
To give prospective authors a sense of the types of projects we hope to include, here are some sample (and completely made-up) ideas:
What strategies have been useful to recruit, sustain, and retain QT staff and faculty?
How can concepts of QT kinship inform the ways we frame and provide institutional support (financial, time, energy, etc.)?
What stories of sexual violence prevention and response work infuse trans and queer inclusion beyond Title IX and VAWA?
How do we prepare Queer and Trans students for life and work beyond the campus?
How do we model “queer professionalism” to our colleagues and students?
We are hopeful to receive chapters from writers at varying points in their careers - including graduate students, staff, administrators, and faculty - and encourage ‘more seasoned’ authors to consider writing a chapter with ‘less seasoned’ scholars. By submitting this proposal please know you will receive feedback. We may also help facilitate opportunities to collaborate.
The primary audience for this book are student affairs educators (both practitioners and scholars) across institutional contexts (e.g., two- and four-year institutions, public and private institutions, HBCUs, HSIs, Tribal Colleges, etc.) and functional areas (e.g., fraternity and sorority life, offices of student success, disability services, career services, enrollment management, etc… as well as QT resource centers). The book will be written in plain language and is meant to be accessible to folks at all career stages and levels of postsecondary education. Folks who engage with this book will find a sense of community with folks queering their functional area as well as practical ideas from peers on how they can apply these concepts to their own campus practices and policies.
While this book is primarily for professionals working outside of the center we also see benefits for professionals working within centers, too. Professionals within QT resource centers can gain understanding of the challenges colleagues in other university areas face when attempting to support QT students from their sphere of influence. These chapters will spark ideas for how we can be mutual allies to each other to advance equity and advocate collaboratively on their own campuses.
Anyone engaging in advocacy in response to the current sociopolitical climate, as well as those responsible for creating and enacting policies affecting QT students will likely benefit from this book. Additionally 'Beyond the Center' will also serve as a resource for faculty and students in higher education and student affairs graduate programs. Scholars in related fields such as queer and trans studies, multicultural education, and counseling psychology may also find this book appealing. Lastly, community partners (e.g., those who work in community-based LGBTQ+ centers or QT-focused public health organizations) might find this book sparks ideas for campus partnerships.
When the proposed co-editors came together to think about this book, one of the main benefits we experienced almost immediately was community. Quickly our time together became cathartic and life-giving. Contributors will be welcomed to open monthly writing sessions and a community space to grow your network. Additionally, this book project has been endorsed by ACPA’s Coalition for Sexuality and Gender Identities (CSGI). Because of this endorsement, we also hope to build out additional opportunities to share your chapter, wisdom, and insights in other ways, which could include:
An invitation to participate in an ACPA CSGI endorsed session at the ACPA25 Annual Convention in Long Beach, CA
An invitation to submit a conference proposal(s) to other higher education and student affairs conferences
An invitation to participate in a complimentary webinar series which focuses on strategies to queer higher education ‘beyond the center’
An invitation to semi-monthly writing group sessions to build community and promote accountability
You can review our most up to date timeline for Beyond the Center on our timeline page. The co-editors will update this webpage regularly with updates on the status of the book.
A strong proposal abstract submission answered the following questions:
What existing practices and policies are being critiqued in service of better supporting QT people in higher education, and how can this critique inform more promising practices?
How will your chapter center those within the QT community who experience multiple systems of oppression? For example, how will your chapter engage not just with the systemic cis-heteronormativity but also with racism, ableism, colonization, etc.
We encourage you to draw upon ACPA’s Strategic Imperative for Racial Justice and Decolonization as well as the “Bold Vision Forward.”
NOTE: we understand that your chapter cannot attend to all systems of oppression in a single chapter, but we seek chapters that attempt to be expansive beyond typical, surface-level analysis of “transphobia” and “homophobia.”
How does this chapter highlight the unique and specific challenges QT students face when engaging with the functional area of focus. Additionally, what are the specific tensions QT (and allied) professionals working within these areas encounter when attempting to shift practices and policies to be more supportive of QT folks by default?
How does this chapter outline opportunities for mutual allyships between your functional area and QT resource professionals?
You can email us at BTCBook@googlegroups.com and the editors will get back to you. If you would like to connect with a specific co-editor, you can find their contact information on the co-editor page.