“Quare” studies, or (almost) everything I know about queer studies I learned from my grandmother

Although queer studies has the potential to transform the way scholars theorize sexuality in conjunction with other identity formations, the paucity of attention given to race and class in queer studies represents a significant theoretical gap. Most current formulations of queer theory either ignore the categories of race and class altogether or theorize their effects in discursive rather than material terms. To suture that gap, this essay proposes “quare” studies as a vernacular rearticulation and deployment of queer theory to accommodate racialized sexual knowledge. Keywords: Queer Studies, Performance, Performativity, Race, Class