Critical aunty studies: an auntroduction

Abstract

Though aunties are ubiquitous figures across global public cultures, they have received limited scholarly attention. Given the location of these women, femme, and queer figures at the periphery of nuclear families, it is little surprise that they are overlooked. Rather than fixate on their marginality, this introduction demonstrates how aunties become abundant figures to think kinship, desire, aesthetics, and politics. Examining academic and arts-based discussions of aunties, the special-issue editor connects labor associated with aunties to aesthetics they are known for. In addition to being embodied, fleshy, working figures, aunties offer methodological optics for critical study and strategies for navigating academic institutions.