Queer Methods and Methodologies: An Introduction

Abstract

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book offers a range of critical engagements with the largely unaddressed concerns lurking at the intersections between the range of queer ontological and epistemological approaches and the methodological choices made in social science research. It demonstrates queerly crafted scholarship in both the humanities and the social sciences has pushed analyses in new and exhilarating directions. It also seeks to place research techniques and methods, and the underlying epistemologies and ontology’s that guide, into conversation. The book acknowledges its ties to feminist scholarship, lesbian and gay studies and women’s studies, as well as social science research that foreground relations between people. It also explains haunting qualitative as well as quantitative approaches. The book illustrates how research engagements can take multiple forms and serve a plethora of purposes and politics.