Michelle Marzullo, PhD

We first met around a workshop table at the queer Internet studies (QIS2) in Philadelphia in February 2017. This conversation began when we realized that we all had some disciplinary knowledges, training and practice that can bear upon queer Internet studies, but simultaneously we felt unprepared for the methodological-ethical challenges posed by the Internet as a queer research environment. Michelle was trained in ethnography as an anthropologist and Jasmine and TL were trained in humanities… Show more

We first met around a workshop table at the queer Internet studies (QIS2) in Philadelphia in February 2017. This conversation began when we realized that we all had some disciplinary knowledges, training and practice that can bear upon queer Internet studies, but simultaneously we felt unprepared for the methodological-ethical challenges posed by the Internet as a queer research environment. Michelle was trained in ethnography as an anthropologist and Jasmine and TL were trained in humanities perspectives — mostly through literature, performance studies and art history, though about five years ago they had begun to retrain in the fields of online archives, pedagogies and networks, which has led to a new collaborative research project on digital research ethics. We had all been trained in dyke/queer/feminist methods and critical theory, and continue to work in this area. And we all were experiencing some gut feelings about the need for better understandings of disciplinary practices — what we are doing, how do we apply what we know how to do, and why are we doing it — across disciplines as we enter the Internet as researchers, in a research situation. What follows is a conversation the three of us had over email and videoconference between July–October 2017, which revolved around the question of what ethnographic methods can bring to Internet research, and what might queer and feminist research ethics look like in the context of digital research environments.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v23i7.9263 Show less

Thoughts on the Supreme Court of the United States 2013 decisions on DOMA and Proposition 8.

Writing in the wake of neoliberalism, where human rights and social justice have increasingly been subordinated to proliferating “consumer choices” and ideals of market justice, contributors to this collection argue that feminist ethnographers are in a key position to reassert the central feminist connections between theory, methods, and activism. Together, we suggest avenues for incorporating methodological innovations, collaborative analysis, and collective activism in our scholarly projects.… Show more

Writing in the wake of neoliberalism, where human rights and social justice have increasingly been subordinated to proliferating “consumer choices” and ideals of market justice, contributors to this collection argue that feminist ethnographers are in a key position to reassert the central feminist connections between theory, methods, and activism. Together, we suggest avenues for incorporating methodological innovations, collaborative analysis, and collective activism in our scholarly projects. What are the possibilities (and challenges) that exist for feminist ethnography 25 years after initial debates emerged in this field about reflexivity, objectivity, reductive individualism, and the social relevance of activist scholarship? How can feminist ethnography intensify efforts towards social justice in the current political and economic climate? This collection continues a crucial dialog about feminist activist ethnography in the 21st century—at the intersection of engaged feminist research and activism in the service of the organizations, people, communities, and feminist issues we study. Show less

Studying changing attitudes toward marriage rights in the United States, we consider how sexual and gender socialization and changes in values and beliefs regarding homosexuality and marriage influence lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning (LGBTQ) youth. We begin by presenting the cultural environment of policies, court decisions, and political maneuvers in response to the question of “same-sex” marriage. In this context, we examine fluctuations of public opinion polling… Show more

Studying changing attitudes toward marriage rights in the United States, we consider how sexual and gender socialization and changes in values and beliefs regarding homosexuality and marriage influence lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning (LGBTQ) youth. We begin by presenting the cultural environment of policies, court decisions, and political maneuvers in response to the question of “same-sex” marriage. In this context, we examine fluctuations of public opinion polling from 1989 to 2009. These issues background our main focus, which is to comment on the emerging, positive research on the resiliency, strength, and future aspirations of LGBTQ youth. Such research was begun in the late-1980s with a significant community-based, ethnographic study on LGBTQ youth in Chicago. Although similar studies are being done now, more ethnographic research is necessary to build a catalog of data focused on positive traits in response to a deficiency model used in most psychological research on LGBTQ youth. We end by suggesting ways that psychological anthropologists might fruitfully engage with policy studies and advocates through such research.

Keywords: bisexual; cohort effect; culture drift; gay, LGBTQ; lesbian, marriage, same-sex marriage, public policy, politics, queer, trans, youth attitudes Show less

This article draws together research insights on marriage in the U.S. to argue that over the last 40 years we are able to see an active engagement with neoliberalism in discussions on the subject. Using discourse analysis, I consider how the underlying assumptions that
inform the key concepts of autonomy, individualism, responsibility, and universality have been re-semanticized through neoliberal
ideology to change the ways that Americans think of marriage (and themselves). In light of… Show more

This article draws together research insights on marriage in the U.S. to argue that over the last 40 years we are able to see an active engagement with neoliberalism in discussions on the subject. Using discourse analysis, I consider how the underlying assumptions that
inform the key concepts of autonomy, individualism, responsibility, and universality have been re-semanticized through neoliberal
ideology to change the ways that Americans think of marriage (and themselves). In light of these changed assumptions, this article
urges a reexamination of the activism and identity politics around marriage as well as further academic research on the topic.

KEYWORDS autonomy, class, covenant marriage, discourse analysis, economic, family, gay, gay marriage, governance, heterosexuality, homosexuality, individualism, individualization,
language, lesbian, marriage, neoconservatism, neoconservative, neoliberal ideology, neoliberalism, responsibility, resemanticization,
same-sex marriage, self-governance, straight, transgender, United States, universality, welfare Show less