Abstract
This article draws on our experiences with “Femme Educational Futurities,” a dream-mapping (Author 2, 2023), critical arts-based, participatory-informed project about softness in K–12 schools, to explore the boundaries of queer, femme-inist research. We trace how our attempts to enact research softly (Schwartz, 2020) led us towards wayward joy (Hartman, 2019): a messy affective terrain marked by connection, vulnerability, shame, and hope. For each author, we identify what Applebaum (1995) calls a “stop” moment and explore within each instance the convergence of softness, radical love (hooks, 2000) and tender failure (Halberstam, 2011), and discuss what joy means to us as a praxis of methodological waywardness rooted in a queer femme-inist ethic.
Methodological Approach
Qualitative
DOI
https://doi.org/10.60808/hn39-7s10
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Stapleton, S., Cavanaugh, L., & Crimson Rose Da Costa, J. (2025). Wayward Joy in Queer Femme-inist Educational Research. Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education, 2(2). https://doi.org/10.60808/hn39-7s10
Included in
Education Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons
