"I Don’t Know That You Can Do That Anywhere Else": The Role Rural College Towns Play in the Formation of Queer Identity

Authors

• Amy McDowell, University of MississippiFollow
• Ryan J. Parsons, University of MississippiFollow
• Julia Kraus, University of MississippiFollow

Author ORCID Identifier

0000-0001-7846-409X

Abstract

Challenging dominant narratives suggesting that rural spaces are inhospitable to LGBTQ+ identities, this study examines how queer individuals navigate space, rurality, and queerness in Oxford, Mississippi, a historically conservative college town. Drawing on oral histories from the Queer Mississippi digital archive, we argue that rural institutions of higher learning (rural IHLs) and the college towns they are embedded in serve as critical sites of queer identity formation. The rural college town provides a unique space where LGBTQ+ individuals from both within and outside the South navigate self-discovery, social networks, and belonging. We highlight the transformative role of these spaces in facilitating identity negotiation, offering both opportunities and challenges for queer placemaking. Our findings contribute to scholarship on rural queer life, higher education, and the spatial dynamics of identity formation, emphasizing the need to reconsider college towns as pivotal arenas for LGBTQ+ community-building beyond the urban-rural binary.

Methodological Approach

Qualitative

DOI

https://doi.org/10.60808/w299-qc21

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

McDowell, A., Parsons, R. J., & Kraus, J. (2026). "I Don’t Know That You Can Do That Anywhere Else": The Role Rural College Towns Play in the Formation of Queer Identity. Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education, 3(3). https://doi.org/10.60808/w299-qc21

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