Robert LaRue

I teach courses in contemporary multi-ethnic queer culture, sexuality studies, and global literatures—with a particular interest in experiences of queerness within the African diaspora. I have also taught courses on perceptions of success, on the ethics of authority, on celebrity culture, and on film as social commentary. My courses seek to inspire reconsiderations of those things that have become so commonplace that they escape recognition. When it comes to teaching texts, whether it is a novel, a film, or a music video, I try to help students see beyond the text itself. I believe that each text contains lessons about life and society if only we look closely enough. To this end, rather than provide students with the prepackaged answers, I work to inspire in them an appreciation for the multitude of answers possible and help them develop the skills needed to support their findings articulately and logically.

 

At the core of my teaching philosophy, which is guided by his research interests, rests a deep investment in questions of difference. It is this investment in difference that has led to my writing projects on Martin Luther King, Jr., the television show Empire, and Monica Arac de Nyeko's short story, "Under the Jambala Tree."

 

Currently, I am working on a book project which interrogates the relationship between U.S. and European notions of queerness, and queerness as it is lived and experienced in postcolonial nations. Rather than working to locate postcolonial queerness as either a colonial import or a continuation of an “authentic” African culture, the book works to situate postcolonial queerness in its present-day context. Focusing on contemporary sub-Saharan African writings that directly address the presence of queerness in the region, the book questions the effectiveness of applying the politically-oriented brand of queerness claimed by U.S. and European scholars and queer activists to postcolonial experiences of queerness, while exploring articulations of African queerness as expressed by queer African voices.