Dublin Core
Title
Interview with Janet Winston
Description
Interview conducted on May 5, 2016
Creator
Emily Owen
Source
paraphrased from Janet Winston
Date
5/3/16
Rights
Queer @ HSU
Identifier
[no text]
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
How do you personally identify?
I identify as queer, but that’s evolved over the years. Sometimes I also refer to myself as a lesbian, and with my friends I’m a “bad lesbian” (as in my desire does not neatly fit typical notions of who a lesbian is supposed to be). I first came out as “bisexual,” but I have since rejected the label of bisexuality for myself, mainly because of the way the term tends to be depoliticized in mainstream society. “Queer” works for me because it is non-binary, suggests fluidity, and resists heteronormativity.
How do you define “queer”?
I think queer is a term that is doing theoretical work of questioning binaries of sexuality, sex, and gender.
What does “queer” mean to you?
It means that I am highly critical of society’s norms and practices of policing desire and gender expression. Queer offers a critique of heteronormativity. My embrace of the term “queer” means that I don’t see identity as something fixed, innate, apart from social and historical realities. I think sexual identity is much more complex than current binaries allow for. The notion of fixed identities is part of how our society polices our bodies and desires.
What do you think of the queer community at Humboldt State?
I don’t think I really know it. I don’t feel like I know it at all, frankly. I think I more identify with people that are doing social justice work in an intersectional way. I don’t affiliate with other gay people just because we’re gay. I do know that there is not just one queer community at Humboldt. I feel uncomfortable in queer settings that only focus on gay identity (which in practice means white and middle-class gay identity) and not the complex intersectionality of identities.
Did you feel you had to come out at HSU?
I came to Humboldt from Richmond, Virginia in the height of state-sanctioned homophobia, and I was involved in queer activism there. Coming here in 2006, I felt a sense of relief because there was much less blatant homophobia, particularly written into California state law, than there was in Virginia at the time. At least it felt that way because the homophobia was so blatant in Virginia. I don’t typically come out to my classes, as in announce that I am queer at the beginning of the semester, which I had done when I taught LGBTQ studies in Iowa and Virginia. Here, I don’t consider myself closeted, especially considering what I teach and how I teach. I don’t hide the fact that I am queer, but I don’t announce it either. If students pick up on it, then that has to do with how I talk about material we are studying. For example, when I am talking about the gay community, I will say “we” rather than “they.”
Did you have any reservations?
Sometimes I do in the classroom. I like to be strategic about “coming out” in terms of how it will affect my students’ learning. Will my coming out help students in their learning process? Will information about me, their professor, help them navigate their relationship to a specific reading or writing assignment? Will it lesson or increase their resistance to and/or understanding of a subject? It’s hard to put in words, and it is different for different students at different points in their lives, but I want to be the most effective teacher I can be. I’m careful with how I divulge information about myself, and I’m not very forthcoming about personal information in class in general. I have a professional persona that is separate from my personal life. In the classroom, I’m focused on ideas rather than on students getting to know who I am as a human being. So yes, I guess I am concerned about being effective, and I want to maintain a sense of privacy. It’s not that I don’t want my students to know I’m queer, I just don’t want to talk about my personal life in the classroom unless it pertains to learning. I do think that homophobia is always a concern, that’s always part of one’s consciousness.
What was the response from students and other faculty?
I don’t know what students know or don’t know, but my colleagues are aware that I am queer and have known since they hired me. I can’t say that there’s ever really been a reaction. They are fine with it.
Are you comfortable being open with your sexuality as a Humboldt State professor?
Oh yes, in my mind it’s definitely part of my professional identity. Even though I don’t “come out” in my classes per se, it’s part of who I am, and it affects how I teach. It would be odd to me if people didn’t know I was queer, and I just assume they do. It was a bigger thing in Iowa and Virginia because of the level of homophobia that existed during the time I lived there, but being queer is more accepted here. What I’m not comfortable with is making a “coming out” announcement the way I used to do when I taught LGBTQ courses in Iowa and Virginia. Part of my no longer feeling the necessity to “come out” to my students at the beginning of the semester by declaring my sexuality comes from the fact that such declarations don’t have the same political effect that they used to. Also, queer theory has affected how I think about the act of “coming out” more generally. Queer is an important way I identify as a person; queer does not make me or even my sexuality knowable or understandable to others. I don’t consider myself to be closeted, and I think that students who identify as queer can pretty easily pick that up.
Have you ever had any negative experiences as a queer identifying person at HSU?
I was at a Seder the other night (2016), and someone said something really homophobic. It was pretty shocking because I don’t hear comments like that on a regular basis. I was angry and upset. In the past, at other universities, I’ve had homophobic comments written on my teaching evaluations. I always have a consciousness of the potential for something homophobic to be said or done. On HSU’s campus, I remember finding a defaced flier with a homophobic slur scrawled on it a few years ago. I understand that things like that happen on a regular basis at HSU, and students are often the targets.
What is a positive experience you’ve had on campus relating to your queerness?
Being part of the Critical Race, Gender, and Sexualities Department, which offers a Queer Studies minor and major and uses an intersectional feminist lens, has been a wonderful experience. I’m really happy to be part of the department and to teach “Queer Women’s Lives.”
If you could sum up what it’s like to be queer at HSU in one sentence, what would it be?
We need to work in coalition with each other across our different identities, constituencies, and units on campus.
I identify as queer, but that’s evolved over the years. Sometimes I also refer to myself as a lesbian, and with my friends I’m a “bad lesbian” (as in my desire does not neatly fit typical notions of who a lesbian is supposed to be). I first came out as “bisexual,” but I have since rejected the label of bisexuality for myself, mainly because of the way the term tends to be depoliticized in mainstream society. “Queer” works for me because it is non-binary, suggests fluidity, and resists heteronormativity.
How do you define “queer”?
I think queer is a term that is doing theoretical work of questioning binaries of sexuality, sex, and gender.
What does “queer” mean to you?
It means that I am highly critical of society’s norms and practices of policing desire and gender expression. Queer offers a critique of heteronormativity. My embrace of the term “queer” means that I don’t see identity as something fixed, innate, apart from social and historical realities. I think sexual identity is much more complex than current binaries allow for. The notion of fixed identities is part of how our society polices our bodies and desires.
What do you think of the queer community at Humboldt State?
I don’t think I really know it. I don’t feel like I know it at all, frankly. I think I more identify with people that are doing social justice work in an intersectional way. I don’t affiliate with other gay people just because we’re gay. I do know that there is not just one queer community at Humboldt. I feel uncomfortable in queer settings that only focus on gay identity (which in practice means white and middle-class gay identity) and not the complex intersectionality of identities.
Did you feel you had to come out at HSU?
I came to Humboldt from Richmond, Virginia in the height of state-sanctioned homophobia, and I was involved in queer activism there. Coming here in 2006, I felt a sense of relief because there was much less blatant homophobia, particularly written into California state law, than there was in Virginia at the time. At least it felt that way because the homophobia was so blatant in Virginia. I don’t typically come out to my classes, as in announce that I am queer at the beginning of the semester, which I had done when I taught LGBTQ studies in Iowa and Virginia. Here, I don’t consider myself closeted, especially considering what I teach and how I teach. I don’t hide the fact that I am queer, but I don’t announce it either. If students pick up on it, then that has to do with how I talk about material we are studying. For example, when I am talking about the gay community, I will say “we” rather than “they.”
Did you have any reservations?
Sometimes I do in the classroom. I like to be strategic about “coming out” in terms of how it will affect my students’ learning. Will my coming out help students in their learning process? Will information about me, their professor, help them navigate their relationship to a specific reading or writing assignment? Will it lesson or increase their resistance to and/or understanding of a subject? It’s hard to put in words, and it is different for different students at different points in their lives, but I want to be the most effective teacher I can be. I’m careful with how I divulge information about myself, and I’m not very forthcoming about personal information in class in general. I have a professional persona that is separate from my personal life. In the classroom, I’m focused on ideas rather than on students getting to know who I am as a human being. So yes, I guess I am concerned about being effective, and I want to maintain a sense of privacy. It’s not that I don’t want my students to know I’m queer, I just don’t want to talk about my personal life in the classroom unless it pertains to learning. I do think that homophobia is always a concern, that’s always part of one’s consciousness.
What was the response from students and other faculty?
I don’t know what students know or don’t know, but my colleagues are aware that I am queer and have known since they hired me. I can’t say that there’s ever really been a reaction. They are fine with it.
Are you comfortable being open with your sexuality as a Humboldt State professor?
Oh yes, in my mind it’s definitely part of my professional identity. Even though I don’t “come out” in my classes per se, it’s part of who I am, and it affects how I teach. It would be odd to me if people didn’t know I was queer, and I just assume they do. It was a bigger thing in Iowa and Virginia because of the level of homophobia that existed during the time I lived there, but being queer is more accepted here. What I’m not comfortable with is making a “coming out” announcement the way I used to do when I taught LGBTQ courses in Iowa and Virginia. Part of my no longer feeling the necessity to “come out” to my students at the beginning of the semester by declaring my sexuality comes from the fact that such declarations don’t have the same political effect that they used to. Also, queer theory has affected how I think about the act of “coming out” more generally. Queer is an important way I identify as a person; queer does not make me or even my sexuality knowable or understandable to others. I don’t consider myself to be closeted, and I think that students who identify as queer can pretty easily pick that up.
Have you ever had any negative experiences as a queer identifying person at HSU?
I was at a Seder the other night (2016), and someone said something really homophobic. It was pretty shocking because I don’t hear comments like that on a regular basis. I was angry and upset. In the past, at other universities, I’ve had homophobic comments written on my teaching evaluations. I always have a consciousness of the potential for something homophobic to be said or done. On HSU’s campus, I remember finding a defaced flier with a homophobic slur scrawled on it a few years ago. I understand that things like that happen on a regular basis at HSU, and students are often the targets.
What is a positive experience you’ve had on campus relating to your queerness?
Being part of the Critical Race, Gender, and Sexualities Department, which offers a Queer Studies minor and major and uses an intersectional feminist lens, has been a wonderful experience. I’m really happy to be part of the department and to teach “Queer Women’s Lives.”
If you could sum up what it’s like to be queer at HSU in one sentence, what would it be?
We need to work in coalition with each other across our different identities, constituencies, and units on campus.
Original Format
Interview