Solitude and Solidarity:Understanding Public Pedagogy through Queer Discourses on YouTube

• Main Author: Snell, Pamela
• Other Authors: Goldstein, Tara
• Language: en_ca
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: LGBT; Queer; Research-informed Theatre; YouTube; Representation; Participatory Media; Video; Creation; LGBTQ; Theatre; Embodied Knowing; Queer Theory; Cultural Studies; Public Pedagogy; Media; Popular Culture; Anti-oppression Education; Anti-homophobia Education; Personal Narrative; Collective Creation; Heteronormativity; Homonormativity; Queer Resistence; Participatory Action Research; Arts-based Research; 0708; 0465; 0515
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/43999

Working alongside five queer-identified theatre artists, using critical arts-based participatory action research, this research project worked through a creative process in which the research team identified, deconstructed, and disrupted normative queer discourses on the video-sharing website YouTube. Using notions from queer theory, cultural studies, and anti-oppression education, along with embodied analysis as a deconstructive strategy, the research team used collective theorizing and performance to facilitate an analysis of the online videos. In this thesis, I discuss embodied knowing by analyzing performative moments in the creative workshop undertaken by the research team. I then provide a thematic analysis of the online videos, followed by an analysis of how the research team used collective creation and personal narrative to produce a counter-hegemonic response video. Finally, I conclude with a discussion on how to engage video creation as a form of anti-oppression education that queers public pedagogy.