Deheteronormalizing through Duo-Ethnography on Transnational Queer Students for Invisible Identity and Literacy

Abstract

Increasing evidence indicates that scholarship on applied linguistics and teachingEnglish to speakers of other languages has been centralized around the accumulating body of research on heteronormative frameworks. Immigrants and transnational teachers in identity construction and negotiation through self- transformation problematize monolingualism, predetermined identities, and bounded ecologies. However, while crossing geographical boundaries, studies on transnational queer students (TQSs) need to be developed, creating the possibility of queer literacy and resisting an oppressed identity in the U.S. heteronormativity. This study amplifies the need to illuminate how TQSs’ linguistic repertoires are portrayed within heteronormative frameworks. Drawing on duo-ethnography, my aim is to disrupt the transnational heteronormative paradigms together with “one queer participant.” I conclude by proposing a new lens, “depathologizing gencialization literacy,” in the constant quest to go beyond transdisciplinary dimensions, with a call for queer literacy and research centering on TQSs.