"Queer Kinship" with Teagan Bradway

Call. Me. Mother. But what on earth does that word even mean? Dr Teagan Bradway (SUNY Cortland) takes us down the magnificent and multifaceted rabbit holes of queer kinship to chat about trans* motherhood, kinlessness, polyamory, race and kinship, queer kids, and the deep traumas and shiny possibilities attached to all of these. We discuss whether we really ‘choose’ our chosen families, how institutions intervene in our various relationships, and why the throuple makes for many more narrative possibilities than your average rom-com has to offer. From Netflix algorithms to pregnant butches, we pretty much cover it all.Join the queer research fam today by following @Teagan_Bradway and, while you’re at it, why not check out @queerlitpodcast on Instagram as well. Texts and people mentioned:Bradway, T., and Ellen Lee McCallum, eds. After Queer Studies. Cambridge University Press, 2019.Bradway, T. Queer Experimental Literature: The Affective Politics of Bad Reading. Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.Bradway, T. "Queer Narrative Theory and the Relationality of Form." PMLA 136.5 (2021): 711-727.Bradway, T., and Elizabeth Freeman. Queer Kinship: Race, Sex, Belonging and Form. Forthcoming.Weston, Kath. Families We Chose: Lesbians, Gays, Kinship. Columbia University Press, 1997. Renee GladmanPOSEParis is BurningMarlon Bailey Stockton, Kathryn Bond. The Queer Child, or Growing Sideways in the Twentieth Century. Duke University Press, 2009.Lee EdelmanAlison Bechdel’s Fun Home and Are you my Mother?Jules Gill-PetersonKate Davies’ In At the Deep EndFreeman, Elizabeth. "Queer belongings: Kinship theory and queer theory." A Companion to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Studies (2007): 293-314.Gilles Deleuze and Claire Parnet’s DialoguesMaggie Nelson’s The ArgonautsHarry Dodge’s My MeteoriteTorrey Peters’ Detransition, BabyA.K. Summers’ Pregnant ButchMy Mama Wears Timbs: A Short Documentary on Motherhood & Masculinity by Ari Fitz https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRgTLb5EbiQ&t=51s Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:1.What is queer kinship? Do you have concrete examples from life or literature?2.Which critiques of the term ‘chosen family’ does Teagan present? Do you think relationships can be thought of as marketplaces?3.How can kinship be used in violent and stigmatizing ways? Which examples of racialised kinship does Teagan give?4.What does the term ‘kinless’ mean?5.Please write a brief definition of either the term ‘nuptials’ or ‘throuple’ that mentions one primary text (as an example) as well as one secondary text.