In this episode, Amber Jamilla Musser talks with Dr. Jane Ward, author of “heterosexuality” entry of Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies. Dr. Ward talks about her own interest in witches and racial justice as part of a decolonial practice to decenter whiteness, the importance of connecting the cultural attachment to heterosexuality with the gender binary, the way that the gender binary is racialized, the rise of the global right’s persecution of trans and non-binary people, and the possibility for shifting out of this regime of oppressive gender politics.

Amber Jamilla Musser (she/her) is professor of English at CUNY Graduate Center.

Jane Ward (she/her) is professor of Feminist Studies at University of California Santa Barbara. Ward is the author of multiple books, including The Tragedy of Heterosexuality, Not Gay: Sex Between Straight White Men (2015) and Respectably Queer: Diversity Culture in LGBT Activist Organizations (2008).

• Ward, Jane. The Tragedy of Heterosexuality (New York: NYU Press, 2020)
• D’Emilio, John. John D’Emilio, “Capitalism and Gay Identity,” in Henry Abelove, Michele Aina Barale, and David Halperin (eds.) The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader (New York: Routledge, 1993), 467-476
• Seresin, Indiana. “On Heteropessimism: Heterosexuality Is Nobody’s Personal Problem,” New Inquiry, October 9, 2019, https://thenewinquiry.com.
  
• Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies, NYU Press, 2021. (editors: Aren Aizura, Aimee Bahng, Amber Musser, Karma Chavez, Mishuana Goeman, Shona Jackson and Kyla Wazana Tompkins). 2021, keywords.nyupress.org