Queer(y)ing the Quotidian: Non-Monogamous Families and the Potentiality of Queer Family Practices

Pedrom Nasiri, University of Calgary

In (2019[2009]) Cruising Utopia, Jose Esteban Munoz reminds us of the ideality of queerness. Rather than something that we are or might ever be, queerness is an educated mode of hope and hoping that encourages us to think and feel beyond the confines of our present moment – and its routinized and habituated practices – so that we might dream and enact better worlds. He suggests that, while this hope is future-oriented, it may nevertheless be found in quotidian practices of everyday life that overflow with cultural and affective surplus promising emancipatory possibilities. As Munoz articulates it, the queer utopian project is thus historically grounded and drawn to the anticipatory illumination of ideologies, embodied dispositions, and aesthetic practices that offer political hope against (hetero/homo)normativity. In this presentation, I draw on Munoz’s framing of queerness to interrogate the everyday social practices of non-monogamous families in Canada and the United States. Through original research consisting of 153 interviews of non-monogamous family members and 20 life documents (a multi-pronged qualitative research strategy that includes visual and textual data), I demonstrate the inherent tension in non-monogamous relationships as they work to both challenge and extend (hetero/homo)normative family practices.

This paper will be presented at the following session:

• (CSF1a) Families I
  Thursday Jun 20 11:00 am to 12:30 pm (Eastern Daylight Time)
  Trottier Building - ENGTR 2100