Matt Brim is Professor of Queer Studies in the English department at CSI, with a faculty appointment at the Graduate Center in the Women's and Gender Studies M.A. Program. He teaches courses in LGBTQ literature, women's studies, and queer higher education. His most recent monograph, Poor Queer Studies: Confronting Elitism in the University (Duke University Press, 2020), reorients the field of queer studies away from elite institutions of higher education and toward working-class schools, students, theories, and pedagogies. Poor Queer Studies won the Working-Class Studies Association's 2021 Jake Ryan and Charles Sackrey Award and was a finalist for the O.L. Davis Jr. Outstanding Book in Education Award, presented by the American Association for Teaching and Curriculum. Brim's first book was James Baldwin and the Queer Imagination (University of Michigan Press, 2014). His other books are the coedited collections Queer Precarities in and out of Higher Education: Challenging Institutional Structures (coedited with Churnjeet Mahn and Yvette Taylor; Bloomsbury Academic, 2023), Queer Sharing in the Marketized University (coedited with Yvette Taylor and Churnjeet Mahn; Routledge 2023), and Imagining Queer Methods (with Amin Ghaziani; NYU Press, 2019). He has published in venues including Feminist Theory, the Journal of Homosexuality, the Journal of Modern Literature, the Gay and Lesbian Review, and The Baffler, and he wrote an interactive online study guide for teaching the HIV/AIDS documentary film United in Anger: A History of ACT UP, directed by Jim Hubbard. For three years, Brim and Cynthia Chris coedited WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly, published by the Feminist Press. He is currently an associate editor for the James Baldwin Review and a reader for Amerikastudien/American Studies. He has served on the board of directors for CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies, cofounded the Queer CUNY Faculty and Staff Working Group with David Gerstner, and currently serves on the advisory board for Swarthmore College's Aydelotte Foundation. With Nivedita Majumdar he is Academic Director of the Faculty Fellowship Publication Program, a university-wide initiative that advances CUNY’s institutional goal of supporting a diverse professoriate. With Shelly Eversley he serves as the Faculty Co-Director of the CUNY/Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Transformative Learning in the Humanities initiative.
Degrees
Ph.D., Indiana University
B.A., Wabash College
Books
- Queer Precarities in and out of Higher Education: Challenging Institutional Structures. Coedited with Churnjeet Mahn and Yvette Taylor. Bloomsbury Academic, 2023.
- Queer Sharing in the Marketized University. Coedited with Yvette Taylor and Churnjeet Mahn. London: Routledge, 2023.
- Poor Queer Studies: Confronting Elitism in the University. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2020. (Read the Introduction here)
- Winner, Jake Ryan and Charles Sackrey Award, presented by the Working Class Studies Association
- Finalist, O.L. Davis Jr. Outstanding Book in Education Award, presented by the American Association for Teaching and CurriculumReviews: WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly (fall/winter 2022), American Literature (Sept. 2022), ALH Online Review (Dec. 2021), Lateral: Journal of the Cultural Studies Association (Aug. 2021), GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies (April 2021), PublicBooks (Feb. 2021), philoSOPHIA (spring 2021), Journal of Working-Class Studies (Dec. 2020), Teachers College Record (Nov. 2020), Choice (Oct. 2020), PopMatters (Sept. 2020), Radical Teacher (summer 2020), Ethnic and Racial Studies (July 2020), E3W (spring 2020), Women's Review of Books (May/June 2020)
- Imagining Queer Methods. Coedited with Amin Ghaziani. New York: New York University Press, 2019.
- James Baldwin and the Queer Imagination. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2014.
Special Issues of Journals
- Queer Methods. Coedited with Amin Ghaziani. Special issue of WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly, vol. 44, no. 3-4, 2016.
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- "An Escaped Slave and a Good Person." Post45: Contemporaries (forthcoming).
- "Alongside Desire: Object Lessons and Working-Class Studies." Feminist Theory, 2023, OnlineFirst, pp. 1-9, 10.1177/14647001221143031.
- “Poor Queer Studies: Class, Race, and the Field.” Journal of Homosexuality, special issue: “25 Years On: The State and Continuing Development of LGBTQ Studies Programs.” Nov. 7, 2018.
- Awarded 2018 Crompton-Noll prize for best essay in lesbian, gay, queer studies in the modern languages/literatures, given by the Gay and Lesbian Quarterly (GL/Q) Caucus of the Modern Language Association
- Introduction. With Amin Ghaziani. Queer Methods, special issue of WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly, vol. 44, no. 3-4, 2016, pp. 14-27.
- “Queer Pedagogical Desire: A Study Guide.” WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly 41.3-4 (Fall/Winter 2013): 173-189.
- “James Baldwin’s Queer Utility.” ANQ: A Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews 24.4 (2011): 209-216.
- “Papas’ Baby: Impossible Paternity in Going to Meet the Man.” Journal of Modern Literature 30:1 (2006): 173-198.
Book Chapters
- “After Queer Baldwin.” In After Queer Studies: Literature, Theory and Sexuality in the 21st Century. Eds. Tyler Bradway and E.L. McCallum. Cambridge University Press, 2019. 87-101.
- "Queer Methods: Four Provocations for an Emerging Field." With Amin Ghaziani. In Imagining Queer Methods. Eds. Amin Ghaziani and Matt Brim. New York University Press, 2019. 3-27.
- “Counternarratives: A Black Queer Reader.” In Imagining Queer Methods. Eds. Amin Ghaziani and Matt Brim. New York University Press, 2019. 143-162.
- “Teaching the Touching Text; or, How to Lay ‘Hands’ on Your Students.” The Hand of the Interpreter: Essays on Meaning after Theory. Eds. G.F. Mitrano and Eric Jarosinski. Cultural Interactions: Studies in the Relationships between the Arts. Ser. 3. New York: Peter Lang Pub., 2009. 135-150.
Invited and Featured Articles
- “Please Send Queer Food.” Amerikastudien/American Studies, vol. 66, issue 1, 2021, 223-227. https://doi.org/10.33675/AMST/2021/1/36
- "The House the Queer Theory Built." The Baffler, No. 53, September 2020. 90-98. https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-house-that-queer-theory-built-brim.
Reference Work and Study Guides
- "Methods." With Amin Ghaziani. In Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies. Edited byThe Keywords Feminist Editorial Collective. New York University Press, 2021.153-154.
- “Study Guide for United in Anger: A History of ACT UP.” Online educational resource (55 manuscript pages). United in Anger [documentary film]. Dir. Jim Hubbard. March 2013 www.unitedinanger.com/studyguide/?page_id=808.
Electronic/Multimedia
- “Teaching Black Queer Studies as General Education for the Public Good.” Transformative Learning in the Humanities Blog, 5 March, 2021, https://transform.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2021/03/05/reflection-on-teaching…
- "Queer, Cops, and CUNY." "Stonewall at 50: A Roundtable."The Gotham Center for New York City History Blog, 27 June, 2019, https://www.gothamcenter.org/blog/stonewall-at-50-a-roundtable.
- “The FFPP Writing Group that Didn’t Stop.” Faculty Fellowship Publication Program, 24 March 2017. https://ffpp.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2017/03/24/the-ffpp-writing-group-that-didnt-stop/ (Blog post).
Other Publications
- "What Are Queer Parents and Feminist Children to Do?" In Feminism in Our Times: Crisis, Connections & Cares. Ed.Yvette Taylor, Ill. Samia Singh. University of Strathclyde, 2020. 18-19.
- “Not a Novel Crisis at CUNY.” Gotham Gazette, 6 May 2020. Op-ed. https://www.gothamgazette.com/opinion/9351-not-a-novel-crisis-cuny-coro…
- Review of LGBTQ Politics: A Critical Reader, edited by Marla Brettschneider, Susan Burgess, and Christine Keating. Coauthored with Melissa Maldanado-Salcedo. Teachers College Record, 2018.
- “Editors’ Note.” With Cynthia Chris. WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly 44.1-2 (Spring/Summer 2016): 9-13.
- “Editors’ Note.” With Cynthia Chris. WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly 43.3-4 (Fall/Winter 2015): 9-13.
- “Editors’ Note.” With Cynthia Chris. WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly 43.1-2 (Spring/Summer 2015): 9-13.
- “Larry Mitchell: Novelist of New York Gay Life.” Obituary. The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide 20.3 (2013): 11.
- “Edmund White and Rakesh Satyal Headline First Kessler Conversation of the Year.” CLAGS (Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies) Newsletter (Spring 2012): 6.
- “The Problems with ‘Post-Gay.’” With Amin Ghaziani. Sexual Behavior, Politics, and Communities Division Newsletter of the Society for the Study of Social Problems (Fall 2011): 2-3, 8-9.
- Mitchell, Larry. Interview. “Larry Mitchell, Novelist of the Dispossessed.” The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide 16.4 (2009): 34-5.
- “The LGBTQ Short Story.” LGBTQ America Today. Ed. John Hawley. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2008. 1131-1137.
- STACS: Strategies to Acquire Composition Skills. With Ted Leahey, Michele Satchwell, and Doug Estell. Bloomington, IN: PDK, 2004.
News and Events
MEDIA
May 26, 2021
April 14, 2021
April 7, 2021
February 24, 2021
November 6, 2020
April 10-11, 2019
January 5, 2019
An Intimate Plenary: New Research in HIV/AIDS Studies. HIV/AIDS Studies Working Group at the City University of New York.
February 28, 2018
"Poor Queer Studies Mothers." The Center for the Study of Women and Society, Graduate Center of the City University of New York
March 4, 2016
The Future of CLAGS and LGBTQ Studies. CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies 25th Anniversary Conference.
October 9, 2015
"James Baldwin in the Queer Academy.” Plenary Roundtable. American Studies Association Convention. Toronto, Canada
April 25, 2014
New York Live Arts. Live Ideas: James Baldwin THIS Time!
Courses Taught
The Lesbian Novel
Queer Studies
Black Gay Male Literature
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Literature
Introduction to the Study of Literature
Introduction to Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Writing about HIV/AIDS Activist Documentary Film
The Idea of Sexuality
Graduate Courses
Introduction to Lesbian, Gay, Queer Studies (CUNY Graduate Center)
Studies in Gender and Sexuality (CUNY Graduate Center)
The LGBTQ Short Story
Studies in U.S. Literature after 1900: The Work of James Baldwin
What is Queer Fiction?
Studies in Composition and Rhetoric
Black Queer Literature
