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 a variety of courses in LGBTQ literature and women's studies, often with a focus on black feminist/queer studies. His most recent book, 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. His other books are the co-edited collection Imagining Queer Methods (with Amin Ghaziani; NYU Press, 2019), and James Baldwin and the Queer Imagination (University of Michigan Press, 2014). He has published in venues including the Journal of Homosexuality, the Journal of Modern Literature, and the Gay and Lesbian Review, 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. He has served on the board of directors for CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies, and with Dr. David Gerstner he cofounded the Queer CUNY Faculty and Staff Working Group. For three years, Brim and Dr. Cynthia Chris coedited WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly, published by the Feminist Press. He is currently an associate editor for the James Baldwin Review. With Dr. Kelly Josephs, 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. Brim is currently coediting a volume titled Queering Sharing: Toward the Redistribution of Resources around the University.

Degrees

Ph.D., Indiana University

B.A., Wabash College

Scholarship / Publications

Books

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

  • "Please Send Queer Food." Amerikastudien / American Studies (in progress).
  • “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

  • With Amin Ghaziani. "Queer Methods: Four Provocations for an Emerging Field." 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.
  • “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.
  • “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.

Electronic/Multimedia

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.
  •  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

Poor Queer Studies, Interview -- New Books Network / LGBTQ+ Channel / Queer Voices of the South Podcast, April 2, 2021
Poor Queer Studies: Matt Brim in Conversation -- Bureau of General Services Queer Division, October 23, 2020
Poor Queer Studies: Away from Elitism, Toward Anti-Racist Education -- SUM: Research, Innovation, and Creativity at CUNY, April 3, 2020
"Q & A with Matt Brim" -- Duke University Press Blog, March 2020
 
RECENT HONORS
•2021 Doctoral Curriculum Enhancement Grant, CUNY PublicsLab
•2021 Futures Initiative Faculty Fellow, "Equity, Elitism, and Public Higher Education," with Katina Rogers
•Finalist, 2020 O.L. Davis Jr. Outstanding Book in Education Award, presented by the American Association for Teaching and Curriculum, for Poor Queer Studies: Confronting Elitism in the University
•Distinguished CUNY Fellow at the Advanced Research Collaborative (ARC) at The Graduate School and University Center, The City University of New York.
•Appointed to Graduate Center faculty in the Women's and Gender Studies M.A. Program, fall 2019
•2018 Crompton-Noll prize for best essay in lesbian, gay, queer studies in the modern languages/literatures for "Poor Queer Studies: Class, Race, and the Field," given by the Gay and Lesbian Quarterly (GL/Q) Caucus of the Modern Language Association
 
UPCOMING NEWS AND EVENTS
April 7, 2021
Sexuality Studies Inaugural Lecture
University of Massachusetts Boston
April 8, 2021
"Poor Queer Studies Redux"
Advanced Research Collaborative Lecture
CUNY Graduate Center
June 2021
Keynote, Working-Class Studies Association Conference
 
PAST NEWS AND EVENTS
February 24, 2021
"Teaching Black Queer Studies as General Education for the Public Good"
Teaching and Learning in the Humanities Workshop
January 2021
MLA 2021, "Queer Lists" Roundtable
MLA 2021, "Class and Academe" Panel
December 10, 2020
"Confronting Elitism and Racism in the University: A View from CSI
Dean's Critical Confrontations Series
College of Staten Island, CUNY
November 6, 2020
"Queer-Class Counternarratives in Higher Education"
Queer Studies Interdisciplinary Research Group
University of Miami
March 10-13, 2020 
"Building Queer/Class Lives," with Yvette Taylor
Strathclyde Feminist Research Network
University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
March 9, 2020
"Poor Queer Studies Mothers"
Centre for Gender in Politics
Queen's University, Belfast
March 4 2020
"Poor Queer Studies"
Peace and Conflict Studies Program
Swarthmore College
January 10, 2020
Modern Language Association Conference, "Queer Studies and Its Class Locations" special session; "Black Queer Contributions" special session
October 5, 2020
Colgate University, LGBTQ Studies Symposium
May 3, 2019
Open Pedagogy Symposium, Graduate Center: #TheSyllabus and Social Change panel
April 16, 2019
"Books in Progress" presentation, English Department, College of Staten Island
April 15, 2019
Faculty Talk Back: United in Anger: A History of ACT UP, College of Staten Island
April 10-11, 2019
"Poor Queer Studies." Williams College.
March 29, 2019
"Poor Queer Studies." CUNY Diversity and Inclusion Conference, Graduate Center, New York.
January 5, 2019
“Vocational Queer Studies.” American Historical Association Convention. Chicago, IL.
November 9, 2018
“Poor Queer Studies.” American Studies Association Annual Convention. Atlanta, GA.
Spring 2018
CUNY Academic Commons Open Educational Resource Faculty Fellow
CUNY Office of Research Book Completion Award
March 19, 2018
An Intimate Plenary: New Research in HIV/AIDS Studies. HIV/AIDS Studies Working Group at the City University of New York.
February 29, 2018
“Poor Queer Studies Mothers.” Center for the Study of Women and Society, CUNY Graduate Center, 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

Undergraduate Courses
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
Equity, Elitism, and Higher Education (team taught, CUNY Graduate Center)
Lesbian Literature
Feminist Publishing (team taught, CUNY Graduate Center)
Introduction to Lesbian, Gay, Queer Studies (CUNY Graduate Center)
Studies in Gender and Sexuality (CUNY Graduate Center)
Feminist Literary Criticism
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