Finding Out: An Introduction to LGBTQ Studies

"Finding Out is an excellent and much-needed overview of LBGTQ studies, providing a thorough history and evocative readings reflecting a variety of perspectives and experiences." 

―Brecken Chinn, Curry College

The new Third Edition of Finding Out: An Introduction to LGBTQ Studies provides readers with an accessible and riveting introduction to LGBTQ (lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender-queer) studies. Designed as a combination of introductory text and reader, Finding Out helps students understand the growth and development of LGBTQ identities and the interdisciplinary nature of sexuality studies. The book combines comprehensive introductory and explanatory material with primary source readings. The authors provide context (from history, literature and the arts, media, politics, and more) to form a coherent framework for understanding the included debates and readings. Going beyond simply providing a historical account, this easy-to-follow text offers an in-depth examination of LGBTQ culture and society―making LGBTQ studies a central part of your course coverage.

Jonathan Alexander is Chancellor’s Professor of English and Gender & Sexuality Studies at the University of California, Irvine. He is author, co-author, or editor of twenty-one books, including several works of queer creative nonfiction, including Stroke Book: The Diary of a Blind Spot (Fordham, 2021) and the “Creep” Trilogy, consisting of Creep: A Life, a Theory, an Apology (punctum, 2017), Bullied: The Story of an Abuse (punctum, 2021), and Dear Queer Self: An Experiment in Memoir (Acre Books, 2022).  He is also published extensively in LGBT and sexuality studies, including the books: The Routledge Handbook of Queer Rhetorics (co-edited with Jacqueline Rhodes, 2021), Sexual Rhetorics: Methods, Identities, Publics (co-edited with Jacqueline Rhodes, Routledge, 2015); Techne: Queer Meditations on Writing the Self (co-authored with Jacqueline Rhodes, Computers and Composition Digital Press, 2015); Bisexuality and Queer Theory: Intersections, Connections and Challenges (co-edited with Serena Anderlini D’Onofrio, Routledge, 2012); Literacy, Sexuality, Pedagogy: Theory and Practice (Utah State, 2008); and Bisexuality and Transgenderism: InterSEXions of the Others (co-edited with Karen Yescavage, Routledge, 2004).

Deborah T. Meem is Professor Emerita of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Cincinnati. Her academic specialties are Victorian literature, LGBTQ Studies, and the 19th-century woman’s novel. She earned a PhD from Stony Brook University in 1985. Her work has appeared in Journal of the History of Sexuality, Feminist Teacher, Studies in Popular Culture, and elsewhere. She has edited four works by Victorian novelist and journalist Eliza Lynn Linton: The Rebel of the Family (Broadview, 2002), Realities (Valancourt, 2010), The Autobiography of Christopher Kirkland (Victorian Secrets, 2011), and Sowing the Wind (Victorian Secrets, 2015). With Michelle Gibson she coedited Femme/Butch: New Considerations of the Way We Want to Go (2002) and Lesbian Academic Couples (2005), both published by Routledge Press. With Jonathan Alexander she wrote “Dorian Gray, Tom Ripley, and the Queer Closet” (CLCWeb, 2003)

Michelle A. Gibson is Professor Emerita of the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Cincinnati. Her scholarship focuses on Sexuality Studies and pedagogy. Her most recent writing applies queer and postmodern identity theories to pedagogical practice and popular culture. With Jonathan Alexander she edited QP: Queer Poetry, an online poetry journal, and she and Alexander also edited a strain of JAC: Journal of Advanced Composition titled “Queer Composition(s).” With Deborah Meem she coedited Femme/Butch: New Considerations of the Way We Want to Go (2002) and Lesbian Academic Couples (2005).