Out Doing Science: LGBTQ STEM Professionals and Inclusion in Neoliberal Times (Activist Studies of Science & Technology)

Winner of the ASA Section on the Sociology of Sexualities Distinguished Book Award

Over the past 50 years, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer professionals have organized to achieve greater inclusion into the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This inclusion, however, has come at a cost. In the 1970s, these professionals sought to radically transform STEM fields by confronting the homophobia and sexism embedded within them. Instead, these fields became more corporatized and privatized, and STEM institutions and workspaces―particularly in the spheres of government and business―became dominated by a focus on individualism, self-improvement/advancement, and meritocracy, which are hallmarks of neoliberalism. For many LGBTQ STEM professionals, inclusion now required becoming more apolitical, pro-capital, and focused on professional development.

In Out Doing Science, Tom Waidzunas, Ethan Czuy Levine, and Brandon Fairchild explore this transformation of LGBTQ STEM professionals from oppositional outsiders to assimilationist insiders. Drawing on historical archives, oral interviews, and participant observation of professional societies and workspaces, the authors interrogate the meanings of “inclusion” and why some LGBTQ STEM professionals have benefited from it more than others. They also advocate for a “queer STEM” that challenges and transforms the racism, classism, sexism, cisheterosexism, and imperialism of these fields, institutions, and workspaces. Written in an accessible and engaging style, Out Doing Science will appeal to readers interested in LGBTQ studies, and science and technology studies, as well as anyone who wants to create a more diverse and inclusive work environment.

TOM WAIDZUNAS is associate professor of sociology at Temple University. He has published widely on issues of LGBTQ persons in STEM in journals such as Social Studies of Science, Science Advances, and Science, Technology and Human Values. His lates book is The Straight Line: How the Fringe Science of Ex-Gay Therapy Reoriented Sexuality.

ETHAN CZUY LEVINE is assistant professor of criminal justice at Stockton University whose work has appeared in numerous journals including Journal of Applied Social Science and Culture, Health, and Sexuality. His latest book is Rape by the Numbers: Producing and Contesting Scientific Knowledge about Sexual Violence.

BRANDON FAIRCHILD is a PhD candidate in sociology at Temple University.