Matt Brim

Matt Brim is a Professor of Queer Studies in the English Department at the College of Staten Island (CUNY) and an affiliate faculty member in the Women's and Gender Studies M.A. Program at the CUNY Graduate Center. He serves as Executive Director of CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies. His work focuses on queer theory, higher education equity, and class critique.

Brim holds a Ph.D. from Indiana University and a B.A. from Wabash College. His research interrogates elitism in academia, particularly through his seminal book Poor Queer Studies: Confronting Elitism in the University (2020), which won the Jake Ryan and Charles Sackrey Award. He has co-edited multiple volumes on queer precarities and pedagogical methods.

His research interests include LGBTQ literature, queer feminist methodologies, and anti-racist education. Notable publications span Feminist Theory, Journal of Homosexuality, and WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly. He has also authored study guides for films like United in Anger: A History of ACT UP.

Brim’s honors include the Crompton-Noll Prize (2018) and grants from CUNY’s PublicsLab and Futures Initiative. He actively engages in activism, including unionizing efforts with the PSC-CUNY, and directs CLAGS, the first university-based LGBTQ research center in the U.S.

His teaching spans undergraduate and graduate courses in queer studies, Black queer literature, and feminist publishing. He advocates for accessible education, emphasizing public good over institutional elitism.