معرفی
Matt Brim is Professor of Queer Studies in the English department at the College of Staten Island, part of the City University of New York (CUNY) system. He also serves as Affiliate Faculty in Women's and Gender Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center. Additionally, he is the Executive Director of CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies at the Graduate Center, which was founded in 1991 as the first university-based research center in the U.S. dedicated to LGBTQ issues.
- Ph.D. from Indiana University (2004)
- B.A. from Wabash College (1994), summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa
Matt Brim's research focuses on queer-class-race intersections in literature and higher education. He is particularly known for his work on confronting elitism in academia, as seen in his book Poor Queer Studies: Confronting Elitism in the University (2020). His scholarship explores how queer theory is shaped by class stratification within universities, arguing that the field has a class problem rooted in institutional hierarchies. Brim also specializes in James Baldwin studies, examining the intersections of race, sexuality, and literature.
His publications reveal a consistent focus on how class relations structure queer knowledge production and identity formation. Brim's work challenges the concentration of queer studies in elite institutions, advocating for recognition of queer scholarship at working-class colleges. His research spans queer pedagogy, methodologies, and the material conditions that shape academic work in LGBTQ studies.
- Winner of the Working-Class Studies Association's 2021 Jake Ryan and Charles Sackrey Award for Poor Queer Studies
- Recipient of the 2018 Crompton-Noll prize for best essay in lesbian, gay, queer studies
- 2021 Doctoral Curriculum Enhancement Grant from CUNY PublicsLab
- 2021 Futures Initiative Faculty Fellow for "Equity, Elitism, and Public Higher Education"
As Executive Director of CLAGS, Brim oversees programming that supports LGBTQ scholarship across CUNY. He has co-edited WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly and currently serves as associate editor for the James Baldwin Review. His teaching includes undergraduate courses on LGBTQ literature, Black Gay Male Literature, and Queer Studies, as well as graduate courses on Queer Feminist Methods and Equity, Elitism, and Higher Education.
Through CLAGS, Brim leads initiatives that connect academic work with community activism, particularly focusing on how queer theory manifests differently across institutional tiers of higher education. His work emphasizes the importance of recognizing and supporting queer scholarship at working-class institutions like CUNY's community colleges.
