GRSJ 350: Critical Joy Studies

Introduction Vancouver’s Chinatown is dying, if not already dead. Its businesses are stagnating. Its residents are low-income, foreign, and old. The streets are littered with drugs, crime, and the faceless homeless. It’s time for a bold change. On Chinatown’s carcass, we will build something new, and expensive. Ideally, another Richmond. So goes the general sentiment amongst the politicians, the city...

Author Statement: A queer, Canadian student of Media Studies, writer and physical artist, AD is uniquely interested in how collaborative art-making impact minority communities and inspires people to change, or change the world around them. Art-making provides a medium where words aren’t needed, creating an opportunity to express the experiences of each individual that can’t be captured in words. Through...

Petaluma is a small town in the North Bay of California that has had a few mentions in North American popular culture, such as being the famous backdrop of the 1973 film American Graffiti, but none have stuck out as much as the early 20th century coining as ‘The World’s Egg Basket’ (Sommer, 2025). First declared by Bert Kerrigan, an...

By: Jada Waldeck Introduction Books clubs originated in the 17th century with Anne Hutchinson who provided a space for women to gather and discuss sermons. In the centuries that followed, book clubs expanded rapidly as women increasingly looked for a path towards academia. Beyond the cultivation of intellect, book clubs also provided a safe space outside of the bounds of...

Modified still from “Rookies,” Heated Rivalry, created by Jacob Tierney, 2025. Directed by Jacob Tierney, Heated Rivalry follows Shane and Ilya, two hockey players whose professional rivalry sustains a long-term queer intimacy within the sport’s hypermasculine culture. This photo essay examines Heated Rivalry as a contemporary celebration that constructs queer joy and relationality through embodied intimacy, where desire, vulnerability, and...

Introduction Hijra are a historically recognized “third gender” community in South Asia, whose existence predates colonial rule. Traditionally, hijra held revered social roles and appeared prominently in Islamic history and Hindu mythology. However, British colonial rule, particularly Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, criminalized non-normative sexualities, contributing to the systematic marginalization of these communities. Today, many navigate poverty and...

How does joyful clubbing become a form of resistant “queer-doing” (defrantz 170–176) that enables collective reimaginings of an inclusive citizenship in Kazakhstan? How might drag artistry, as the celebration’s opening act, model alternative modes of self-expression and cultural leadership, upon which these reimaginings unfold across the audience in real time?