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Jun. 30 | 2012 Bode-Pearson Prize
Nominations for the 2012 Bode-Pearson Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies due
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Nominations for the 2012 Mary C. Turpie Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies Teaching, Advising, and Program Development due
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Resources: Abstracts of American Studies Dissertations
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Decena, Carlos. "Queering the Heights: Dominican Transnational Identities and Male Homosexuality in New York City," American Studies, New York University, September 2004.
Contrary to the view of New York as a city of sexual liberation to homosexual men, this ethnography of Dominican immigrants is a case study of the ways in which homosexual populations of color negotiate global hierarchies of race, class and power in which they are positioned. From the social location of the modern homosexual, Dominican men who aspire to upward mobility end up distinguishing themselves from other Dominicans by means of class-racial identifications that disavow the putative social dysfunction and criminality associated with dominicanidad, i.e., Dominican identity, in New York. Their negative response to some aspects of dominicanidad does not mean that homosexual immigrants break away from other Dominicans. Indeed, they depend on the resources for survival made available by Dominican social networks. While they are ambivalent about the racialization of Dominican men in New York s sexual cultures, these immigrants understand that their survival and advancement depend on the strategic management of their homosexuality and the meanings attached to their national/ethnic identity. The ways in which immigrant men s class positions mediate homosexuality and racial/ethnic difference challenge established understandings of homosexual identity formation. Additionally, their insights challenge traditional interpretations of the politics of the public and the private among queer men of color in the United States. The author develops the concept of the sujeto tácito / tacit subject to argue that these men assume that most people in their lives either know they are homosexual or can infer it from the way these men live. Furthermore, their rejection of coming out as a precondition to mental health is necessary to understand negotiations of the closet that refuse the confession. This interdisciplinary study reinvigorates queer theory by placing the lived experiences and perceptions of immigrant men of color at the center of the analysis. In addition, this study innovates in immigration studies by investigating the linkages of sexuality to immigrant settlement and class mobility. Finally, the analysis breaks new ground in Latino, Latin American, and Dominican studies through its analysis of class relations, ethnicity and sexuality among Latino immigrants in New York.
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