Queering Virtual Reality: A Prolegomenon
Date
2019-01
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Springer
Abstract
In this chapter, we investigate how innovations in STEM, such as Virtual
Reality (VR) and 3D Sculpting, can support the development of critical
literacies about gender and sexuality. Our work arises from the concern
that the assumed \naturalness" of male/female binary categories in biol-
ogy is often at the center of the queer, trans, and intersex panics in public
education. Echoing sociologists and critical scholars of gender and sexu-
ality, we posit that transgender and queer identities should be positioned
as realms of playful, active inquiry. Further, we investigate how new
forms of computational representational infrastructures can be leveraged
to support productive and playful experiences of inquiry about gender and
sexuality. We present a retrospective analysis of a design group meeting of
a small group of friends in their early thirties with gender nonconforming
and queer identities and life histories. The group interacted in VR-based
environments, where they engaged in two di erent forms of construction-
ist learning experiences: creating 3D sculptures of personally meaningful
objects, and re-creating their VR avatars in VR social media. Our analysis
illustrates how such experiences can be productively analyzed using so-
cial constructivist perspectives that situate knowing as boundary play and
gured worlds, and the roles that play and friendship have in supporting
deep and critical engagement with complex narratives and marginalized
Description
Keywords
Virtual reality, Gender, Sexuality, Figured worlds, LGBTQ
Citation
Paré, D., Sengupta, P., Windsor, S., John, C., & Thompson, M. (2019). Queering Virtual Reality. In Critical, Transdisciplinary and Embodied Approaches in STEM Education (pp. 307–328). Cham, Switzerland: Springer. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29489-2_17