Queersearching: Beyond Cis-heteronormative Information Literacy

Gender and sexuality do not exist in a vacuum; so, why do we research them as such? Normative approaches to assessing resources and information literacy instruction -- such as SIFT and CRAP -- fail to contextualize the historic, national, and economic conditions in which queerness is constructed. Assessment of information that lacks consideration of structural oppressors in society hegemonizes normative understandings of information literacy. Queersearching is a reconceptualization of information literacy that considers the author of a text, their national identity, and the economic conditions under which they are writing. Analyzing research of queer/trans* people(s) with a Marxist base and superstructure, academic librarians can lead students and faculty in deconstructing cis-heteronormative epistemologies, bolster collective understandings of queer/transness, and invigorate marginalized research and voices at their respective institutions.