Queer Data Studies

Untangles how data shapes and is shaped by queer worlds

Data, perilous and powerful, is both a worldmaking and a dismantling force. The collection of data about queer lives and bodies, the consequences of data analysis for queer subjects, and considerations of privacy and consent often present ethical dilemmas even as queer data expands our understanding of who and what counts. The need for queer analyses and perspectives has taken on a new sense of urgency in light of hostile antiqueer policies by major technology companies, the security theater of airports, the disproportionate rates of policing queer people and people of color, digital surveillance in border security, and the proliferation of digital health records.

Gathering wide-ranging interdisciplinary conversations into one rich volume, Queer Data Studies challenges readers to rethink how the extraction, circulation, modeling, governance, and use of data affects queer subjects and, at the same time, to consider how the power of data might be harnessed in the service of queer ethics. Contributors take a capacious approach to data, drawing from a range of sources, including stories, sounds, medical data, police data, maps, and algorithmic modeling. This anthology engages intersectional, decolonial, feminist, queer, and trans research, advancing ongoing dialogues about data across the social sciences, humanities, and applied sciences.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Patrick Keilty

1 Black Data

Shaka McGlotten

2 "To Fight for an End to Intrusions into the Sex Lives of Americans" | Gay and Lesbian Resistance to Sexual Surveillance and Data Gathering, 1945–1972

Nikita Shepard

3 Machine Learning and the Queer Technics of Opacity

Queer Data Studies

4 Objectionable Nipples | Puritan Data Politics and Sexual Agency in Social Media

Queer Data Studies

5 HIV Data as Queer Data | Biomedical Sexualities, Treatmentas-Prevention, and the New Sex Hierarchy for People Living with HIV

Stephen Molldrem

6 Generating Vulnerability | Male Sex Workers, Third-Party Platforms, and Data Security

Ryan Conrad

7 Not Enough Meaningful Data? Lessons from Eastern Europe

Lina Žigelytė

8 Reciprocating Sexy Information | Reflections on Studying the Data of Gay Sex in Beirut

Mathew Gagné

9 Homobiles | Queering Data through Ephemerality and Intimacy

Harris Kornstein

10 Situated Indications | Queer STS Experiments on Global Datafication

Suisui Wang

List of Contributors

Index