Queering Anti-Zionism

Corinne E. Blackmer is professor of English and Judaic Studies at Southern Connecticut State University. She has authored numerous articles on Jewish Studies, Women's Modernism, LGBTQ/Queer Studies, the Hebrew Bible, and American Literature. She has also co-edited two volumes: En Travesti: Women, Gender Subversion, Opera and Poisoning the Wells: Antisemitism in Contemporary America.

With engaged scholarship and an exciting contribution to the field of Israel/Palestine studies, queer scholar-activist Corinne Blackmer stages a pointed critique of scholars whose anti-Israel bias pervades their activism as well as their academic work. Blackmer demonstrates how the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement that seeks to delegitimize and isolate Israel has become a central part of social justice advocacy on campus, particularly within gender and sexuality studies programs. The chapters focus on the intellectual work of Sarah Schulman, Jasbir Puar, Angela Davis, Dean Spade, and Judith Butler, demonstrating how they misapply critical theory in their discussions of the State of Israel. Blackmer shows how these LGBTQ intellectuals mobilize queer theory and intersectionality to support the BDS movement at the expense of academic freedom and open discourse.