How does a classroom build around the identities of it’s queer students? “Queering Student Participation: Whispers, Echoes, Rants, and Memory,” by Matthew Cox explores the way in which queer idenitfying student’s classroom experience is impacted by their identity.

The chapter builds a narrative which is told through the personal experiences of students, including Cox himself. Cox relives his experiences in the 90s as a closeted gay student; “I always tried to pick the desk in the room that would make me as inconspicuous as possible. Something on the side. Towards the back. Where fewer people could sit behind me and cast mean or suspicious glances at me. I kept waiting for someone to find me out. Figure out I was gay that is.” Cox’s fear of being outed, prevented him from fully being able to participate in his hetero-dominated 1990s classroom.

This is a theme in the stories that are told through the chapter, Cox retells a story of when he “witnessed first hand a student have a nervous breakdown in the process of coming out to a parent in the wake of another parent’s death. It meant an emergency-room visit and a two-week hospitalization. It meant dropping out of the first part of that student’s last semester as a senior in college.”

While the chapter is focused on the construction of a classroom environment which is accepting of queer identities, there is also an exploration of the toll that hetero-normativity takes on Cox as an instructor. He recounts that “It was shocking to me at first that this could still happen—that any LGBT young person was carrying this much strain and fear and internalized depression and anxiety.” As well as shares a story of a student who voiced concern that Cox was too queer as a professor.

While the toll that the classroom and outside stressors can take on queer students, the chapter highlights the way in which queer identifiying students are able to bring their identities into the classroom and add to the learning environment. Cox examines a project one student did on queer communities throughout the Spanish speaking world for a Spanish assignment.

Ultimately, the chapter highlights the necessity for building a classroom which understands that queer students face difficulties participating, from social pressure within or outside of the classroom. Keeping that in mind, it seems reasonable that these students may not participate in a way that is considered the “standard”. It is the job of the instructor to build a classroom which encourages these students to participate on their own terms.