Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity

Acknowledgments

ix Acknowledgments T h I s B o o k h A s been in the works for over ten years. I cannot hope to properly acknowledge all the people who have been supportive of the writing and research that went into these pages. I have presented the writing that became these chapters at seemingly countless universities, museums, performance spaces, and conferences. At these various institutions many audiences listened to this work and engaged in beneficial ways. Queer friendship has proven to be the condition of possibility for imagining what queerness can and should mean. The actual relational circuits I am lucky enough to find myself belonging to whet my desire for future collectivity. I have had the gift of extraordinary research assistance. Joshua Chambers -Letson has invested so much of his own energy and intelligence in this book. Sujay Pandit has been indispensable in my completing this project . The manuscript benefited from the attention of Julia Steinmetz and Chelsea Adewunmi. So many excellent students have proven to be such great interlocutors for this book as it emerged. This list will be woefully incomplete: Hypatia Vourloumis, Jeanne Vacarro, Frank Leon Roberts, Sandra Ruiz, Katie Brewer-Ball, Eser Selen, Tina Majkowski, Karen Jamie, Ellen Cleghorne, Beth Stinson, Alex Pittman, Lydia Brawner, Roy Perez, Albert Laguna, Andre Carrington, Leticia Alvardo, Anna Fischer, Jonathan Mullins, Ronak Kapadia, Stephanie Weiss, and Justin Leroy. One of the greatest rewards in teaching is when your former students become your colleagues and friends: there are no better examples of this in my life than Christine Balance, Ricardo Montez, and Alexandra Vazquez. Also in that category is Shane Vogel, who also gave me great feedback on this volume. I teach in a relatively small department that I have chaired for the past few years, and I am grateful for the climate of mutual support and respect achieved in the Department of Performance Studies, Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. Colleagues like Barbara Browning, Karen Shimakawa, Richard Schenchner, Andre Lepcki, Diana Taylor, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblet , Allen Weiss, Anna Deavere Smith, Deborah Kapchan, Tavia Nyong’o, x Acknowledgments and Ann Pellegrini make institutional life rewarding. Ann has been a coeditor of the series this book appears in, and I could never have anticipated enjoying such a fun and harmonious working relationship. I cannot begin to express properly my gratitude to the staff at Performance Studies who enable my work as a chair, a faculty member, and a scholar. Thank you Noel Rodriguez, Patty Jang, and Laura Elena Fortes for your extreme competence and good humor. Many friends outside of Performance Studies at NYU need to be thanked for their contributions to the texture of my life and thinking. The first to be mentioned is Lisa Duggan, who has been a staunch ally, loving friend, and brilliant interlocutor. Other friends include Anna McCarthy, Josefina Saldana-Portillo, Gayatri Gopinath, Ana Dopico, Phillip Brian Harper, and Carolyn Dinshaw. The three scholars who have read this book for the press in different drafts offered me welcomed engagement. Elizabeth Freeman and I met each other as precocious graduate students on the conference circuit, and I see in her work some of the best thinking of my second-generation queer theory cohort. Judith Halberstam has simply been an ideal colleague and reader. She is also an amazing friend. I feel privileged to have the brilliant Fred Moten as a friend, comrade, and interlocutor. My editor, Eric Zinner , read this book with great care and skill. Ciara McLaughlin and Emily Park have been also been extremely helpful. A grant from the Tisch Dean’s Faculty Development Award has helped me include color images in this book. I am especially grateful to Marvin Taylor and Ann Butler at the Fales Library, New York University. John Andrews showed up in the middle of this writing project. He has responded to my work with equal parts enthusiasm and skepticism. He has been a perfect reader and the very best company I could have asked for. My other great companions during the writing of this book have been my princess bulldogs. The late great Lady Bully showed me the grandeur of companion-species utopias, and Dulce Maria is herself the sturdy embodiment of the good life. My family are amazingly supportive. My brother Alex’s support is very touching. My cousin Albert strolled into my everyday life quite unexpectedly and has become a lovely presence, helping me watch the Northern Front. Sam Green is my kindred utopian spirit; his work...