We are pleased to alert you to ISS working paper 679, entitled ‘Becoming a free dandelion : Exploring rebellious cuirnaturecultures through the creation of an online safe place with cuirs in the Andean Ecuador during Covid-19 times, by Ximena Alexandra Arguello Calle, one of the ISS MA Research Paper Award winners for the academic year 2019-2020.
Abstract
Siento que se está escribiendo una historia que yo no pude escribir (Alex, 2020).
(I feel that a history that I could not write, myself, is now being written)
This cuir paper narrates the stories of six cuir bodies in the Andean Ecuador, who co-cuired art and cyberspace, during the cuir times of Covid-19. This paper moves away from mainstream forms of knowledge production. It presents instead a cuir way to do research in which we become copensantes (cothinkers). This term represents our decision of collectively reflect, feel, experiment and be rebellious. Based on the stories we shared in our co-created online safe place, and through the queer ecology (QE) framework, this paper contributes to disrupt the culture/nature divide and its resulting natural/unnatural distinction used to justify the rejection and violence against cuirs in Ecuador. I situate this discussion by unpacking the construction of femininities and masculinities in this context, the ways they are abscribed on cuir bodies and their implications. Finally, I explore the personal and political dimension of cuir art, that by travelling across the cyberspace, are depicted in this paper generating contagion through new cuirnaturecultures. In this paper, we generate noise and motivate the reader to rethink with us the possibilities of going beyond the binary of masculinity/feminity; to reflect with us about the right of cuir lives to exist; and to embody with us a cuir meaning of freedom.
Keywords
Cuir, online safe place, copensantes, art, cuirnatureculture, Covid-19 times, Ecuador.