Queer Kids and Social Violence with Elizabethe Payne and Paisley Currah

Join us for a reading and conversation with Elizabethe Payne, editor of the new book Queer Kids and Social Violence: The Limits of Bullying.
About this Event

Join us for a reading and conversation with Elizabethe Payne, editor of Queer Kids and Social Violence: The Limits of Bullying and the founder and director of the Queering Education Research Institute.  

Queer Kids and Social Violence challenges the mythology surrounding school bullying and offers conversation-shifting interventions to respond to a difficult and frightening political moment for LGBTQ+ youth—the incessant attack on gender-affirming care being one example. Payne is joined by Paisley Currah, author of Sex Is as Sex Does: Governing Transgender Identity, in a conversation about what it means to protect queer kids in schools. 

Bullying is social—not anti-social—behavior and the school culture that marks which students will be targeted with violence is part of a larger social dynamic perpetuating systems of marginalization beyond the school. The book explores misconceptions about bullying and the ways these have impacted the lives and experiences of LGBTQ+ students. We are in a critical time to renew our engagement with bullying and connect it to larger political processes. The work of anti-bullying is not exclusive to educational contexts but is part of the broader address of social inequalities experienced by gender and sexual minority people.

Elizabethe Payne is founder and director of the Queering Education Research Institute (QuERI). QuERI is dedicated to bridging gaps between research, practice, and policy to create LGBTQ+ affirming school environments. Celebrating twenty years, 2006-2026. 

Paisley Currah is Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Women’s and Gender Studies at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, CUNY.  He is the author of Sex Is as Sex Does: Governing Transgender Identity (NYU Press).

The Bureau of General Services—Queer Division is Manhattan’s queer bookstore, located on the second floor of the LGBT Center. We’re open Tuesday-Sunday from 1-7pm and accessible by the 6th Ave 1 2 3 L trains and 8th Ave A C E trains. Our cafe, The Bureau Cafe, is open Tuesday-Sunday from 9am-7pm.