Thirty Years of LGBTQ Pre-Publication Knowledge Production in Higher Education Research: A Critical Summative Content Analysis of ASHE Conference Sessions

The purpose of this critical content analysis was to explore LGBTQ pre-publication knowledge production by examining conference sessions at one of the leading U.S. academic conference for higher education researchers. Between 1986 and 2015, there was an increase in the number of sessions focused on LGBTQ individuals and topics. However, these sessions comprised less than 1.4% of the total sessions. The majority of sessions used broad terms to discuss LGBTQ topics and often conflated sexuality (e.g., gay, lesbian) with gender (e.g., transgender). When specific sexualities were identified, the majority presented about the experiences of gay men. Twenty-three percent of sessions focused on the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality. However, few sessions focused on the intersection of sexuality and gender with other social identities. The study is a call for higher education scholars to expand LGBTQ knowledge production in ways that reflect its complexity and depth.