Queer(ing) Geographies ‘Down Under’: some notes on sexuality and space in Australasia

Abstract

Over the past 15 years geographers in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere have been increasingly concerned with issues of sexuality and space and have produced an array of work under the heading ‘queer geographies’. This paper considers the importance of place in the production of queer geographies. Material representing queer geographies is drawn from Web pages, conversations and e-mail exchanges (a questionnaire survey) with key individuals in geography (or related spatial disciplines) departments in New Zealand and Australia. Complex politics of place mean that queer geographies in Australasia are both similar to and different from queer geographies produced elsewhere.