Edelman

Lee Edelman, the Fletcher Professor of English Literature at Tufts University, is one of the foundational figures in the field of Queer Theory. Working in conversation over many years with Judith Butler, David Halperin, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Jack Halberstam, José Estaban Muñoz, Leo Bersani, and Lauren Berlant, he helped to shape queer theory as both an academic discipline and mode of critical analysis that resonates beyond the “ivory tower.” His best-known book, No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive (2004), which has been described as “one of the most influential, if controversial, texts of queer theory,” has been a source of inspiration for painters, lesbian punk bands, classical musicians, avant-garde film-makers, and performance artists. His most recent book, Bad Education: Why Queer Theory Teaches Us Nothing (2022), won Honorable Mention for the James Russell Lowell Prize, awarded to the year’s best scholarly book, and it has been the subject of several recent webinars and podcasts. Edelman has lectured around the world and his works have been translated into French, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, Polish, Japanese, Swedish, Turkish, Hebrew, Dutch, Portuguese, Croatian, and Macedonian The recipient of many awards as both a teacher and a scholar, he is also, with Lauren Berlant, a founding editor of the book series Theory Q, from Duke University Press, which publishes cutting-edge work in queer critical and cultural analysis.