womens studies

I will admit that my review is a tad biased by the fact that Dr. Corber and Dr. Valocchi are my academic advisors; that being said, the strength of this book does not rely on their strengths, but rather the cross-disciplinary collection of work that they have brought together in _Queer Studies: An Interdisciplinary Reader_.

Corber and Valocchi's introduction gives a broad overview of the Queer Theory field. This overview is followed by a review of the criticism from more "established" schools of thought (i.e., feminism and the social sciences). This collection does not seek to rectify the critiques of those fields with Queer Theory; it simply draws attention to the current critiques. Corber and Valocchi offer these criticisms a basis for critical examination of their texts that the reader-- even a Queer Theory novice-- can then apply to the texts held within _Queer Studies_.

This collection is clearly designed to give classrooms a single text to work from when teaching queer studies. While a more advanced understanding of Queer Theory would require reading some of its founding works (e.g., Michel Foucault's _History of Sexuality Volume 1_, Judith P. Butler's _Gender Trouble_, Michael Warner's _The Trouble With Normal_, and etc.) this collection is helpful for the new student of queer theory.

_Queer Studies_ manages to be queer from cover to cover and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants a broad overview of the field of Queer Theory.