Sedgwick Lecture: Who is a Queer Ancestor?

This lecture explores the idea of queer ancestry and the prospects of being a “good ancestor.” It reflects upon the process of memorializing the dead and the risks of secular sainthood. The lecture discusses re-staging a famous encounter between Audre Lorde and James Baldwin, and suggests that ancestor reverence might obscure the productive aspects of conflict in shaping queer history Drawing on the irreverent stance of the late Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina, the lecture proposes a model for decolonizing the ancestral, particularly relevant in the digital era.