Professor McCune.

Jeffrey Q. McCune, Jr.

he/him/his

Frederick Douglass Professor

Associate Professor of English

Associate Professor of Black Studies

Founding Chair, Department of Black Studies

PhD, Performance Studies, Northwestern University, 2007

Office Location
311B Morey Hall
Telephone
(585) 273-5346

Curriculum Vitae

Research Overview

Jeffrey Q. McCune Jr., PhD, is the author of the award-winning book Sexual Discretion: Black Masculinity and the Politics of Passing (University of Chicago Press, 2014). He is the co-editor of the Black Sexual Economies: Race and Sex in a Culture of Capital (University of Illinois Press, 2019). He is presently completing two book projects, Disobedient Reading: An Experiment in Seeing Black (University of California Press), and the other on the“wildness" of Kanye West titled, On Kanye. He has published in a variety of journals and also serves on the editorial board of numerous journals. He is the co-editor of the University of California Press’s New Sexual Worlds book series. For his work at the intersections, of race gender, and sexuality, McCune has been featured on Left of Black, Sirius XM's Joe Madison Show, HuffPost Live, NPR, Pitchfork and as a guest expert on Bill Nye Saves The World. In July 2021, he assumed the role as the Director of the Frederick Douglass Institute of African and African American Studies.

Research Interests

  • Gender Studies
  • Sexuality Studies
  • Performance and Popular Culture
  • Visual and Cultural Studies
  • Black Queer Theory

Courses Taught

  •  Black Masculinities
  •  Politics of Kanye West
  •  Black Sexual Politics
  •  Coming of Age: Black Consciousness in Literature and Film
  •  Black Sexual Worlds
  •  Black Queer Studies
  •  Critical Sexual Studies
  •  Black Cultural Currents

Selected Publications

Books

  • Sexual Discretion: Black Masculinity and the Politics of Passing. (University of Chicago Press, 2014)
  • Black Sexual Economies: Race & Sex in a Culture of Capital (co-editor, Black Sexual Economies Collective). (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2019)
  • Intercultural Communication in Your Life (co-authored with Shawn Wahl and Jake Simmons). (Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 2018)

Peer-Reviewed Articles

  • McCune, Jeffrey Q. “ ‘Every Nigger is a Star’: Moonlight and Reframing the BlackQueer,” QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking, (forthcoming, Winter 2022).
  • McCune, J. "Meditation-“Ultralight Beam”: The Gospel According to Kanye West." Journal of Hip Hop Studies 6, no. 1 (2019): 51-53.
  • McCune, Jeffrey Q., and Jordan Mulkey. "(Dis) Respect, or When Blackness Is the Natural Object of Dissent." American Quarterly 71, no. 1 (2019): 199-204.
  • McCune, Jeffrey Q. "The Night Poetry as Usual Was Killed: Closing Remarks." Departure from Critical Qualitative Research 7, no. 4 (2018): 192-195.
  • McCune, J, “Beyond Kevin Spacey: More than Scraps on the Cutting Room Floor.” QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking, Issue 5.2 (2018):112-117.
  • McCune, J. “The Queerness of Blackness.” QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking, 2.2. (Summer 2015): 173-177. (Lansing: Michigan State University Press)

Book Chapters

  • McCune, J. “One Size Does Not Fit All: Voicing Black Masculinities in a Pursuit of “Freedoms.” In The Expressive Art of Tarrell Alvin McCraney. (Evanston:Northwestern University Press,  2020)
  • McCune, J. “Why Should I Do All the Protesting for Our Family?”: Negotiating Gender/ed Participation in the Movement for Black Lives. In Gender Actualized (2nd edition). (Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 2019)
  • McCune, J. “Happy at Last: Carving the White “Closet” Past, Creating an “Out” Future.” In Black Sexual Economies: Race & Sex in a Culture of Capital  Eds. Black Sexual Economies Collective. (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2019)
  • McCune, J. “Michael Sam and the Sport of Queer Failure.” In Football, Culture, and Power. Eds. David Leonard, Wade Davis, and Kimberly George. (New York: Routledge, 2017)
  • McCune, J. “Dancing the Down Low” (Play). In Blaktino Queer Performance: An Anthology. Eds. E. Patrick Johnson and Ramon Rivera-Servera. (Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2017)
  • McCune, J. “Talkin’ Performance Theory: An Interview with John Keene.” In Blaktino Queer Performance: An Anthology. Eds. E. Patrick Johnson and Ramon Rivera-Servera. (Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2017)

Honors

  • Scholar-in-Residence, University of Houston-Downtown, Spring 2021.
  • Inaugural James B. Patterson Residential Fellowship, Vanderbilt University, Spring 2019.
  • Inductee, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Collegium of Scholars, Morehouse College, Spring 2019.
  • Scholar-in-Residence, American Men’s Studies Association, Spring 2018.
  • Center for Humanities Faculty Fellowship. Washington University, Fall 2017.
  • Ferguson Academic Seed Fund Grant (supporting AFTERLIFE: An Archive of Violence, a performance project which investigates how anti-black violence impacts the everyday lives of black people), Washington University Offices of the Chancellor and the Provost, 2016-2017.
  • 2015 Michael Lynch Service Award, Modern Language Association, GL/Q Caucus, January 2016.
  • 2015 National Communication Association Book Award, GLBTQ Caucus Division, November 2015.
  • Mellon Foundation Divided City Grant (supporting Ferguson Oral history Project, collection of oral narratives from activist in Ferguson, Co PI w/ Clarissa Hayward, Political Science), Washington University Center for Humanities, 2015-2016.