Asexuality and Disability: Structuring and Exploring Education-Centric Theories and Research through Combined Experience

Abstract

This dissertation-by-publication introduces and examines historical and theoretical foundations of asexuality and its potential use as a critical theory set in higher education and Human Resource Development (HRD) contexts, including critical asexuality's applied use when combined with queer theory and disability theory (aka, "crip" theory). The three articles contained within included (1) a conceptual piece discussing concepts of Homonormativity and applications within queer studies in education, (2) a qualitative study of 19 college-aged participants representing varied gender and sexual identities navigating online consent conversations as mediated through dating apps, and (3) a qualitative study of 9 Critical HRD scholars discussing critical research and teaching, including the lack of proliferation of critical applications outside of academia. Collective findings of the three articles were filtered through the theoretical lenses of asexuality and crip theory, including (1) queer definitions and re-definitions, (2) concepts of expansiveness, (3) hypersexualization and de-sexualization, (4) disaffiliation, disaggregation, and disidentification, and four different definitional/conceptual understandings of asexuality: (1) oppositional understandings, (2) relational understandings, (3) embodied understandings, and (4) social understandings. Collective implications were filtered through the lens of current sociopolitical climate, and include discussion of asexuality and crip theory's (1) broad applicability and interaction with existing frameworks, (2) interactions with powerful systems, and (3) requirements for a change in approach, including the need for Tolerance for Error (a Universal Design concept), the lack of reflexive self-critique of DEI applications, and the need for restorative practices both applied to and expanded beyond current research