Bonham Centre Professor Mari Ruti Shortlisted for a Lambda Literary Award

Congratulations to Mari Ruti and her new book The Ethics of Opting Out for being shortlisted for a Lambda Award for LGBTQ studies this year!

Find out more about Professor Ruti’s book from Colombia Unviersity Press Website:

“In The Ethics of Opting Out, Mari Ruti provides an accessible yet theoretically rigorous account of the ideological divisions that have animated queer theory during the last decade, paying particular attention to the field’s rejection of dominant neoliberal narratives of success, cheerfulness, and self-actualization. More specifically, she focuses on queer negativity in the work of Lee Edelman, Jack Halberstam, and Lynne Huffer, and on the rhetoric of bad feelings found in the work of Sara Ahmed, Lauren Berlant, David Eng, Heather Love, and José Muñoz. Ruti highlights the ways in which queer theory’s desire to opt out of normative society rewrites ethical theory and practice in genuinely innovative ways at the same time as she resists turning antinormativity into a new norm. This wide-ranging and thoughtful book maps the parameters of contemporary queer theory in order to rethink the foundational assumptions of the field.” (Colombia University Press)

“The Ethics of Opting Out grapples with the debates about utopia and negativity that have engaged queer critics for over a decade. Rather than simply taking sides, Mari Ruti works through the theoretical underpinnings of these positions, providing clear explanations and useful correctives along the way. By joining Lacanian fidelity to desire with the impulse to repair, Ruti points the way toward a queer ethics that is antinormative without being antisocial. Heather Love, Associate Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania”

https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-ethics-of-opting-out/9780231180917

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