Dr. Amelia C. Thorpe (she/her) is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Sociology and an Adjunct Professor in Education at the University of New Brunswick. A longtime activist and community leader, Amelia is interested in queer crip leadership, accessibility and community care, knowledge sharing, and intergenerational educational and solidarity work within 2SLGBTQI+ communities. Her postdoctoral research project, The Aging Rainbow, explores accessibility, 2SLGBTQI+ inclusion, and aging in New Brunswick.
Dr. Thorpe’s research occupies a queer and liminal space at the intersection of educational and community leadership, taking up questions of identity, memory, kinship, resistance, and grassroots care. Through a lens informed by critical queer and crip theory, she employs a range of research methods, including autoethnography, autotheory, participatory visual research, and action research for social change. She is the founder of ElderPride and ConneQT NB, co-founder of Illuminate Arts Festival, and a collaborator on numerous research projects focused on 2SLGBTQI+ youth and seniors. Learn more.
Mad Queer is an intentional double entendre, meant to reflect Amelia’s identity as a Mad, queer, disabled, femme scholar and activist and gesture to the generative potential of necessary rage and resistance in the face of oppressive discourses and structures. It is this passion that reminds us of Muñoz’s (2009) assertion that queerness is not yet here and fuels a commitment to embracing embodied rage, joy, and care in our collective fight for liberatory futures.
Research Foci
2SLGBTQI+ Aging and Accessibility
Exploring ageism, ableism, intergenerational connectivity, solidarity, and community leadership with gender and sexually-diverse seniors.
Queer Crip Futures of Leadership
Deconstructing discourses of ableism, heterosexism, transmisia, sanism, colonialism, racism, and fatphobia and collectively imagining futures of change.
Knowledge Sharing
Facilitating intergenerational knowledge sharing and mentorship between seniors and young adults, focusing on lived experience, leadership, and learning.
Queer Crip Schools and Placemaking
Queering and cripping curriculum, policy, culture, and built environments in schools. Exploring the educational potential of queer placemaking.
Community Care and Mutual Aid
Weaving accessibility, intentional care, disability justice, and mutual aid into educational and community spaces through community-engaged leadership.
Digital and Social Isolation
Addressing the challenges of digital and social isolation within rural and aging communities and exploring new opportunities for connection.