Queering the Administrative Brew: A Possible Impossibility

Drawing on decades of administrative leadership experience, Alexander describes the sometimes uneasy relationship between his identity as an academic leader and as a publicly queer person and scholar. In the former role, he is expected to uphold the norms of the institution and normalized expectations for what higher education is for and produces. But as a queer administrator, he is committed to questioning and challenging these same norms. Instead of trying to reconcile these identities, Alexander writes about the ways in which he uses this irreconcilability to produce new understandings and practices—for example, regarding what counts as “student success.”