Areas of Interest and Specialization: Dustin Goltz teaches a range of courses in performance and intercultural communication, with specific focus on polarization, DEI, interpretation, and critical performances of identity.
Goltz's training is grounded in intercultural dialogue—the process of speaking and constructing meaning across differing cultures and identities—with a specific focus on rhetorical framing, critical audiencing, and polarization. In his research, he studies the underlying values, norms and practices that facilitate and impede communication across difference. From tensions between queerness and the LDS church and intergenerational queer tensions, to US/Mexican Border discourses and public controversies around stand-up comedy, Goltz's research is an investigation of how we produce rigid categories of “us" and “them" and the dangerous impact of these patterns of behavior. The methodology of his work spans from creative focus group and group dialogue research to media criticism and live performance. His work is deeply influenced by queer theory, critical theory, and dramatism, with a strong focus on intergenerational and intersectional tensions within the queer community. He also works as a consultant and workshop leader in the areas of DEI training, DEI conflict resolution, and media advocacy.
Book Projects: Goltz is the author of Comic Performativities: Identity, Internet Outage and the Aesthetics of Communication (Routledge, 2017) and Queer Temporalities in Gay Male Representation: Tragedy, Normativity, and Futurity , (Routledge, 2010). He is also the editor Our Legacies: Writings from Chicago's Older Gay Men (iUniverse, 2011), and co-editor of Queer Praxis: Questions for LGBTQ Worldmaking (Peter Lang, 2015) and Communicating Identity: Critical Approaches (Cognella, 2011). Additionally, his research has been published in over three dozen book chapters and scholarly articles, including the edited collections "Border Rhetorics: Citizenship and Identity on the U.S./Mexican Frontier;" "The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Communication," "The Routledge Handbook of Queer Rhetorics;" and "Text & Performance Quarterly;" "Journal of Homosexuality;" "Journal of Lesbian Studies;" "Journal of International and Intercultural Communication;" " Western Journal of Communication;" Critical Studies in Media Communication;" "Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies;" and "Qualitative Inquiry."
Art and Performance Work: As an artist and a performer, Goltz produces solo and collaborative multimedia work. His performance projects each look to aesthetic modes of communication for exploring difficult questions with live audiences. In "Unspeakable: A Gay Future Project," he scripted and staged an intergenerational dialogue of aging myths and tensions between queer student participants at DePaul and a writing group of LGBTQ seniors from Chicago’s Center on Halsted, which he also organized. Surrounding the controversial postponement of his one person show "Banging the Bishop: Latter Day Prophecy," he staged the trigger script performance "X-Communication," inviting various stakeholders in the Phoenix LDS and ASU community to come together and process deeply held opinions about the controversial production through a post-show dialogue process. His most recent work, "Fred Astaire's Dancing Lessons" is a 70 minute, one-person, multimedia, performative examination of shifting and controversial perceptions of queer history, queer male aging and intergenerational mentorship across the last 40 years. Additional recent performance projects include "Blasphemies on Forever: Remembering Queer Futures;" I Can't (Death) Drive 55;" as well as multiple collaboration process dialogues, including "In-Appropriation: Race, Queerness, and The Politics of Intimacy;" "Lines in the Sand: Fear and Loss at the U.S. Mexican Border;" and "Undressing Academia."
Select Recent Publications
Books
- Comic Performativities: Identity, Internet Outrage, and the Aesthetics of Communication (Routledge, 2017)
- Queer Praxis: Questions of LGBTQ Worldmaking (Ed. w. Jason Zingsheim) (Peter Lang, 2015)
- Communicating Identity: Critical Approaches (Ed. w. J. Zingsheim) (Cognella Publishing, 2011)
- Our Legacies: Writings from Chicago's Older Gay Men (Ed.) (iUniverse, Inc., 2011)
- Queer Temporalities in Gay Male Representation: Tragedy, Normativity, and Futurity (Routledge, 2010)
Journal Articles
- "Youthist and Queer Temporalities in Lopez's 'The Inheritance.'" in QED: A Journal for LGBTQ Worldmaking (2021)
- "Queer Generativity: Temporal Collisions of Fred Astaire's Dancing Lessons" in Text & Performance Quarterly (2021)
- "The Non Sense: A Performative Examination of 7 Days After the Pulse Nightclub Massacre." Qualitative Inquiry (2017)
- "Narrating Sexual Identities in Kenya: "Choice," Value, and Visibility," with J. Zingsheim, T. Mastin, and A. G. Murphy. Journal of Lesbian Studies (2017)
- "Discursive negotiations of Kenyan LGBTI Identities: Cautions in Cultural Humility," with J. Zingsheim, T. Mastin, and A. G. Murphy. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication (2016)
- “Amy Schumer's Big (White) Balls." Text & Performance Quarterly (2015)
- “We're Not in OZ Anymore: Shifting Perspectives of Gay Community, Identity, and Generativity." Journal of Homosexuality (2014)
- "'Sensible' Suicides, Brutal Selfishness, and John Hughes's Queer Bonds." Cultural Studies <-> Critical Methodologies (2013)
- “It Gets Better: Queer Futures, Critical Frustrations, and Radical Potentials." Critical Studies in Media Communication (2013)
- “The Critical-Norm: The Performativity of Critique and the Potentials of Performance." Text & Performance Quarterly (2013)
- "(Love)sick Aliens in the Wasteland: Queer Temporal Camp in Araki's Teen Apocalyptic Trilogy." Critical Studies in Media Communication (2012)
- "Frustrating the 'I': Critical Dialogic Reflexivity with Personal Voice." Text & Performance Quarterly (2011)
- "The Intersectional Workings of Whiteness: A Representative Anecdote," with J. Zingsheim. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies (2011)
Published Performances (Online)
Extended Reference Publications
Book Chapters
- "Rhetorics of Gay Future and Queer Futurity: Strategies of Disruption." Eds. J. Rhodes & J. Alexander. Routledge Handbook of Queer Rhetoric (Routledge, 2022)
- "Queer Resistance as Daily Praxis" with J. Zingsheim. Eds. M. N. Goins, J. F. McAlister & B. K. Alexander. Queer Praxis (Routledge, 2021)
- “Still looking: Temporality and Gay Aging in U.S. Television." Eds. A. Wohlman & M. Oró-Piqueras. Serializing Age: Age & Aging in Television Series. (2016)
- "On my our Way: Gay Suicidal Logics and Queer Survival on Glee." Eds. B. C. Johnson & D. Faill. Glee and New Directions for Social Change (Sense Publications, 2015)
- “Overcoming the Villainous Monster: The Beginnings of Heroic Gay Male Aging." Eds. N. Jones & B. Batchelor. Aging Heroes: Growing Old in Popular Culture. (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015)
Awards
- Randy Majors Memorial Award for Outstanding Contributions to LGBTQ Scholarship in Communication Studies (2018)
- Ellis-Bochner Autoethnography and Personal Narrative Research Award (2013)
- NCA Lilla A. Heston Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Interpretation and Performance Studies (2013)
Media