Duke publishes book on ‘Faggotology’

Duke University Press announced on November 22 that they would be publishing “Circuits of the Sacred: A Faggotology in the Black Latinx Caribbean,” a book by Rutgers University women’s and gender studies professor Carlos Ulises Decena.

According to the book description on Amazon, Decena defines “faggotology” as “the erotic in the divine as found in the disreputable and the excessive” and “foundational to queer black critical and expressive praxis of the future.”

Carlos Ulises Decena’s new book, “Circuits of the Sacred,” examines transnational black Latinx Caribbean immigrant queer life and spirit. Read the introduction for free now. #BlackStudies #LGBTQBookshttps://t.co/wOjmK2uJdC pic.twitter.com/qjsCJnQGqk

— Duke University Press (@DukePress) November 22, 2022

A 40 page preview of the work is available online, where the author provides “an introduction” to faggotology. 

In the introduction, he describes his book as “a mystical bottoming” and “the work of a black Latinx writer and critic in dialogue with feminist and queer theology, black and Latinx radical critical theories, and Afro-Caribbean anthropology.”

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Decena goes on to characterize himself as “the lowlife bitch narrator [who] steers in the direction of an openness that can produce ruptures—rajas that hurt but that might also hurt good, hurt hot enough to make you hard/wet: contradictions as we sit with the tingle, licking the cut or the sphincter that dilates as we press a finger or tongue or as we swallow and hold the shocks and thrusts of expressive puncture.” 

The text features extensive graphic evocations of homosexual intercourse and makes liberal use of the word “faggot.” 

Attempts are also made through the text to engage “Afro-Caribbean religions and liberation theologies from the vantage point of radical feminism and queer-of-color thinking.” Caribbean nations are overwhelmingly Christian, the author neglects to mention.

Commenters on Twitter had a variety of reactions to Duke’s announcement of the book’s publication.

“I can’t stop laughing,” one popular anonymous account tweeted. 

“I can’t believe people waste so much money to go to Duke,” another said. 

“Imagine sending your son to college and he gets his PhD in faggotology,” a third user quipped.

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Duke University Press also attracted controversy in 2017 when they published a different book, also by a Rutgers women’s and gender studies professor, critical of Israel. 

Sergei Kan, an anthropology professor at Dartmouth, described the work as “academic anti-semitism,” as it made Jewish students feel as if their faith “was being covered in dirt” and criticised it for presenting a “deliberate maligning of Israel that has no factual or almost no factual foundation.”

Duke University, a Methodist institution, has also made efforts to integrate queer theory into its religious services, and has apologized for being “insensitive” to the Chinese Communist Party.

Others have responded positively to Decana’s work. Gina Athena Ulysse, Professor of Feminist Studies at University of California, Santa Cruz, for instance, called the work “a liturgy for the future, necessary praxis on this long path to liberation.”

“Circuits of the Sacred: A Faggotology in the Black Latinx Caribbean” is scheduled to be released in March 2023. A hardcover copy can be pre-ordered for $94.95.

Campus Reform has contacted Duke University and the university press for comment on the forthcoming book; this article will be updated accordingly.