My research examines the relationships between 2SLGBTQ activists seeking social justice, and the state. My current SSHRC-funded research project offers insights into the current state of 2SLGBTQ political organizing in Canada in relation to various police organizations.
I have published and forthcoming works on 2SLGBTQ politics, specifically on the following topics: same-sex marriage activism in California; the history of 2SLGBTQ politics in Alberta; 2SLGBTQ refugees in the Canadian refugee system; homonationalism and the Canadian criminal justice system; the uses of anger as a tool in 2SLGBTQ activism; and the politics of police in 2SLGBTQ communities.
My research and teaching are informed by my work as a white settler queer activist in Edmonton (amiskwacîwâskahikan, Treaty 6) where I have contributed to various social justice projects as a community organizer and agitator, public educator, union member, columnist, queer arts festival co-chair, and radio producer and host.
B.Soc.Sci., Political Science, University of Ottawa
M.A., Political Science, University of Alberta
Ph.D., Political Science, University of Alberta
DeGagne, Alexa. 2023. “Chapter Ten: Genders and Sexualities,” Critical Concepts: An Introduction to Politics, Sixth Edition. Janine Brodie, Sandra Rein and Malinda Smith, Eds. Oxford University Press.
DeGagne, Alexa. 2023. “Apologies and Raids: Public Sex, LGBTQ2S Communities and Neoliberalism in the Detention State” in Neoliberal Contentions: Diagnosing the Present. Lois Harder, Catherine Kellogg, Steve Patten, Eds. University of Toronto Press.
DeGagne, Alexa and Megan Gaucher. 2021. “The Thin Blue Line between Protection and Persecution: Policing LGBTQ2S Refugees in Canada,” Building Abolition: Decarceration and Social Justice. Chloe Taylor and Kelly Struthers Montford, Eds. Routledge.
DeGagne, Alexa. 2021. “Protecting Cisnormative Private and Public Spheres: The Canadian Conservative Denunciation of Transgender Rights,” Studies in Social Justice 15(3): 497-517.
DeGagne, Alexa. 2020. “Pinkwashing Pride Parades: The Politics of Police in LGBTQ2S Spaces in Canada” in Turbulent Times, Transformational Possibilities? Gender and Politics Today and Tomorrow. Fiona MacDonald and Alexandra Dobrowolsky, Eds. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
DeGagne, Alexa. 2019. "The Federal New Democratic Party and LGBTQ Communities and Politics." In Queering Representation: LGBTQ People and Electoral Politics in Canada. Manon Tremblay, Ed. Vancouver: UBC Press.
DeGagne, Alexa. 2018. “Defining Sexuality through the Courts in California's Proposition 8,” Journal of Homosexuality 65(14): 1957-1984.
DeGagne, Alexa. 2018. “On Anger and Its Uses for Activism.” In Contemporary Inequalities and Social Justice in Canada. Janine Brodie, Ed. University of Toronto Press.
DeGagne, Alexa. 2015. “’Severely Queer’ in Western Canada: LGBT2Q Activism in Alberta.” In Queer Mobilizations: Social Movement Activism and Canadian Public Policy. Manon Tremblay, Ed. UBC Press.Trevenen,
Kathryn and Alexa DeGagne. 2015. “Homonationalism at the Border and in the Streets: Organizing against Exclusion and Incorporation.” In Disrupting Queer Inclusion: Canadian Homonationalisms and the Politics of Belonging. OmiSoore H. Dryden and Suzanne Lenon, Eds. UBC Press.
Gaucher, Megan and Alexa DeGagne. 2014. “Guilty Until Proven Prosecuted: The Canadian State’s Assessment of Sexual Minority Refugee Claimants and the Invisibility of the non-Western Sexual non-Citizen,” Social Politics:International Studies in Gender, State & Society.
DeGagne, Alexa. 2013. “Queer Bedfellows of Proposition 8: Adopting Social Conservative and Neoliberal Political Rationalities in California’s Same-Sex Marriage Fight.” Studies in Social Justice 7 (1): 107-124.
Brodie, Janine and Alexa DeGagne. 2013. “Chapter Five: Neo-Liberalism.” In Critical Concepts: An Introduction to Politics, Fifth Edition. Janine Brodie, Sandra Rein and Malinda Smith, Eds. Pearson Canada.
DeGagne, Alexa. 2012. “Queering the language of ‘sexual minorities’ in Canada.” In Beyond the Queer Alphabet: Conversations in Gender, Sexuality and Intersectionality. M.S. Smith and F. Jaffer, Eds. Ottawa: Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences.