Lesbian, Gay Bisexual and Transgender Issues
Esrea Perez-Bill, n/a
Research Project Coordinator
Northwestern University, Illinois, United States
Erik Elías Glenn, MSW
Senior Project Manager
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Medical Social Sciences, United States
Gregory Phillips, II, PhD, MS (he/him/his)
Associate Professor
Northwestern University
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Dylan Felt, MPH
Research Project Manager
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Medical Social Sciences
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Location: Room 206
Abstract Information: As LGBTQ+ Evaluation has gained ground in the mainstream discourses of program evaluation, we have been thrilled to see it warmly welcomed by many in our field. In 2022, we closed our Special Issue of New Directions for Evaluation on LGBTQ+ Evaluation by inviting ten evaluators to offer their insights on where they hope this framework can go next. In the spirit of continuing this line of inquiry and opening an invitation to the field to move beyond welcoming this work and towards helping to build it, we propose this session as a way to highlight what we see as key areas of growth for LGBTQ+ Evaluation, and to invite attendees to become active participants in this growth. Specifically, we identify several priority areas for future work, including but not limited to: 1) Indigenous and international insights; 2) sub-group specific, intersectional perspectives; 3) practice-based examples of LGBTQ+ Evaluation thinking and its impacts; 4) more holistic engagement with existing critical traditions; and 5) expanding, refining, or challenging the set of principles we articulated in our special issue. Through this roundtable session, we hope to support the expansion of the community of individuals working to develop LGBTQ+ Evaluation principles and practices, and to cultivate a new generation of individuals ready to tell their own LGBTQ+ Evaluation stories. Therefore, we will share insights we have cultivated along our own journeys in developing conference proposals, workshops, evaluation project proposals, and manuscripts to support others to develop their voices as LGBTQ+ Evaluators as well.
Relevance Statement: LGBTQ+ Evaluation has, finally, achieved some recognition in the mainstream of evaluation theory and practice. 2022 saw the publication of a number of major scholarly works in the area, including a review of gaps and opportunities in current practice published in the American Journal of Evaluation and a special issue detailing principles, theory, and practices of LGBTQ+ Evaluation in New Directions for Evaluation, both led by our team. These were crucial to helping our field develop to tell more holistic, affirming, and liberatory LGBTQ+ stories. However, this is not where the work of LGBTQ+ Evaluation stops, and now is the time to think about where we go next. While our team has led the work of articulating LGBTQ+ Evaluation within evaluation theory and practice, we are eager to see the work develop beyond us. With this in mind, it is essential that many more evaluators be encouraged to take up the work of developing this field as it grows and expands through finding their own voices as LGBTQ+ Evaluation storytellers. We therefore propose this session as an opportunity to highlight priority areas for the expansion and growth of LGBTQ+ Evaluation as theory and practice, and to support a new generation of Evaluators to tell their own LGBTQ+ Evaluation stories. These priorities include, among others: 1) Indigenous and International perspectives on LGBTQ+ Evaluation, which advance work which expands beyond the normative limitations of “LGBTQ+” as a sociopolitical group and term, and uplifts a fuller diversity of experiences of sex, gender, and sexuality. 2) Sub-group specific, focused scholarship which centers the situated knowledge and expertise of smaller LGBTQ+ communities, with an emphasis on intersectional perspectives which illuminate and challenge the interlocking systems of power and domination that push certain communities to the margins—even the margins of already-marginalized communities. 3) Examples from practice of how LGBTQ+ insights have strengthened specific evaluation projects, focused on surfacing how LGBTQ+ perspectives informed evaluation decision-making in ways which ultimately contributed to the success and impact of the project—whether the project was LGBTQ+-specific or not. Similarly, examples from both LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+ evaluators are needed, as well as from evaluators representing the spectrum of emerging to established practice. 4) Scholarship which situates LGBTQ+ Evaluation more holistically within existing critical traditions—for example, work which explores the ways in which both LGBTQ+ and Evaluator identities are produced within a capitalist society, and the potential for evaluation, often used as a capitalist tool, to either reinforce or resist capitalist modes of extraction in its practice with LGBTQ+ people. 5) Expansion, refinement, or resistance to the principles we proposed in our 2022 Special Issue of New Directions for Evaluation. This session is an essential next step to ensure the work of LGBTQ+ Evaluation continues to take hold in our field. At a time of growing anti-LGBTQ+ violence and political animus, it is essential that as many evaluators as possible embrace LGBTQ+ principles and perspectives to tell affirming and impactful stories of LGBTQ+ life through our work.