University of Lethbridge

About Me

I am a socio-legal scholar whose research is in the field of law, gender and sexuality, and theoretically informed by queer theory and critical race feminisms. Employing methodologies of feminist discourse analysis, archives, and legal history, my research program follows three inter-related arcs: (i) Marriage and Inheritance Law as regimes of state-led social reproduction; (ii) Law, Culture, and Intimacies; and newly, (iii) Racial Capitalism & Geographies of Law.

I held the Board of Governors Teaching Chair at the University of Lethbridge (2021-2023), the main outcome of which is a resource manual Teaching Beyond the Gender Binary for use by faculty members and instructors across disciplines at the University of Lethbridge. Developed in consultation with trans and gender non-conforming undergraduate and graduate students, this manual offers resources in two key areas: (i) a "best-practices" guide to creating an inclusive classroom across beyond the gender binary, across disciplines; and (ii) pedagogical strategies for what Drabinski (2011) calls "teaching transgender", that is, approaching 'trans' as a conceptual category that opens up avenues to de-centring binary gender in curricula choices.

Biography

I joined the department of Women & Gender Studies in July 2008. I received my PhD in Sociology & Equity Studies in Education from OISE/UT.

As of Fall 2021, I am cross-appointed with the department of Sociology.

In the years between my academic degrees, I worked as a Public Education Coordinator and Crisis Line Coordinator for the Ottawa Rape Crisis Centre, and also as a researcher for the National Anti-Poverty Organization.

Selected Publications

BOOKS
2023 Suzanne Lenon and Daniel Monk, eds. Inheritance Matters: Kinship, Property, Law. Bloomsbury Press.

2015 OmiSoore H. Dryden and Suzanne Lenon, eds. Disrupting Queer Inclusion: Canadian Homonationalisms and the Politics of Belonging. Vancouver: UBC Press

BOOK CHAPTERS
2023. Introduction: Why Inheritance? (with Daniel Monk). In Inheritance Matters: Kinship, Property, Law. Bloomsbury Press.

2022. "Likely to be Dangerous to Public Health": Anti-Chinese Racism and the Making of White Settler Space in Lethbridge, Alberta. In Reading Sociology: Decolonizing Canada, eds. Johanne Jean-Pierre et. al. Oxford University Press.

2019 S. Lenon. The Governmentality of Gay Rights: Queer Love in Neoliberal Times. In Governing the Social in Neoliberal Times, ed. Deborah Brock. Vancouver: UBC Press.

2015 S. Lenon and O.H. Dryden, Introduction: Interventions, Iterations, Interrogations: Disturbing the (Homo)Nation. In Disrupting Queer Inclusion: Canadian Homonationalisms and the Politics of Belonging. Vancouver: UBC Press

S. Lenon. Monogamy, Marriage and Making of Nation. In Disrupting Queer Inclusion: Canadian Homonationalisms and the Politics of Belonging. Vancouver: UBC Press

REFEREED JOURNAL ARTICLES
2022. Polygamy, State Racism, and the Return of Barbarism: The Coloniality of Evolutionary Psychology. Studies in Social Justice, 16(1): 143-161.

2020
Notes in the Margins: A Conversation about Minnie Bruce Pratt's 'Identity: Skin Blood Heart'. Feminist Formations, 32(1), 227-237 (with Serena Visser and Jaisie Walker)

Studying With, Without Guarantees: Reflections on the Risks of Taking Learning from the Classroom to the Land. Critical Education, 11(5), 1-15 (with Kara Granzow & Emily Kirbyson)

2018
'Making It Right', Keeping it White: Race and the Demand for Queer Redress. Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, 30(3), 543-566

2017
Inheritance's Intimacies and Social Change. Canadian Review of Sociology, 54(3), 366-368

'Wrongful' Inheritance: Race, Disability and Sexuality in Cramblett v. Midwest Sperm Bank. Feminist Legal Studies (with Danielle Peers) doi: 10.1007/s10691-017-9347-y

2016
Intervening in the Context of White Settler Colonialism: West Coast LEAF, Gender Equality and the Polygamy Reference, Oñati Socio-Legal Series, 6(6), 1324-1347

Unpacking Inclusion & Building Queer(er) Alliances: An Interview with OmiSoore H. Dryden and Suzanne Lenon, Upping the Anti: A Journal of Theory and Action, 18, 34-46

2013
White as Milk: Proposition 8 and the Cultural Politics of Gay Rights, Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture and Social Justice, 36(1), 44-54

2012
Hidden hegemonies of the rainbow: The racialized scaffolding of forced marriage & civil partnership in the UK, Journal of Intercultural Studies, 33(3), 275-287

2011
Why is our love an issue? Same-sex marriage and the racial politics of the ordinary, Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture, 17(3), 351-372

2008
What's so civil about marriage? The racial pedagogy of same-sex marriage in
Canada, Darkmatter, Issue 3, 26-36

2005
Marrying citizens! Raced subjects? Re-thinking the terrain of equal marriage
Discourse, Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, 17(2), 405-421


EDITED JOURNAL ISSUES
2016
Nicola Barker and Suzanne Lenon, eds. "Radically Rethinking Marriage." Oñati Socio-Legal Series, 6(6)

2015
Suzanne Lenon, Susanne Luhmann & Nathan Rambukkana, eds. "Intimacies/Affects." Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture and Social Justice, 37(1)

2014
Stacy Douglas and Suzanne Lenon, eds. "Law and Decolonization." Special Issue of Canadian Journal of Law and Society, vol. 29(2)

2009
Carastathis, A., E. Haque, S. Lenon, A. Medovarski, C. Steenbergen and J. Wayne, eds. "Women and Canadian Multiculturalism". Canadian Woman Studies, 27(2/3)

Research Interests

Inheritance as Socio-Legal Concept, Practice, Meaning(s)
Intersections of Race & Sexuality in Law and/or Culture
Queer Rights in contexts of settler colonialism & multiculturalism
Gender, Sexuality & Human Rights

Current Research and Creative Activity

Title	Location	Grant Information	Principal Investigator	Co Researchers
Contesting Difference: Diversity & Anti-Racism in Queer Socialities	Alberta, Canada	Internal SSHRC Grant, University of Lethbridge.	Suzanne Lenon
Entangled Policy Knots: Polygamy, Biopolitics and the Desire for Gender Equality	Alberta, Canada	Parkland Institute Faculty Research Award.	Suzanne Lenon
Intimate Publics: A Socio-Legal Genealogy of Polygamy	Alberta, Canada	University of Lethbridge Research Fund.	Suzanne Lenon
The Intimate Publics of Polygamy: A Socio-Legal Genealogy of Polygamy & Property Relations	Alberta, Canada	CREDO Grant.	Suzanne Lenon

Previous Research

Title	Grant Agency	Completion Date
Regulating Citizenship & Belonging: Sexuality, Race & Human Rights	University of Lethbridge Research Fund	2010

Internet Links

https://www.ulethbridge.ca/lgbtq
Teaching Beyond the Gender Binary