Since 1989, Scott has explored gender and sexuality through creative and scholarly modes. Feminism greatly informs this work. His aunt, Carol (Rowell) Council, co-founded the first US university women’s studies program, and his PhD advisor was the acclaimed feminist scholar Sarah Banet-Weiser.
Coming of age as a gay, cisgender man in 1980s Texas at the onset of the AIDS pandemic significantly shaped his intersectional views on gender, sexuality, race, health, and class. These appear regularly in his teaching and service. Currently he is Co-Administrator of the Clemson Inclusive Excellence Strategic Plan for the LGBTQ Commission. Active research projects include the experiences of out LGBTQ college athletes and the motivations of historic and contemporary grassroots LGBTQ researchers.
“Gender, sexuality, and romance intersect with all our other identities,” Scott says, “and, as part of interpersonal relationships, are crucial to human connection and community.”
Select Work
Gay Men and Feminist Women in the Fight for Equality: “What did You Do during the Second Wave, Daddy?” (2020, Peter Lang) examines communication between, among, and about two social movements through archival research, media analyses, focus groups, and social media network analyses. Funding support from Clemson SEED grant, Humanities Advancement Board, Faculty Development Research Program, and Pearce Center for Professional Communication. Reviewed in International Journal of Communication, QED: A Journal of LGBTQ Worldmaking, Herizons, Gay & Lesbian Review. Winner, 2021 GLBTQ Book of the Year Award from the National Communication Association.
“Fills a gaping hole in critical activist theory … a much-needed contribution” — Paula Gardner, Asper Research Chair in Communications, Department of Communication Studies and Multimedia, McMaster University, former President, International Communication Association
Book sections in Stuart Hall Lives: Cultural Studies in an Age of Digital Media, The International Encyclopedia of Communication Theory and Philosophy, No Straight Lines: 4 Decades of Queer Comics, Windy City Queer, First Person Queer, From Boys to Men, I Do / I Don't: Queers on Marriage, Pomosexuals: Challenging Assumptions about Gender & Sexuality, Best American Gay Fiction 2, Gay Men at the Millennium, Best Gay Stories 2010, Reclaiming the Heartland.
One of These Things is Not Like the Other (novel, expanded edition 2021, Rebel Satori Press; originally published 2005, Suspect Thoughts Press) explores masculine individualism through a story of identical quadruplets. Winner of the 2005 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Men’s Mystery, InsightOut Book Club Best Thriller; Nominee for Gaylactic Spectrum Awards Best Novel.
Articles, essays, and reviews in Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, Journal of Homosexuality, Annals of the International Communication Association, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Music, Sound and the Moving Image, International Journal of Communication, Women & Performance.
Love Hard: Stories 1989-2009. (2009, Rebel Satori Press)
Strategic Sex: Why They Won’t Keep It in the Bedroom (editor, 1998, Routledge) collects fiction, nonfiction, and scholarly writing on motivations for public representations of sexuality. Reviewed in Publisher’s Weekly.
Execution, TX: 1987 (novel, 1997, St. Martin’s Press) juxtaposes identity explorations of sexuality, faith, and parentage. Widely reviewed, including Village Voice and Melbourne Star-Observer. “Both funny and disturbing … I applaud him. —David Sedaris. Retrospective soundtrack
Performance Work
Performance videos and ephemera
Performance art included appearances and productions at Seattle Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Bumbershoot Literary & Arts Festival, On The Boards, The Pound, Triple Door, The Catwalk (all Seattle), 848 Community Space (San Francisco), Portland Art Museum, Rexall Rose (both Portland, OR), Zebra Crossing Theater, N.A.M.E., Club Lower Links, Randolph Street Gallery, Gallery 2, Chicago Filmmakers, Blue Rider Theater, MoMing Dance Arts Center, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Links Hall (all Chicago). Grants and commissions from National Endowment for the Arts, Portland Regional Arts and Culture Commission, Portland Art Museum.
Queer remixes: Short Films
Playlist of reworked ephemeral and found footage films, with original or public domain soundtracks.