5 Questions with First Years—Jeremy Boorum

It is with great pleasure to announce that our tradition of “5 Questions with First Years” has officially begun! First up we have Jeremy Boorum!

Jeremy Boorum (he/him) is a doctoral student in the Department of American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Originally from Rochester, New York, Jeremy completed his bachelor's degree in American Studies and Business Administration at Elmira College and then a master's degree in American Studies at Penn State Harrisburg. His research primarily focuses on queer artistic and cultural production and sits at the intersections between LGBTQ+ history, queer theory, visual and popular culture, space and place, and public humanities.

Additionally, Jeremy serves on the steering committee for the LGBT Center of Central PA History Project, a community-based public humanities initiative which documents and preserves LGBTQ+ histories in Central Pennsylvania. Throughout his time with the project, Jeremy created self-guided tour brochures of LGBTQ+ historic sites in Lancaster and York, contributed to the traveling exhibit Out on Campus: A History of LGBTQ+ Activism at Pennsylvania Colleges and Universities, wrote an encyclopedia article illustrating the history of Harrisburg's Pride Festival, and processed and digitized several of the project's archival collections at Dickinson College. Currently, he is writing an encyclopedia article about Common Roads, the region's LGBTQ+ youth activism group, as well as working on digital app versions of the project's historic site self-guided tours.

In his free time, Jeremy enjoys writing poetry and creative nonfiction, attending concerts and performances, and visiting art museums. 

What is your background, academic or otherwise, and how does it motivate your research?

I first became interested in American Studies as an undergraduate student at Elmira College. My American Studies courses originally served as both a passion project and an escape from my business curriculum. After deciding a marketing career was not in my future, I enrolled in an American Studies master’s program at Penn State Harrisburg and then continued on in their doctoral program. During this time, I honed my research and teaching interests in queer studies and became involved in numerous queer activist projects, including leading a relaunch of Penn State Harrisburg’s queer student organization and serving on the steering committee for the LGBT Center of Central PA History Project. I also had the great fortune of taking courses in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies department at Penn State’s University Park, which opened my eyes to the creative and radically imaginative possibilities for my work and ultimately inspired my decision to transfer to UT Austin. This journey motivates me to probe what may not be entirely visible in the frame and to always push the boundaries of my research to horizons previously inconceivable.

Why did you decide to come to AMS at UT for your graduate work?

Upon my first visit to Austin in March 2023, I knew AMS at UT was the place I needed to be. Right away, I could tell AMS at UT is a community I will thrive in and a department where I can embrace the type of creative scholarly production I most desire. Additionally, having spent my entire life in the same five hour geographic radius in the Northeastern United States, I could sense now was the time to channel my inner Sagittarius spirit and move to a new destination different from all I have known before.

What projects or people have inspired your work? 

I am most inspired by works which help me to visualize beauty in new and exciting ways amidst the backdrop of a fraught world. Works which exist on my American Studies “mixtape” (to borrow from Phil Deloria and Alex Olson) include Jack Parlett’s The Poetics of Cruising, José Esteban Muñoz’s Cruising Utopia, Daphne Brooks’ Liner Notes for the Revolution, Jack Gieseking’s A Queer New York, Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room, Larry Mitchell’s The F****** and Their Friends Between Revolutions, Audre Lorde’s “A Litany for Survival,” Robert Frank’s The Americans, David Wojnarowicz’s Close to the Knives, Patti Smith’s Just Kids, and any album by Depeche Mode.

What projects do you see yourself working on at UT?

My research sits at the intersections between queer studies, visual culture, performance theory, and popular music studies. I am most interested in exploring the ways in which queerness and visuality circulate in transatlantic popular music, especially during the 1970s and 1980s. Other potential projects which captivate my interests include a queer cultural history of the mixtape and a cultural biography about the B-52’s, tentatively titled Cosmic Satellites. Beyond my academic research, I also hope to become involved in a queer public history project in Austin or Texas more broadly.

What are your goals for graduate school? What do you see yourself doing after you graduate?

My primary goals for graduate school are to expand the types of research questions I seek to answer and to clearly articulate the ways in which I want my work to circulate both inside and outside academia. After graduating, I could see myself working as a faculty member in an art or media department, as a curator in an art museum, or as a freelance creative writer. At the same time, visions of becoming a lead singer in a dance-oriented rock band or owning a cheese shop always loom in the imagination.

Bonus: In your own words, what is American Studies?

A cacophonous sound residing in the liminal spaces between hope and despair, love and loss, passion and disillusionment.