Xavier Livermon
Biographic Data
| ID | 1249407 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Xavier Livermon |
| GIVEN NAMES | Xavier |
| FAMILY NAME | Livermon |
| SIGNATURE | LIVERMON X |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Santa Cruz |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4184-4771 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 9 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 69 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 9 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Frottage
K’eguro Macharia’s provocative study Frottage encompasses a groundbreaking analysis of gender, sexuality, and Black Diaspora. In the responses assembled here, each author engages critically with Ma...
Inxeba
In this commentary, I read the recent film Inxeba alongside Andrew Tucker’s Queer Visibilities in order to ask questions about dichotomies, the space of the rural, and the framework of visibilities for thinking through African Queer urban practices. I suggest that a careful attention to the representational practices of a film like Inxeba requires us to think in more nuanced ways about Urban African sexualities
Pivoting toward solidarity
In this commentary on Andrew Tucker's ( 2025 ) article, ‘A Sexuality Pivot,’ I discuss both the exciting possibilities and some caveats to consider as we engage critically in solidarity-oriented research. In the main, I am interested in what kinds of considerations we as researchers must engage if we are to effectively pivot toward solidarity. Here, I engage the rich history of solidarity from Abolitionist and Black feminist traditions to think t…
Kwaito Bodies
In Kwaito Bodies Xavier Livermon examines the cultural politics of the youthful black body in South Africa through the performance, representation, and consumption of kwaito, a style of electronic dance music that emerged following the end of apartheid. Drawing on fieldwork in Johannesburg's nightclubs and analyses of musical performances and recordings, Livermon applies a black queer and black feminist studies framework to kwaito. He shows how k…
Doing the right thing in post-apartheid South Africa
Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing remains a canonical and much-discussed film primarily for the way that it has been able to engender continued debate about the politics of race and representation sin
Disruptions in Respectability
What do the politics of representation present in the realm of knowledge production? This roundtable of scholars of gender, sexuality, Black, and Latino studies circle the discussion around this question by positioning politics of representation and respectability within the realm of popular culture, pornography studies, and other highly consumed forms of media. The discussion also points toward themes of intramural policing, and other forms of o…
Usable Traditions
This article examines the relationship between African customary practices and queerness in post-apartheid South Africa. I argue that black South African queers reconstitute African “tradition” and customary practices through various forms of cultural and discursive labor that function to contest the un-Africanness of same-sex sexuality and insist on visibility and communal belonging. Examining customary practices ranging from circumcision to lob…
Soweto nights
In this article, I examine black queer nightlife in Soweto and its relationship with the making of black queer space in South Africa. Through an in-depth examination of the microgeographies of a Soweto stokvel party, I reveal the complexities of post-apartheid formations of race, class, gender, and sexuality. Employing the idea of usable space, I highlight quotidian practices of leisure as an important site for understanding cultural creativity w…
Queer(y)ing Freedom
This essay argues that liberation is as much a sociocultural construct as it is a political or economic one. Extending the South African queer scholar Mikki van Zyl's analysis of the distinction between citizenship and belonging, I examine the concept of freedom in postapartheid South Africa through the lens of black queer bodies. Through an analysis of Cheaters, a popular radio program broadcast in Soweto; the late kwaito star Lebo Mathosa; and …
Queer(y)ing Freedom
This essay argues that liberation is as much a sociocultural construct as it is a political or economic one. Extending the South African queer scholar Mikki van Zyl's analysis of the distinction between citizenship and belonging, I examine the concept of freedom in postapartheid South Africa through the lens of black queer bodies. Through an analysis of Cheaters, a popular radio program broadcast in Soweto; the late kwaito star Lebo Mathosa; and …
Soweto nights
In this article, I examine black queer nightlife in Soweto and its relationship with the making of black queer space in South Africa. Through an in-depth examination of the microgeographies of a Soweto stokvel party, I reveal the complexities of post-apartheid formations of race, class, gender, and sexuality. Employing the idea of usable space, I highlight quotidian practices of leisure as an important site for understanding cultural creativity w…
Usable Traditions
This article examines the relationship between African customary practices and queerness in post-apartheid South Africa. I argue that black South African queers reconstitute African “tradition” and customary practices through various forms of cultural and discursive labor that function to contest the un-Africanness of same-sex sexuality and insist on visibility and communal belonging. Examining customary practices ranging from circumcision to lob…
Disruptions in Respectability
What do the politics of representation present in the realm of knowledge production? This roundtable of scholars of gender, sexuality, Black, and Latino studies circle the discussion around this question by positioning politics of representation and respectability within the realm of popular culture, pornography studies, and other highly consumed forms of media. The discussion also points toward themes of intramural policing, and other forms of o…
Pivoting toward solidarity
In this commentary on Andrew Tucker's ( 2025 ) article, ‘A Sexuality Pivot,’ I discuss both the exciting possibilities and some caveats to consider as we engage critically in solidarity-oriented research. In the main, I am interested in what kinds of considerations we as researchers must engage if we are to effectively pivot toward solidarity. Here, I engage the rich history of solidarity from Abolitionist and Black feminist traditions to think t…
Queer(y)ing Freedom
This essay argues that liberation is as much a sociocultural construct as it is a political or economic one. Extending the South African queer scholar Mikki van Zyl's analysis of the distinction between citizenship and belonging, I examine the concept of freedom in postapartheid South Africa through the lens of black queer bodies. Through an analysis of Cheaters, a popular radio program broadcast in Soweto; the late kwaito star Lebo Mathosa; and …
Soweto nights
In this article, I examine black queer nightlife in Soweto and its relationship with the making of black queer space in South Africa. Through an in-depth examination of the microgeographies of a Soweto stokvel party, I reveal the complexities of post-apartheid formations of race, class, gender, and sexuality. Employing the idea of usable space, I highlight quotidian practices of leisure as an important site for understanding cultural creativity w…
Usable Traditions
This article examines the relationship between African customary practices and queerness in post-apartheid South Africa. I argue that black South African queers reconstitute African “tradition” and customary practices through various forms of cultural and discursive labor that function to contest the un-Africanness of same-sex sexuality and insist on visibility and communal belonging. Examining customary practices ranging from circumcision to lob…
Disruptions in Respectability
What do the politics of representation present in the realm of knowledge production? This roundtable of scholars of gender, sexuality, Black, and Latino studies circle the discussion around this question by positioning politics of representation and respectability within the realm of popular culture, pornography studies, and other highly consumed forms of media. The discussion also points toward themes of intramural policing, and other forms of o…
Doing the right thing in post-apartheid South Africa
Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing remains a canonical and much-discussed film primarily for the way that it has been able to engender continued debate about the politics of race and representation sin
Kwaito Bodies
In Kwaito Bodies Xavier Livermon examines the cultural politics of the youthful black body in South Africa through the performance, representation, and consumption of kwaito, a style of electronic dance music that emerged following the end of apartheid. Drawing on fieldwork in Johannesburg's nightclubs and analyses of musical performances and recordings, Livermon applies a black queer and black feminist studies framework to kwaito. He shows how k…
Inxeba
In this commentary, I read the recent film Inxeba alongside Andrew Tucker’s Queer Visibilities in order to ask questions about dichotomies, the space of the rural, and the framework of visibilities for thinking through African Queer urban practices. I suggest that a careful attention to the representational practices of a film like Inxeba requires us to think in more nuanced ways about Urban African sexualities
Pivoting toward solidarity
In this commentary on Andrew Tucker's ( 2025 ) article, ‘A Sexuality Pivot,’ I discuss both the exciting possibilities and some caveats to consider as we engage critically in solidarity-oriented research. In the main, I am interested in what kinds of considerations we as researchers must engage if we are to effectively pivot toward solidarity. Here, I engage the rich history of solidarity from Abolitionist and Black feminist traditions to think t…
Frottage
K’eguro Macharia’s provocative study Frottage encompasses a groundbreaking analysis of gender, sexuality, and Black Diaspora. In the responses assembled here, each author engages critically with Ma...
Sociology (7 works) · Gender Studies (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Gender Studies (5 works) · Human sexuality (5 works) · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Law (4 works) · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy (4 works) · Epistemology (3 works)