Useful In/stability: The Dialectical Production of the Social and Spatial Lesbian Herstory Archives

Queer theory's embrace of instability paints stabilizing practices as normalizing and unjust. Rather than upholding a stance of opposition by championing instability alone, what can be gleaned for queer theory by examining the tension of the in/stability dialectic? This essay reflects on the author's own embodied experience as researcher within the social and spatial dimensions of the Lesbian Herstory Archives (LHA). Informed by critical geographic studies and queer theories, the author suggests that the usefulness of in/stability—all at once together and in conflict—is part of the work toward justice that results when the archive sits in the juxtaposition rather than choose a side within the binary. The resultant practice of useful in/stability suggests a turn for queer theory and analyses by examining and struggling with concepts rather than succumbing to binarial mores.