Robert McRuer

{{short description|American theorist (born 1966)}}

Robert McRuer (born 1966) is an American theorist who has contributed to fields in transnational queer and disability studies. McRuer is known as being one of the founding scholars involved in forming the field of queer disability studies, particularly for a theoretical outlook known as crip theory.{{cite journal |last1=Kafer |first1=Alison |title=What's Crip About Queer Theory Now? |journal=Sex Roles |date=22 August 2008 |volume=60 |issue=3–4 |pages=291–294 |doi=10.1007/s11199-008-9511-6 |s2cid=141307541 }}{{cite journal |last1=Bone |first1=Kirstin Marie |title=Trapped behind the glass: crip theory and disability identity |journal=Disability & Society |date=2017 |volume=32 |issue=9 |pages=1297–1314 |doi=10.1080/09687599.2017.1313722|s2cid=151326363 }} He is currently professor of English at The George Washington University in Washington, DC.

McRuer received his PhD from the University of Illinois in 1995, advised by Michael Bérubé.{{Cite web|url=http://departments.columbian.gwu.edu/english/people/134|title = Departments & Programs | Columbian College of Arts & Sciences | the George Washington University}}{{Cite book|url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations/docview/304189560/|title=Reading the Queer Renaissance (Doctoral Thesis)|last=McRuer|first=Robert George|publisher=University of Illinois Graduate College|year=1995|location=Urbana-Champaign, Illinois|via=ProQuest Dissertations & Theses}} His books include The Queer Renaissance: Contemporary American Literature and the Reinvention of Lesbian and Gay Identities{{Cite book|title = The Queer Renaissance: Contemporary American Literature and the Reinvention of Lesbian and Gay Identities|last = McRuer|first = Robert|publisher = New York University Press|year = 1997|isbn = 978-0814755556|location = New York}} and Crip Theory: Cultural Signs of Queerness and Disability.{{Cite book|title = Crip Theory: Cultural Signs of Queerness and Disability|last = McRuer|first = Robert|publisher = New York University Press|year = 2006|isbn = 978-0814757130|location = New York}} McRuer has also edited Sex and Disability,{{Cite book|title = Sex and Disability|last = McRuer|first = Robert|publisher = Duke University Press|year = 2012|isbn = 978-0822351542|location = Durham, NC}} with Anna Mollow, and Desiring Disability: Queer Theory Meets Disability Studies,{{Cite book|title = Desiring Disability: Queer Theory Meets Disability Studies|last = McRuer|first = Robert|publisher = Duke University Press|year = 2003|isbn = 978-0822365518|location = Durham, NC}} with Abby L. Wilkerson.

McRuer's work focuses on queer and crip cultural studies and critical theory. In 2018, NYU Press published McRuer's Crip Times: Disability, Globalization, and Resistance, a work considering locations of disability within contemporary political economies and the roles that disabled movements and representations play in countering hegemonic forms of globalization. His first book centered on contemporary LGBT writers, particularly LGBT writers of color, and his 2018 book attends to cultural sites where critical queerness and disability contest heteronormativity and compulsory able-bodiedness.{{cite web|url=http://departments.columbian.gwu.edu/english/people/134|title=Robert McRuer|publisher=The George Washington University}}