LGBTQ +  staff experiences of negotiating the cishetmononormative university

This paper contributes to the under-researched field of LGBTQ + staff experiences in higher education. It is based on semi-structured interviews with 81 LGBTQ + staff from a Russell Group university in London and explores experiences related to gender and sexuality within this community. This paper makes a theoretical contribution to gender and higher education research by analysing how cisnormativity and mononormativity emerge as distinct features of heteronormativity. It introduces the term ‘cishetmononormativity’ to articulate the varied ways in which sexuality, gender, and relationship norms are (re)produced, and suggests this conceptualization may be useful for understanding and transforming the lives of the most marginalized LGBTQ + staff.