Teaching gender fluidity through vuong’s fiction: student queer encounters in Indonesian higher education

This study examines how Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous serves as a pedagogical resource for teaching gender fluidity in Indonesian higher education. Drawing on queer pedagogy and critical literacy, it explores how contemporary fiction challenges binary gender norms and fosters gender-sensitive classroom dialogue. Using semi-structured interviews with nine students from three Indonesian universities, the study employs thematic analysis to investigate engagements with Vuong’s text. Four themes emerged: affective dissonance as a catalyst for gender reflexivity, translanguaging as a strategy for discussing non-binary identities, tensions between cultural conservatism and queer interpretations, and the transformative potential of literary ambiguity. The findings show how contemporary fiction facilitates the “undoing of gender” within classroom settings, particularly in Global South contexts where gender diversity remains marginalized. Implications for teacher education, gender-responsive curricula, and the integration of queer literature into higher education are discussed.