Lessons in Drag
A Queer Manual for Academics, Artists, and Aunties
Published on 29. October 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
300 pages
978-1-68458-289-1 (ISBN)
Description
Scholarship and performance combine to show how drag can be a blueprint for critique, care, teaching, and worldmaking.
Lessons in Drag brings to life a vibrant and thought-provoking dialogue between scholar Kareem Khubchandani and his drag persona LaWhore Vagistan. Beginning with an intimate interview, the book unfolds in alternating chapters where the two exchange insights, stories, and critiques. Khubchandani delves into the lessons LaWhore's drag practice offers about academia-shaping his approaches to research, teaching, and writing-while Vagistan reveals how Khubchandani's scholarship influences her performances, inspiring her understanding of fashion, music, divas, and aunties. Together, their reflections and conversations weave a compelling tapestry of drag's instructive power. Witty, bold, and deeply personal, Lessons in Drag is both an invitation to explore drag as a practice and a celebration of its transformative potential.
Lessons in Drag brings to life a vibrant and thought-provoking dialogue between scholar Kareem Khubchandani and his drag persona LaWhore Vagistan. Beginning with an intimate interview, the book unfolds in alternating chapters where the two exchange insights, stories, and critiques. Khubchandani delves into the lessons LaWhore's drag practice offers about academia-shaping his approaches to research, teaching, and writing-while Vagistan reveals how Khubchandani's scholarship influences her performances, inspiring her understanding of fashion, music, divas, and aunties. Together, their reflections and conversations weave a compelling tapestry of drag's instructive power. Witty, bold, and deeply personal, Lessons in Drag is both an invitation to explore drag as a practice and a celebration of its transformative potential.
Reviews / Votes
"Shrewdly defying the conventions that often keep academic texts dry and sequestered . . . Khubchandani and Vagistan model a way to integrate research and performance." * Hyperallergic * "Specific in its analyses of drag performance through a South Asian lens, Lessons in Drag showcases the art form as an academic medium for the study of culture, performance, and identity creation." * Foreword Reviews * "A rollicking ride through performance and gender studies theory, Lessons in Drag is like the most virtuosic of drag performances: both erudite and wildly entertaining. At this perilous historical moment when both the queer nightclub and the university classroom are under siege, Khubchandani insists on the necessity of thinking these sites together. He shows how each can inform the other in ways that are theoretically rich, joyous, and life-affirming." * Gayatri Gopinath, Impossible Desires: Queer Diasporas and South Asian Public Cultures *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
9 color plates
Dimensions
Height: 226 mm
Width: 150 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
268 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-68458-289-1 (9781684582891)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
10/2025
Brandeis University Press
€35.49
Available for download
Person
Kareem Khubchandani is associate professor of theater, dance, and performance studies and associate professor of studies in race, colonialism, and diaspora at Tufts University. He is the author of Decolonize Drag and Ishtyle: Accenting Gay Indian Nightlife and the coeditor of Queer Nightlife. LaWhore Vagistan is your favorite aunty's favorite aunty-always over-dressed, over-educated, and over-opinionated. Her music videos, including "Sari" and "There's a Stranger in My House," have been featured at international film festivals. In 2009, she cofounded the queer South Asian party Jai Ho! in Chicago, and in 2023, she launched Dragistan, an annual South Asian drag showcase in New York.
Content
Introduction: Lessons in Drag Kareem Khubchandani & LaWhore Vagistan
Chapter 1: How to do research Kareem Khubchandani
Chapter 2: How to be a drag queen LaWhore Vagistan
CHapter 3: How to teach Kareem Khubchandani
Chapter 4: How to be an aunty LaWhore Vagistan
Chapter 5: How to write Kareem Khubchandani
Chapter 6: How to be a map LaWHore Vagistan
Conclusion: How to grieve Kareem Khubchandani
Work Cited and Further Reading
Chapter 1: How to do research Kareem Khubchandani
Chapter 2: How to be a drag queen LaWhore Vagistan
CHapter 3: How to teach Kareem Khubchandani
Chapter 4: How to be an aunty LaWhore Vagistan
Chapter 5: How to write Kareem Khubchandani
Chapter 6: How to be a map LaWHore Vagistan
Conclusion: How to grieve Kareem Khubchandani
Work Cited and Further Reading