• Thomas Huerter

  • Queers in Cornfields: Connecting the Queer Midwest

    Queers in Cornfields: Connecting the Queer Midwest
    My thesis project responds to the issue of queer erasure in the Midwest by creating spaces to facilitate connection for queer people. Queerness and the Midwest are not mutually exclusive; they are and always have been inextricably linked. This research explores queer space, queerness, and metronormativity in the Midwest through interior design research and practice. Ideas of metronormativity reduce queer visibility and lead to queer erasure in the Midwest. The reversal of this erasure could increase queer comfort in the Midwest, as well as change Midwestern attitudes and therefore national realities. How can we increase visibility and community for queer people to change the social narrative? My design is pods located in Urban Abbey—a church and coffeeshop in Omaha, Nebraska, that is run and founded by queer women. The pods allow queer Midwesterners to connect to their history, and each other. Users can view and listen to the library from the Queer Omaha Archives at the University of Nebraska Omaha from the pod. They can also leave messages behind in communal journals, as well as open the partitions between pods to connect with each other. This project is dedicated to the queer Midwesterners whose stories matter.
  • Program Details

    Inspired by this work? Explore program features, curriculum, faculty, and more.

  • Related Work

    • Shreya Dwivedi

      Earthing Interiority: Reimagining Urban Domesticity Using Locally Foraged Materials
    • Shivani Bapna

      Dear Home: Designing Nurturing Spaces for Belonging
    • Sara Helmy

      Monster Space: Women-Exclusive Space for the Monstrous-Feminine
  • Take The Next Step

Submit your application

Undergraduates

To apply to any of our undergraduate programs (except the Bachelor's Program for Adults and Transfer Students and Parsons Associate of Applied Science programs) complete and submit the Common App online.

Undergraduate Adult Learners

To apply to any of our Bachelor's Program for Adults and Transfer Students and Parsons Associate of Applied Science programs, complete and submit the New School Online Application.

Graduates

To apply to any of our Master's, Doctoral, Professional Studies Diploma, and Graduate Certificate programs, complete and submit the New School Online Application.

Close