This dissertation takes up the argument that computers are rhetorical structures that can be queered. Using cross-disciplinary methods, it examines the interplay that occurs between the layers of the computational stack – focusing in particular on the slippage between materiality, code, interface, and the resulting software – and analyzes the narratives that each layer perpetuates individually and in tandem. It applies a multi-faceted approach to queer theory in order to reveal the ways in which anti-normative computer users critique, resist, and subvert these narratives. When computers are approached as always already queer, the possibilities for disruption that exist within their limits materialize and present themselves as opportunities for intersectional exploitation. Praxis is at the heart of this project. In it, the author strives to interact with, build, and embody the technology that also serves as the object of study
