Teresa de Lauretis, Coiner (and Critic) of Queer Theory, Dies at 87

Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Supported by SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Teresa de Lauretis, Coiner (and Critic) of Queer Theory, Dies at 87 She came up with the term as the title of a 1990 conference but saw its later popularity as a little superficial. Listen to this article · 7:59 min Learn more Share full article By Alex Traub Feb. 26, 2026 Updated 3:13 p.m. ET Teresa de Lauretis, an academic who coined the phrase “queer theory” to describe a field of study that would “rethink the sexual in new ways,” only to watch with disappointment as the term evolved into what she called a “vacuous creature of the publishing industry,” died on Feb. 3 in San Francisco. She was 87. Her death, at a hospital, was caused by a ruptured aorta, her son, Paul Loeffler, said. The word “queer” has made a long journey. It originally denoted oddness and dubiousness. About a century ago, it became a slur for sexual behavior considered deviant. It was appropriated by some of the people it was meant to insult. It made its way into the titles of books. It became the designated field of prestigious jobs at universities. Now it is a widely understood idiom for fluid, unorthodox or countercultural sexuality. Professor de Lauretis (pronounced lauw-RAY-teece) never attained the fame of others associated with queer theory, like the academics and authors Judith Butler and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick . But her invention of the term was a significant event. “The moment that the scandalous formula ‘queer theory’ was uttered,” David Halperin, a prominent academic in the field, wrote in his 2003 essay “The Normalization of Queer Theory,” “it became the name of an already established school of theory, as if it constituted a set of specific doctrines, a singular, substantive perspective on the world.” That aura, he added, brought about “the acquisition of academic respectability for queer work.” He credited Professor de Lauretis with “courage” for pairing queer, a “scurrilous term,” with “the academic holy word”: theor...