Call for Papers: Feminisms and Queer Sexualities (The Korean Association for Feminist Studies in English Literature Conference)

Deadline: 31 December 2011

This conference seeks to explore the complex historical, theoretical, and textual relationships between feminisms and queer sexualities, and to examine the (re)significations of this dynamic in literature and culture. Writers of color, community activists, or sexual minorities have forcefully argued that experiences of patriarchy are deeply inflected by differences in sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, class, age, and national (dis)privilege. It thus seems only natural today to refer to feminisms in their plurality, such as first/third world feminism, black feminism, lesbian feminism, liberal feminism, radical feminism, women of color feminism, transgendered feminism, and ¡°queer feminism.¡± There is, of course, often an analytic separation between gender and sexuality in actual practices of reading and critique. Queer sexual identifications in the most inclusive sense of gay/lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, and transvestite, and ¡°nonnormative¡± sexual practices such as prostitution, sex work, nonmonogamy, public sex, and sadomasochism have been politely relegated to a separate realm from feminism. Yet a serious engagement with gender would de facto entail the understanding of sexuality as not separate but additive; and thus ¡°queer¡± as not simply exclusive to ¡°queer-identified¡± texts, performances, productions, and authors.

The purpose of this conference is to probe the ways in which ¡°feminism¡± and ¡°queer¡± are intimately related in their continuous reckoning with reductive definitions of human identity and difference, and in their commitment to contest all oppressive conditions of fixity and containment. We hope to address questions such as ¡°What are the historical, material, and discursive dis/continuities between feminism and queer theory? What is queer feminism/feminist queering? What is a feminist text/critique and a queer text/critique? How do literary/cultural productions as representations engage in the overlapping of or disruptions between feminism and queer?

In lieu of symptomatic readings that concentrate on how ¡°feminist¡± or ¡°queer¡± texts signify feminist or queer ideologies, we hope to open up discussions of how issues of sexuality and gender are informing of all narratives, through their elision or othering, as well as in their textual prominence. We invite the voices of scholars in various disciplines including literature, film, theatre, media, performance, gender, sexuality, queer, sociology, anthropology, and translation. Papers can address a broad range of topics not restricted to those below:

• Queer feminism and feminist queering
• Feminism and transgender/transvestite
• Feminism, transnational sex tourism, and (queer) prostitution
• Feminist and queer literary/film/performance studies/critique
• Feminist and queer narratologies/stylistics
• Feminist and queer personal narratives/life writing/autobiographies
• Feminism, queer sexualities, and capitalism/colonialism/postcolonialism
• Queer and cultural studies

A 250-word abstract and one-page CV are requested by December 31, 2011, to the FSEL Organizing Committee at fselconf2012@gmail.com. Accepted papers will be announced by the end of February 2012.

Contact Information:

For inquiries: fselconf2012@gmail.com

For submissions: fselconf2012@gmail.com

Website: http://www.fsel.org/

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Call for Papers: Queer Gilman (Berkeley, CA)

Deadline: 15 August 2011

We are seeking a third paper for a proposed panel on Queer Gilman for c19, the conference of the Society of Nineteenth-Century Americanists, to be held in Berkeley, California, April 12-15, 2012.

As one of the central figures of second-wave literary recovery, Charlotte Perkins Gilman has long been recognized for her strident feminism, her socialism, and of course, her now canonical 1892 short story, “The Yellow Wall-Paper.” While scholars have acknowledged the complicated interdependence of her feminism with eugenic and nativist strains of thinking, we have only begun to subject Gilman’s work to contemporary critical models, particularly queer theory. This is all the more surprising given that her published letters reveal sustained and passionate intimacies with women and her fiction is rife with depictions of homosocial utopias, failed heterosexual unions, and non-normative gender behavior.

In keeping with the conference’s theme of “Prospects,” we hope to rediscover Gilman through the lens of queer theory. How might queer theory help us to understand her relationship to region or genre? How might we more sufficiently explore what Alys Eve Weinbaum calls “the decidedly ‘queer’ sexual politics that . . . constitute her relentless racial nationalism”? What does Gilman’s critique of “true womanhood” suggest about her vision of heteronormativity? How does our knowledge of her same-sex intimacies inform her work? We welcome papers that use queer theory to interrogate Gilman’s short stories, novels, poetry, and non-fiction.

Please send 500-word abstracts and brief cvs to Sari Edelstein (sedelste@skidmore.edu) or Peter Betjemann (Peter.Betjemann@oregonstate.edu) by August 15.

Contact Information:

For inquiries: Sari Edelstein (sedelste@skidmore.edu) or Peter Betjemann (Peter.Betjemann@oregonstate.edu)

For submissions: Sari Edelstein (sedelste@skidmore.edu) or Peter Betjemann (Peter.Betjemann@oregonstate.edu)

Website: http://www.facebook.com/C19.Americanists

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Call for Papers on Transvestitism in Fiction and Drama: Transatlantic Gender-Crossings (NeMLA Convention, NY)

Deadline: 30 September 2011

This panel seeks papers on gender-crossings in fiction and drama by authors on both sides of the Atlantic. Topics might include a variety of literary and performative crossings, which transgress and re-imagine gender roles, or challenge the notion of discrete binaries of gender and sexuality. Of particular interest are papers that explore the ways in which literary masquerades, transvestitisms, and carnivalesque versions of gender or sexual identity intersect with issues of race, class, and national identity.

Mikhael Bakhtin sees the carnivalesque performance itself as a “temporary liberation from the prevailing truth and from the established order; it mark[s] the suspension of all hierarchical rank, privileges, norms, and prohibitions.” For Judith Butler, all gender is performative, but she distinguishes between the “punitive and regulatory social conventions” at stake for “doing gender wrong” in the real world and the socially acceptable gendered act in a stage performance. In the real world, with “no theatrical conventions to delimit the purely imaginary character of the act . . . there is no presumption that the act is distinct from a reality.” In what ways is a carnivalesque performance an expression of real identities or desires, and in what ways is it an expression of the imagination? In what ways does masquerade or transvestitism allow the performer to merge real and imaginary identities? Proposals on American, British, or Caribbean literatures from the long eighteenth-century to the present will be considered.

Please submit a 250-300 word abstract to Anita Duneer at aduneer@ric.edu.

Please include with your abstract:

• Name and Affiliation
• Email address
• Postal address
• Telephone number
• A/V requirements ($10 handling fee with registration per person; two person per panel minimum for Media Projector)

The 43rd Annual Convention will feature approximately 350 sessions, as well as dynamic speakers and cultural events. For the complete Call for Papers for the 2012 convention, visit www.nemla.org.

Interested participants may submit abstracts to more than one NeMLA session; however, panelists can only present one paper (panel or seminar). Convention participants may present a paper at a panel and also present at a creative session or participate in a roundtable. Do not accept a slot if you may cancel to present on another session.

Contact Information:

For inquiries: Anita Duneer at aduneer@ric.edu

For submissions: Anita Duneer at aduneer@ric.edu

Website: http://www.nemla.org/

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Call for Papers: After 'Homosexual' - The Legacy of Gay Liberation (La Trobe University, Australia)

Deadline: 5 August 2011

Hosted by the Gender, Sexuality and Diversity Program at La Trobe University In conjunction with the Australian Lesbian & Gay Archives and Midsumma

Keynote Speakers: Professor Jeffrey Weeks, London Southbank University Additional speakers to be confirmed

Forty years ago, a young Australian expat living in the USA synthesised the politics of the emerging gay liberation movement in a provocative book called Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation. Described by the New York Times then as ‘the one to read’ and consistently ranked as one of the most influential books about homosexuality in the English language, Homosexual marked a significant milestone in the development of gay and lesbian politics and served a key role in the personal development of many people. It has been reprinted multiple times and translated into several languages. The book’s author, Dennis Altman, went on to have a career as one of Australia’s leading public intellectuals, an important writer on US politics, Australia/US relations, the politics of HIV/AIDS, and studies of sexuality, particularly in Asia and the Pacific.

In recognition of the fortieth anniversary of the publication of Homosexual and to mark Professor Altman's retirement, this international conference will bring together leading and emerging scholars to reflect on the impact of Homosexual and the legacy of gay liberation. The conference organising committee is calling for paper and panel proposals on questions relating to:

- Homosexual's publication and reception
- the political philosophy of gay liberation
- the relationship between queer theory and gay and lesbian studies
- literature of oppression and liberation
- gender and sexual politics
- gay liberation's connections to other social movements (such as feminism, socialism, anti-racism and the counterculture)
- transgender movements and gay liberation
- the relationship between academia and activism
- the politics of identity, then and now
- contemporary gender and sexuality movements
- other topics related to Homosexual or the legacy of gay liberation

The conference organisers plan to publish selected conference papers in a special issue of a leading academic journal.

Abstracts of 200 words are due by 5 August 2011. All abstracts will be reviewed by the conference committee. Unfortunately at this time there are no funds to assist conference attendees with their expenses.

For further details or to submit abstracts, please contact Mark Pendleton at m.pendleton@latrobe.edu.au

After Homosexual:
The Legacy of Gay Liberation
An International Conference
2-4 February 2012
Melbourne, Australia

Contact Information:

For inquiries: m.pendleton@latrobe.edu.au

For submissions: m.pendleton@latrobe.edu.au

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Call for Papers: Writing Queerly (NEMLA 2011, New York)

Deadline: 30 September 2011

‘Queer’ is often understood as a form of resistance or destabilization. This destabilization is most frequently applied to temporal or spatial subjects: the queerness of the future or the past has been a popular subject, as has the queering of towns or streets. Scholars such as Judith Halberstam, José Esteban Muñoz, and Scott Herring have explored the term ‘queer’ as well as what queerness does to our understanding of time and space. Language has not been ignored in this theoretical history. Those scholars who have focused on language, however, have most often looked to the spoken word.

This panel seeks papers that explore the possibility of a queer style of writing, particularly what it might look like or mean to write queerly. Of particular interest are papers that closely read works published ‘before’ the advent of queer identification; however, this call is meant to be interpreted broadly. What might queer style reveal about literary interpretation, or the possibilities and problems of ‘queer’ as a mode of identification? Send inquiries or abstracts of no more than 300 words to Jessica Lewis-Turner at jlewturn@temple.edu before September 30, 2011.

Contact Information:

For inquiries: jlewturn@temple.edu

For submissions: jlewturn@temple.edu

Website: http://www.nemla.org/convention/

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Call for Papers: A Queerer Time, A Queerer Place (Association for Theatre in Higher Education)

Deadline: 31 March 2011

CFP: LGBT Debut Panel for ATHE 2011 (“A Queerer Time, A Queerer Place”)

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Focus Group of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) invites submissions for its debut panel from scholars who have not yet presented at a national conference. The deadline for submissions is March 31, 2011.

The overarching theme for the 2011 ATHE Conference in Chicago is “Performance Remains, Global Presence: Memory, Legacy, and Imagined Futures,” which has inspired the LGBT Focus Group’s riff on that theme, ““A Queerer Time, A Queerer Place.” As the conference on the whole challenges us to transcend national borders and disciplinary lines, as well as to think about theatre’s ostensible insistence on repetition and presence, the LGBT Focus Group is especially interested in presentations exploring the specific ways in which LGBTQ scholars, performers, audiences, educators, and students negotiate the local, the global, time, space, and their queer interpenetrations. At the same time, all proposals on LGBT theatre and performance will receive equal consideration.

Both graduate students and faculty members are eligible to submit. Submissions will be evaluated and selected for presentation by a jury of scholars of theatre and performance, who are yet to be named.

Selection of papers is competitive. Authors of selected papers will present them at the ATHE conference, which will be held August 11-14, 2011, at the Palmer House Hilton Hotel in Chicago, Illinois. All presenters must register and pay the appropriate fees for the conference. Conference presenters should be ATHE members unless they work outside the academic study of theatre and performance. For information on the conference (including applicable costs), please visit http://www.athe.org/conference/index.

Papers should be an appropriate length for a 15- to 20-minute presentation (approximately eight pages). Submit your paper and a cover sheet as email attachments to LGBT Conference Planner Nick Salvato (ngs9[at]cornell.edu). You should receive an acknowledgment of receipt within two days.

To maintain anonymity, please do not put your name in the body of the paper. On the cover sheet, include the title of your paper, your name, address, telephone number, and email address. Applicants will be informed of the judges’ decisions by May 1, 2011. Questions or concerns may be directed to Nick Salvato.

More information here.

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Call for Papers: Youth, Sexuality and Self-Expression in the Arab World

Deadline: 6 February 2011

Youth, Sexuality and Self- Expression in the Arab World

A Conference and Call for Papers

Conference date: April 6-7, 2011, at AUB, Beirut, Lebanon

Sexuality implies biology and the physiological bodies of men and women that are the same all over the world. Yet, sexuality is regulated and experienced in a very different manner from one culture to the next. These cultural codings of sexuality have deep repercussions on the way young people, or even children, are introduced to and experience sexuality in each culture, and how they make decisions about their own behavior.

This inter-disciplinary conference will explore some of the research conducted in this field, examine how culture, religion, social and political values, economics and science shape and define sexuality in each culture, with a particular focus on youth under the age of 30, and explore different manners in which young people in the Middle East or among migrant communities outside the region express sexual themes through cultural and artistic production. These issues will be tackled by academic researchers, along with artists who have grappled with the subject matter in their work. We anticipate that issues discussed at the conference will contribute to shaping some youth-related research agendas in the Middle East in the years ahead.

This conference is organised by the Goethe-Institut and the youth program of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at AUB. We invite abstracts related to the above topic from all relevant academic fields and from artists and others involved with youth in their communities. We anticipate that proposed papers would summarize the work and research that the authors are already engaged in.

Possible themes:

• Gender, feminism(s) and the struggle for sexual equality
• Health/medicine regulation of sexuality
• Reproductive health and sexuality education
• Sexualizing the bodies: Perceptions and expressions
• Beyond heterosexuality: LGBTQI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Q and Intersex) challenging and reproducing sexual hegemonies
• Sexuality construction and Orientalism (colonialism) perspective
• Deconstructing sexualities: Religious and cultural perspectives
• Sexuality and the state: Policies, laws, and permissible and forbidden subjects for public discussion
• Pleasure, desire and sexuality
• Sexuality and media: Cyberspace, the media and online social networks constructing and deconstructing sexual values, expectations, relations and practices.
• How sexuality in advertising, cinema, television and other media influence youth’s attitudes and behavior
• The arts performing, reproducing and questioning sexualities
• The political economy of sexuality
• Discourses on sex among youth in cyberspace and other arenas
• The sexual behavior and experiences of youth
• Other issues related to youth, sexuality and self-expression in the Arab World.

Please submit proposals to: director@beirut.goethe.org

Proposals should contain:

• Title
• Abstract - 200 words
• Biography - 100 words maximum
• Keywords - 5 maximum

The languages of the conference are Arabic and English. We expect papers of between 2500-5000 words long. A total of 20 presentations will be made over the two days of the conference, and the authors of papers accepted will have their transport to Beirut and accommodations paid by the conference organizers.

Deadlines:

Abstracts to be submitted by February 6, 2011; decisions on papers to be presented will be made by February 18, 2011.

Contacts:

Rami Khouri (Issam Fares Institute): ifi@aub.edu.lb
Fareed C Majari (Goethe-Institut): director@beirut.goethe.org

More information here.

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Call for Proposals: Lesbian-Feminist Issues and Religion

Deadline: 1 March 2011

Call for Proposals

This Group invites papers and complete panels that treat theoretical, methodological, and/or practical dimensions of the following themes:

* On the history of, problematic within, or reclaiming of the concept of “woman-identified woman”

* Borderlands — theorizing Lesbian feminism in and/or as borderlands in relation to Gloria Anzaldua’s work on borderlands

* Queer eclipses — has “queer” eclipsed the relevance of gendered sexual identities (i.e., lesbian and gay)? Of feminism? How is the category of “queer” itself subject to eclipse?

* Lesbian feminist theorizing of terrorism and responses to terrorism

* Ethics, grammar, discourses, models, and/or experiences of lesbian-feminist sexualities in non-Christian religion

* Engagements with queering disabilities studies (for a possible cosponsored session with the Religion and Disability Studies Group)

Mission

For over fifteen years, this Group has been exploring the multiple dimensions of lesbian interaction with religion. The development and/or confrontation of lesbian/feminist mythologies and histories in diverse religious and spiritual movements are theorized and debated, as are the identity and visibility of women’s sexuality in religious and other cultural arenas. Contemporary concerns, including the interplay of religious and political rhetoric in determining the social inclusion or marginalization of lesbians and all queers, are also addressed in our sessions. Issues pertaining to social categories of race, class, and gender are central to our analyses. In these ways, we serve as a critical forum for expanding debate on how religious and lesbian categories conceptualize and influence one another. We maintain a listserv for discussion among all interested members; to join please send an e-mail to elizabeth.say@csun.edu.

Anonymity of Review Process

Proposals are anonymous to Chairs and Steering Committee Members until after final acceptance or rejection.

Questions?

Marie Cartier
Claremont Graduate University
ezmerelda@earthlink.net

Yvonne Zimmerman
Methodist Theological School, Ohio
yzimmerman@mtso.edu

Submit here.

More information here.

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Call for Papers - Quick and Dirty: The 4th Annual DC Queer Studies Symposium

Deadline: 1 February 2011

CALL FOR PAPERS

quickanddirty VII: The DC Queer Studies Graduate Symposium

Part of the 4th Annual DC Queer Studies Symposium at the University of Maryland, College Park

Friday, April 29, 2011

Deadline for submission of materials: February 1, 2011

DC Queer Studies invites submission of proposals for 15-minute presentations in quickanddirty VII: The DC Queer Studies Graduate Symposium. Students enrolled in any DC-area graduate program are encouraged to submit proposals for inclusion in the symposium. We welcome proposals on any aspect of LGBT Studies, queer theory, critical approaches to genders and sexualities, and intersectionality. The University of Maryland's program in LGBT Studies has held a graduate symposium for the past six years. Again this year, that event is being opened up to students from other institutions and held in conjunction with the scholarly program being arranged by DC Queer Studies, a group of faculty from schools in the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area.

Selected participants will be notified by February 15, 2011.

Proposals must include name, affiliation, e-mail address, title of paper, a 250-word abstract, and a 1-2 page CV. Please send materials by e-mail attachment (Word or PDF only) by February 1, 2011 to lgbts-dcqueers@umd.edu. Put “quickanddirty” in the subject line of your message.

The DC Queer Studies Symposium is a daylong event bringing together scholars from
the Washington, DC area to exchange, support, and cultivate new ways of engaging with
LGBT/Q/Sexuality Studies across the disciplines. April 29 will include the graduate
symposium, a cultural event, and the keynote address by Regina Kunzel, professor of
history and chair of gender, women, and sexuality studies at the University of Minnesota. Kunzel is the author, most recently, of Criminal Intimacy: Prison and the Uneven History of Modern American Sexuality, which won numerous awards, including the John Boswell Prize for outstanding book on LGBT history and a Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Studies, both in 2009.

The DC Queer Studies Symposium is hosted and sponsored by the University of Maryland and co-sponsored by American University, the George Washington University, and Georgetown University.

More information here.

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Call for Submissions: Transgender Beyond Disorder: Identity, Community, and Health

Deadline: 2 January 2011

WPATH PRESENTS: Transgender Beyond Disorder: Identity, Community, and Health, the 22nd WPATH Biennial Symposium, September 24 - 28, 2011 at the Emory Conference Center Hotel, Atlanta, Georgia (USA).

To submit a paper for consideration, download an application here. Deadline for submission is January 2, 2011.

The purpose of the 22nd WPATH International Symposium is to present professionals with the latest advances in research, education, clinical service, and advocacy to promote the health and well being of transgender and transsexual people and their families. The scientific program will address topics in several areas including primary care, psychiatry, endocrinology, and surgery; psychology, social work, marriage and family therapy; sociology and anthropology; gender and sexuality; speech and voice therapy; and other related fields relevant to transgender health. We invite all professionals, clinicians, researchers, and academics to submit relevant abstracts.

There will be a variety of special panels, paper presentations, poster sessions and speakers, including some of the following topics: Children, families, and youth; ethnic/racial and cultural diversity in transgender health; transition-related services; community-based health care and community-participatory research; transgenderism in sports; human rights; and the latest advances in brain research. An update will be provided on the revision of the DSM and ICD gender-related diagnoses, and the completely revised Version 7 of the Standards of Care will be presented.

Especially for the 22nd biennial WPATH Symposium, we established a partnership with the 21st annual Southern Comfort transgender community Conference and the 29th annual conference of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, both held immediately prior to the WPATH Symposium. On Sunday, September 25, 2011, we will be offering a joint program at the WPATH Symposium site (Emory Conference Center).

Proof of Attendance Certificate will be given to all Symposium attendees. CEU's and CME's will be offered for the Pre-Conference Continuing Education program on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2011.

More information here.

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Call for Papers: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Missouri and the Midwest

Deadline: 6 December 2010

The Gender Studies Program at the University of Missouri - St. Louis invites papers, presentations, and panels that confront and interrogate the gendered, raced, and/or sexualized positions of individuals and groups in political, legal, historical, social, educational, and creative arenas in the state of Missouri and the other states in the Midwest from the pre-colonial period through the 1820 Missouri Compromise to the present day.

We encourage presentations from those working in history; law; literature and language; composition, rhetoric, and literacy studies; cultural studies; girls' studies; political science; economics; sociology; social work; criminology and criminal justice; psychology; anthropology; media and film studies; art history; medicine; and the biological sciences. We also encourage topics for panels.

Possible topics include:

• Slave narratives
• Interracial social and political relationships
• Missouri’s literary and artistic heritage
• Slavery, sexuality and science
• Same-sex marriage and partner rights
• Queer cultures and practices
• Bi-racial identities
• Women and minorities in political office
• Women’s and/or Men’s Clubs
• Race, gender, and/or sexuality in the arts
• Queer cultures and practices
• Economic opportunities and obstacles
• Archives on race, gender and sexuality
• Whiteness and power
• Business successes
• Grass roots activism
• Gender, Race, Crime and Justice
• Literacy Masculinity and blackness
• Women as slave holders
• Quilting & domestic arts
• Motherhood and maternity
• Fatherhood and paternity
• Girlhood and boyhood
• Ethnicity and discriminatory practices
• Gender, race, and educational policies
• Biographical studies of race and gender pioneers
• Laws and policies based on race and/or gender
• Segregation/desegregation laws and policies

We also invite the submission of creative or historical projects strongly related to the conference topic. If you propose this kind of project, please be specific about technical and space requirements.

Proposal Submissions

•Send 350-500-word proposals or abstracts to compromising@umsl.edu. Please use abstract submission form.

•Proposals should include title, contact information, and institutional affiliation

•Student papers are welcome

•The deadline for submitting proposals is December 6, 2010.

•Selected presenters will be notified by late January 2011 and must register for the conference by February 28 to be included in the program.

Dr. Kathleen Butterly Nigro
Gender Studies Program
The University of Missouri--St. Louis
211 Clark Hall
One University Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63121
314.516.5581
Email: compromising@umsl.edu

More information here.

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Call for Papers - LGBT/Queer Studies: Toward Trans/national Scholarly and Activist Kinships

Deadline: 15 December 2010

The LGBT Studies Program & Minor at Syracuse University is pleased to announce a call for papers for their international conference, "LGBT/Queer Studies: Toward Trans/national Scholarly and Activist Kinships". The conference will take place in Madrid, Spain from July 3-5, 2011. They invite scholars and activists to join in an exploration of the methods, possibilities, challenges, and dangers of doing LGBT/queer scholarship, activism, pedagogy, and curriculum in a transnationalized and technologically mediated world. Proposal deadline: December 15, 2010.

"LGBT/Queer Studies: Toward Trans/national Scholarly and Activist Kinships" Call for Papers

An International Conference
Madrid, Spain
July 3, 4, and 5, 2011
Note: Gay Pride is July 2 in Madrid

Organized by the LGBT Studies Program & Minor
Chancellor's Leadership Project
Syracuse University
Syracuse, NY, USA

We invite scholars and activists to join in an exploration of the methods, possibilities, challenges, and dangers of doing LGBT/queer scholarship, activism, pedagogy, and curriculum in a transnationalized and technologically mediated world. We want to address the many challenges of understanding and responding to the complexly lived lives of queer subjects, as they are shaped by local and global upheavals and opportunities. What does the 'transnational' mean? How are queer lives rendered visible and legible and affectively accessible? What matrices of power make some queer figures more visible than others? What new forms of scholarship and activism emerge as people, images, ideas, and capital move in rapid, uneven, and complex ways across national borders? How might practices of kinships, however tense or contingent, happen? How does, or should, the transnational turn shape our pedagogies and curricula? And how do we connect and collaborate as scholars and activists across the globe? These are messy knowledges, nuanced knowledges, framed by the local and the global in complicated and often surprising ways.

We are interested in a truly global conversation, and encourage submissions about and from all over the world. We hope too to produce some form of publication out of the conference.

Possible topics:

• Representing the complexities of everyday queer lives
• Working with queer archives and memory
• Analyzing gay imperialism
• Designing pedagogies and curricula
• Sustaining scholarly relationships across borders
• Engaging with queer suffering and activism across borders
• Studying legal and political responses to queer suffering
• Queer media and literature
• Exploring queer disasporas and homonationalisms
• Writing queer histories
• Analyzing queer labor and immigration
• Responding to the challenges of translation and access

We invite scholars and activists to submit paper proposals (no more than 500 words) or complete panels (of no more than three papers) that address questions like these from various perspectives. English is the primary language of the conference, and we will accept submissions in Spanish and French. Please submit paper proposals or panel proposals electronically, http://www.transnationalizinglgbt.com/index.php/madrid-conference/papers.

Please feel free to contact Margaret Himley (mrhimley@syr.edu) or Andrew London (anlondon@maxwell.syr.edu), co-directors of the LGBT Studies Program and Minor at Syracuse University, for more information or with thoughts or questions about this conference/workshop.

More information here.

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Call for Papers: Revolutionary Sex

Deadline: 17 December 2010

The modern American sexual revolution began 50 years ago. Still considered a crime scene by some, San Francisco launched a national reinvention of sex. In this city by the Bay from which sprang the Summer of Love, polyamory, hippies, sexual experimentation, the gay rights movement, and the unionization of sex workers—to name just a few—we’ll gather to take a breath and reflect upon what has been accomplished, where we are, and directions for the future. Prepare yourself for the 2011 SSSS-WR conference: Revolutionary Sex.

We’ve witnessed the repudiation of long held misconceptions about sex and established a science of sex that now forms a complex body of epidemiological, biomedical, psychological, sociological, anthropological and clinical knowledge. This was accomplished through alliances and collaborations, amid conflict and controversy. Today we’re contending with polarities and commonalities among sexologists, clinicians, researchers, educators and policymakers. The visionaries among us will continue this legacy through imagining and predicting the innovative cultural and scientific paradigm shifts essential for this ongoing revolution.

Submissions will be considered from all areas of sexuality research, advocacy, education, treatment and public policy. Of particular interest are multidisciplinary submissions focused on historical perspectives, current research, and reports on future developments not yet fully realized. As in past years, papers presented at this meeting will be published in the Electronic Journal of Human Sexuality www.ejhs.org if the authors choose to submit them to the Journal.

And what better place to explore sexuality than San Francisco in the spring: The air is warm, the tourists haven’t arrived yet, and the City lies waiting for you to explore its diverse communities and cultures. Enjoy the conference special events designed to enhance the focus of the meeting, including films, an awards banquet and social gatherings—take a cable car up one of our magical hills, or enjoy our world-famous cuisine. The vibrant Hilton San Francisco Financial District Hotel is ideally situated at the confluence of North Beach, Chinatown, the Financial District and the waterfront, steps away from restaurants and shopping, and a short trolley ride to other parts of this fabulous, exotic city. Our compact, cosmopolitan hotel features all the amenities of the city, but is intimate enough for networking and socializing in a relaxed atmosphere:

Hilton San Francisco Financial District
750 Kearny Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
415-433-6600
800-424-8292

We welcome ideas and suggestions; if you want to help, please contact us now!

Program Co-Chairs:

Douglas Braun-Harvey, MFT, CGP, (dbh@bridgingsexualhealth.com)
Rose Hartzell, PhD, EdS (rosehartzell@hotmail.com)

Conference Co-Chairs:

Mary Bontorin, M.A. (marybcats@cox.net)
Hernando Chaves, DHS. (HChaves@aol.com)
SSSS Western Region 2011 President:
Janice M. Epp, Ph.D. (DrJanice@aol.com)

More information here.

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Call for Papers: The Making of Sexual (in)equality)

We are very pleased to announce the eighth biennial meeting of the International Association for the Study of Sexuality, Culture and Society (IASSCS), co-organized by the Social Anthropology Department of Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain.


The 2011 Conference theme focuses on the multiple ways that equality and inequality are articulated through sexuality. This year we will explore diverse situations of (in)equality in sexuality around the world and critically share proposals, approaches, possibilities, victories, inspirations, but also challenges, that inform and inspire new forms of action and thinking about sexuality.

In line with IASSCS goals this conference seeks to create links between academics and activists, by taking theory into practise, thinking about everyday advocacy, and lobbying for the implementation of sexual rights.
The main themes of the conference sessions include, but are not limited to:

- Gender, feminism(s) and the struggle for sexual equality.
- HIV/AIDS and sexual inequality.
- Beyond heterosexuality: LGBTQI challenging and reproducing sexual hegemonies.
- Sexualized states. From sexual repression to sexual democracies: The role of the law, public policies, education, medicine and religion.
- Non-normative bodies as a sexual battleground.
- Development work and the reproduction of sexual inequality.
- Sexual tourism: tensions between development and cultural colonization.
- Pleasure, desire and sexual (in)equality.
- Academia and sexual power relations in the house of sciences.
- The races, ethnicities, social classes and ages of sexual (in)equality.
- Translating (in)equality: cultural globalization of both sexual discrimination and sexual rights.
- Sexuality 2.0: internet, the media and online social networks constructing and deconstructing sexual images, relations and practices.
- The arts performing, reproducing and questioning sexual inequalities.

Call for abstracts will open on November. Further information coming soon.

Contact us: 2011conference@iasscs.org

More information here.

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Call for Papers: Lesbian Representation on European Television

Deadline: 10 December 2010

Conference hotel: Marriott Rivercenter San Antonio
101 Bowie Street
San Antonio, Texas 78205 USA
Phone: 1-210-223-1000

Papers are now being accepted on topics related to lesbian representation on European television. Some possible television series include: Bad Girls, Skins, Sugar Rush, Plus Belle la Vie, Verbotene Liebe, and Hospital Central only to name a few.

Scholars, teachers, professionals, and other interested parties are encouraged to participate. Graduate students are also particularly welcome with award opportunities for best graduate papers.

Please share this CFP with colleagues.

Send a 250-350 word abstract to mjonet@nmsu.edu or to the physical address below by 10 December 2010.

Dr. M. Catherine Jonet,
European Popular Culture and Literature Area Chair
MSC 3WSP
New Mexico State University
P.O. Box 30001
Las Cruces, NM 88003-8001

More information here.

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Call for Papers: Serving Queer Families

Deadline: 31 January 2011

Society for the Study of Social Problems 2011 Annual Meeting August 12-14, 2011 Chicago, Illinois

Session organizer: Nancy Mezey [ nmezey@monmouth.edu ]

Papers or extended abstracts (2-3 page summary of your intended presentation) for presentations MUST be submitted via our online submission cover sheet, http://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/390/, to session organizers no later than midnight (EST) on January 31, 2011.

All questions relating to the program should be directed to Karen McCormack, Program Committee Chair by e-mail at mccormack_karen@wheatonma.edu . When sending an e-mail, please place SSSP in the subject line.

More information here.

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Call for Papers - Pop Praxis: Social Justice & the Media

Deadline: 5 January 2011

Pop Praxis: Social Justice & the Media

Keynote Speaker: Andi Zeisler, co-founder and editorial/creative director of Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture

University of Cincinnati

Conference date: April 8th, 2011

Notifications of acceptance will be sent by January 15th, 2010

Pop culture: what are its possibilities? Its consequences? It produces representations of race, class, gender, sexuality, disability, and religion. It crosses boundaries of identity, teaching us (or professing to teach us) about others. It permeates our everyday, sending us messages about ourselves and our place in the world. It has potential to define the cutting edge just as it reinforces the hegemonic status quo. It comments on society; it creates society. Pop culture is praxis: the grounds for theoretical exploration as well as political action.

Pop Praxis: Social Justice & the Media seeks paper, presentation and workshop submissions for a conference to be held on Friday, April 8th, 2011 at the University of Cincinnati. Pop culture—television, movies, music, etc.—represents a central site of inquiry for scholars and activists who work toward social justice. This conference provides a space for dialogue about the intersections of pop culture, theory and practice. We will explore the roles we all can play in the production and thoughtful consumption of culture.

We look forward to reading your proposal regarding pop culture as it relates to feminism, race, disability or queer theory, class, consumption, and all forms of political activism or cultural production.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

Analysis of scripted television (e.g., LOST, Sex & the City, Mad Men)

Analysis of reality television (e.g., The Real L Word, Jersey Shore, anything on Vh1)

The culture and/or activism of social networking (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, myspace, YouTube)

Lady Gaga (e.g., her music, videos, performance, fashion, politics, persona)

Ableism & representations of disability in pop culture (e.g., Weeds, Million Dollar Baby, crip-hop)

Political porn? (e.g., feminist, queer, etc.)

Gender and sexuality in music videos (e.g., Ke$ha, Justin Bieber, Beyoncé)

Indie publishing and production (e.g., zines, blogs, documentaries, podcasts)

Cinema (e.g., The Kids Are All Right, Avatar, Precious, The Blind Side)

Race, class, gender, sexuality, disability, religion, nature, etc. in pop culture

This event will be free and open to the public. Info about accommodations will follow.

Proposal format:

We will accept proposals from undergraduates, graduates and faculty. Presentations will run 15-20 minutes each and can include papers, films or workshops oriented toward practice (activism, media production, performance). Your proposal should be sent as a Word document and include: title, 300-word abstract, description of A/V needs, your contact info, and a bio of no more than 100 words including your university affiliation. Send your submissions and/or questions to poppraxis@gmail.com no later than January 5th, 2011.

More information here.

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Call for Papers: The Other Sex / Sexuality in Francophone Literature

Deadline: 17 January 2011

From June 25 to 26, 2011, the French Department at Durham University will be hosting a conference on Francophone studies. Whether you wish to present a paper or participate in discussions on the topic, this conference provides a great opportunity to meet and engage with researchers from various backgrounds.

Postgraduate students are strongly encouraged to apply. All media forms are welcome. Works in both French and English are accepted. Participants are asked to submit their abstracts on the related topic, including but not limited to the following sub-topics:

• Outcasts in literature -- Le paria dans la littérature
• Marginality -- Marginalité
• Homosexual voices -- Les voix homosexuelles
• Gender differences -- Différence de genres
• Ethnicity and sexuality -- Ethnicité et sexualité
• Women : roles and powers -- Les femmes : rôles et pouvoirs

Please send your title and abstract (400 words) before January 17th, 2011

Loic Bourdeau
French Department, Durham University
Elvet Riverside
Durham DH1 3JT
Email: loic.bourdeau@durham.ac.uk

More information here.

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Call for Papers: American Identities on Stage

Deadline: 17 December 2010

Topic: Theoretically inflected discussions of identity (Psychoanalytic, Feminist, Queer, etc.)

University of East Anglia
School of American Studies
Celebrating 100 Years of Tennessee Williams (1911-2011)
American Identities on Stage:
20th Century American Drama
International Postgraduate Conference

To commemorate the Tennessee Williams’s centennial, the School of American Studies at the University of East Anglia, will host a one-day international conference on 26 March 2011, focusing on theatrical representations of American identities. The invited keynote speaker is Professor Stephen Bottoms (University of Leeds).

On the day of Tennessee Williams’s 100th birthday, the 20th Century American Drama International Postgraduate Conference looks to revisit the theatre produced in the last century, considering a plurality of approaches from literary to theatre and performance studies, film, gender and GLBTQ studies, reflecting on the most recent critical and academic canon. Stressing the importance of Tennessee Williams, the conference hopes to be an international point of intersection for all those interested in Williams’s work and 20th century American drama in general. Topics of individual talks or collective panel discussions might include, but are not limited to:

- Identity authenticity, representation, construction, and performativity;

- Identity permanence, plurality, multiplicity, fluidity, and fragmentation;

- Private versus public identity;

- Identity and the other;

- Dissidence and identity;

- Selfhood and identity;

- Identity now and then;

- Identity and identification;

- Aspects of/informing identity, such as age, class, culture, gender, politics, race, religion, and sexuality;

- Theoretically inflected discussions of identity (Psychoanalytic, Feminist, Queer, etc.);

- Contesting/Subverting prescribed identity constructions.

The conference will commence with a plenary speech, followed by the different panels, and will conclude with a round table discussion, which will consider themes arising from the day.

Please send a titled abstract between 200-300 words (for 20-minute paper presentations) and a brief CV to f.costa@uea.ac.uk by 17 December 2010.

More information here.

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Call for Papers: Queer Spaces/ Gender, Sexuality and Urban Spaces

Deadline: 2 December 2010

Find below information about the upcoming Graduate Consortium in Women’s Studies graduate student conference. Please forward this widely to your students and colleagues, and we look forward to the exciting conversations ahead! For more information and to access the online submission form, contact gcws@mit.edu or go to the web site: http://web.mit.edu/gcws/Grad_conference_2011/index_Intro_2011.html

GENDER, SEXUALITY, AND URBAN SPACES

A graduate student conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

March 11th and 12th, 2011

CALL FOR PAPERS

Urban spaces both produce and are produced by gender. The Graduate Consortium in Women’s Studies conference, Gender, Sexuality and Urban Spaces, seeks to explore the reciprocity of these complex relationships. We are interested in how life (or living) in urban spaces mark as well as produce gendered and sexed bodies and how gender, class and race relations, performances and sexualities, in turn, make their marks on the urban spaces. By urban spaces, we mean the lived practices and representations through which a variety of spaces are constituted within and beyond the scope of the city. We invite submissions that examine the construction of gender and sexuality (in conjunction with race, class, & mobility) and urban spaces across a range of historical, cultural, national, fictional, and conceptual contexts.

From census surveys, subway maps, and zoning laws to post-apocalyptic narratives, the construction of sexualities, gender relations, performances, and gendered bodies in urban spaces has been robustly imagined, documented, and regulated. Keeping in mind the rich interdisciplinarity suggested by these approaches, this conference seeks to address the following questions:

• How have evolving conceptions of gender and sexuality altered the city in the past, present, and future?
• How has the city altered conceptions of gender / sexuality?
• How have understandings of gender / sexuality shaped the material and social / cultural spaces of the city?
• How do gender / sexuality impact access to urban spaces and why?
• How are conceptions of gender and sexuality reinforced, challenged, or subverted through gendered / sexed bodies and the urban spaces they inhabit?
  

Topics might include, but are not limited to:

• Spatial Dynamics of the City
• Built and Natural Urban Environments
• Public and Private Spaces
• Access: to Institutions, to Policy, to Geographies, etc.
• Feminist Practices in the city
• Migration, Immigration, and the City
• Transportation and Mobility
• Urban Aesthetics
• Queer Spaces
• Gender and Technologies
• Institutions and Gender
• Urban Activism
• Tourism and Gender
• Intersectionality and the City
• Visual and Textual Representations
  

Please submit 250-word abstracts for 15-minute individual presentations or a proposal for a complete panel of three papers with a 100-word panel abstract and paper abstracts of 150 words each. Submit proposals online or E-mail to gcws@mit.edu by December 2nd, 2010. All submissions should include 3-5 sentence biographical statements for all paper presenters, which include current research interests and institutional affiliation(s). Please note all AV needs you will have in an additional paragraph.

ONLINE SUBMISSION FORM: http://web.mit.edu/gcws/Grad_conference_2011/index_Grad_2011.html

Accepted participants will be notified via e-mail by January 7th, 2011.

More information here.

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