CFP: #QueerAF: (Re)presenting Gender & Sexuality

Sat, 04 Mar 2017 12:40:59 -0500

#QueerAF: (Re)presenting Gender & Sexuality in History & Cultural Studies

5th Annual Dean Hopper NEW SCHOLARS Conference

5-6 May 2017

The Ehinger Center, Drew University, Madison, NJ

#QueerAF is a hashtag used on Twitter and Tumblr by trans, lesbian, gay, bisexual, androgynous and gender fluid users to celebrate content that is unapologetically queer, or “queer as fuck.” The use of “AF” in the title of this conference indicates our interest in exploring the power of language to form community in a digital space through the assignation of #QueerAF. The invocation of slurs such as queer, dyke, homo, slut, bitch, and tranny degrades individuals, and those same words have been subsequently reclaimed, yet not without deep controversy. Establishing a conference that is “#QueerAF” represents our resistance to societal politeness by participating in the reclamation of “queer” and disrupting the heteronormative discourse that terms certain behaviors and bodies dangerous or degenerate.

The conference theme draws on multiple disciplines and perspectives on gender and sexuality, inviting challenges to the heteronormative, cisgender, patriarchal discourse of history. Proposals are invited for papers on any aspect of Gender & Sexuality across all time periods and geographical locations. In particular, this conference will be centering around three major themes: Historical & Cultural studies, Linguistics & Theory, and Activism & Media.

CFP:

Areas include but are not limited to the topics below:

Historical & Cultural Studies:

Empire, colonialism and gender

Gender, Sexuality and the politics of Health Care & Psychiatry

Sex work

Holocaust & Gender

Intersectional feminism

Subaltern reading communities & Book History

Representations of “queer” and gendered “other” in literature and fanzine culture

Representations of queer and gendered other in underground music culture

Representations of Gender and Sexuality in Video Games

Diversity and Harassment in Video Game Culture

Gender and Online Abuse

Representations of queerness in film and media (Transparent, The New Normal)

Explorations of the horror genre and the “monstrous queer” (Hannibal, Penny Dreadful)

Reclaiming of queer figures “hidden from history”

Linguistics & Theory:

Gender as performance; queer as performance

Theoretical challenges to Foucauldian readings and post-structuralism

Heterosexism of Theory (Freud, Lacan, etc.)

The Gendered Body & Disability Studies

Sexology (Hirschfeld, Carpenter, Krafft-Ebbing, Ellis)

Radical Feminisms and the “queering” of language and theory

Reclaiming and reappropriation of slurs (Queer, dyke, slut, gay, feminist, bitch, tranny)

Misgendering as an act of violence

Activism & Media

Social Media Activism

Queerness and citizenship

Radical Gendered Activism, Fourth Wave Feminism, Riot Grrrl

Remembrance & Curating Queer History (Stonewall, national monuments, museums, archives)

Gender, Sexual Identity & the Law in the United States

Global/Transnational social movements, LGBTQ & Gender-based Human Rights

AIDS, Race and Gender

Extended Deadline for Submissions is 15 March 2017!

Submit Proposals Here.

Disclaimer: The LLC does not sponsor this event. For any question about the CFP, please contact the organizers.