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Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS)
www.clags.org

Announcing the Spring 2013 Seminar in the City:




Of all the cities where lgbtq people have flourished, historian Robert Aldrich has argued that "New York offered a prototype for American gay cultures.” While lgbtq studies has begun to extend itself to look at rural places, much of the urban still remains to be accounted for, particularly difference within the city. We must then queer the city in the way it normalizes groups and spaces, and New York City is the exciting urban environment to begin within. In this Seminar in the City, we will read work that challenges and queers the normalized histories and spaces of lgbtq life. How can we queer the neighborhood, bar, streets, and bodies within it to tell stories of difference? How can a queer reading of the spaces in New York City more radically account for difference?

Drawing on work from queer theory and lgbtq studies in geography, sociology, anthropology, history, and literature studies, we will use the city as a lens and site for our reading and research. No prior experience in theoretical readings or site analysis is needed; an open, imaginative, and inquisitive mind is mandatory. You can take the course in-person or online. All readings will be provided.

Register at: http://jgieseking.org/CLAGSqNY/register/

Schedule of the Course:

• May 1st: The City and the Bodies within It
• May 8th: The Bar, the Institution, and the Space Between
• May 15th: Street Life
• May 22nd: The Demise of the Gayborhood? The Rise of a Queered Neighborhood?

Instructor Bio:
Jen Jack Gieseking, Ph.D., is Visiting Assistant Research Professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and hold a PhD in environmental psychology. Her work as an urban cultural geographer and environmental psychologist examines the everyday co-productions of space and identity support or inhibit social, spatial, and economic justice with a special focus on sexuality and gender. She is working on her first book, Queer New York: Lesbians' and Queer Women's Constellations of Social and Spatial Justice in New York City, 1983-2008. Jack serves as the Project Manager for JustPublics@365, a partnership between The Graduate Center of the City University of New York and the Ford Foundation that rethinks scholarly communication in the digital era. She can be found at jgieseking.org and @jgieseking.

*All CLAGS events are free and open to the public.*