(Re)situating Queer Theory on the Critical Left
A Morning Seminar at Warwick University, 10.30am – 1pm, Friday 22 May 2015
Ramphal Building, Room R0.3-4
This seminar aims to explore and debate two influential recent attempts to (re)situate
queer theory within the broader field of critical social and cultural theory on the Left, with a particular but not exclusive focus on the relevance of this discussion within French Studies:
- James Penney, After Queer Theory: The Limits of Sexual Politics (London:
Pluto, 2014).
- Razmig Keucheyan, Hémisphère Gauche : une cartographie des nouvelles
pensées critiques (Paris: La Découverte, 2nd ed. 2013), in particular pp. 284-91 in context. This book is also available in English asThe
Left Hemisphere: Mapping Critical Theory Today (London: Verso, 2013), tr. Gregory Elliott.
This exploratory seminar is intended principally for early-career academics and post-graduate
researchers in French Studies, Sociology, Gender Studies, Queer Studies, Women’s Studies and related areas but all are welcome. Participants are invited to offer a 5-10 minute paper, which could explore an aspect of either or both texts, in isolation or in
relation to the speaker’s own work.
Participants are asked to signal their desire to take part to Oliver Davis ([log in to unmask])
by 1 May 2015 and also to indicate whether or not they would like to deliver a short paper. Selected participants will be invited to develop their paper into a submission for the edited volume arising out of the AHRC-funded research project to which this workshop
is attached, Queer Theory in France. Participants who have already confirmed their attendance at this seminar include Oliver Davis (French Studies, Warwick), Alex Dymock (Law, Criminology and Sociology, Royal Holloway), Elliot
Evans (French, KCL), Hector Kollias (French, KCL), Kayte Stokoe (French Studies, Warwick), Matthew Waites (Sociology, Glasgow) and Emma Campbell (French Studies, Warwick).
Queer/Coercion
An Afternoon Critical Sexology in the Midlands Public Research Seminar, 2 – 5pm, Friday 22 May 2015
Warwick University, Ramphal Building, Room R0.03-4
Queer thought and activism may be defined by their vigilance to the varieties of violence with which norms coercively constitute gendered sexual subjects. At a moment when, in numerous
national contexts, the work of sexual and gender policing is increasingly abetted by manifestations of organized state violence against dissidents – so extreme in some cases, as in Uganda, as to suggest the idea of genocide – this afternoon seminar will explore
the topic of coercion in a global perspective and across the related fields of queer, feminist, and masculinity studies. Concretely, the event will focus on legal responses to the phenomenon of ‘revenge pornography’, on the representation in pop music videos
of violence against men and on the scope and value of the concept of genocide for global queer politics resisting coercion in the particular context of Uganda. Questions to be explored include the following:
- How does contemporary queer thought envisage and resist coercion?
- How can we conceptualise feminist responses to ‘revenge pornography’?
- How to account for the remobilisation of recognisably queer representational codes and strategies (e.g. camp) in mainstream music videos depicting violence against men?
- To what extent is genocide a useful concept for global queer politics today?
- How and why do queer, feminist, and masculinity studies differ in their apprehension of the coercive force of the law?
Speakers and paper titles:
- Alex Dymock (Law, Criminology and Sociology, Royal Holloway), ‘Eroticising retribution?: criminalising “revenge pornography”
Respondents: Oliver Davis (French Studies, Warwick) and Kayte Stokoe (French Studies,
Warwick).
