Keynote speaker: Prof. Jack
Halberstam (University of Southern California)
We invite submissions which tackle diverse aspects of queer representation,
and that question the extent to which the new influx of queer on-screen visibility works at once both to liberate and obfuscate certain queer identities and cultures. How, for example, should we perceive representations of the legalization of gay marriage
in numerous countries, while taking into account that these changes in law also mark the entrance of queer individuals into reproductive and familial time? In England and Wales, 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the Sexual Offences Act, which decriminalized
private homosexual acts between male individuals aged 21 or over. As such, this anniversary comes at what is arguably a troubling time; one where right-wing nationalism spreads across the US and Europe and ‘homonationalism’ (Puar, 2007) allows for the appropriation
of queer and feminist discourses so as to legitimize xenophobia and contemporary colonialism.
We encourage submissions dealing with queer representation in any
on-screen form (ranging from the established forms of film and TV to gaming, music videos, advertisement, web-series, and social media, amongst others) in what can be broadly defined as a contemporary context, promoting both explorations of the historical
development of queer visibility and of its recent media examples. Additionally, we welcome further explorations of what it means to be ‘queer’ on screen, to gaze queerly, and the value of queerness as not only a political but aesthetic term. Topics may include
yet are not limited to:
● Queer intersectionality on contemporary screens
● Queer temporalities and geographies
● Specific regional, national or transnational contexts of queer representation
● The relationship between various media platforms and queer visibility
● Representations of queer activism and the (re)framing of activist debates
● The queer body and its relationship to the neoliberal context
● Adaptations and appropriations that queer canonical authors and texts
● Queering notions of success and failure in neoliberalism
● Homonationalism and its role in representation
● Queer anarchism. Queerness as a vehicle for change. Queer utopias and potentialities.
Please send 200-300 word abstracts for 20-minute presentations or
for panel proposals and a biographical note to [log in to unmask] by
May 1st 2017. A selection of papers will be eligible for publication.
