Apologies for crossposting

Annual International Conference, Exeter, 2-­4 September, 2015
Royal Geographical Society (RGS) with Institute of British Geographers (IBG)

QUEER(ED) ART: Artistic Practices of Sexual Difference and Radical Possibilities

Sponsored session by the Space, Sexualities & Queer Research Group (SSQRG)

Dr Martin Zebracki (University of Leeds, United Kingdom) & Dr Andrew Gorman-Murray (University of Western Sydney, Australia)

Session website: http://www.zebracki.org/rgs-ibg-2015-cfp-queer(ed)-art

CALL FOR PAPERS AND ARTWORK

Queer studies to date have under-elaborated how social difference across sexual disposition, sexual lifestyle and sexual interaction critically intersect with various spaces of artistic practice and expression. We see ‘queer’ as a critical post-structuralist stance towards sexuality. Queer can also be considered a social identity of the ‘sexual dissident’, someone or something that is a-typical, a-normal or ‘different’. Here, queer can either be a category assigned by normative social practice or rather a heterodox denotation embodied as the critical antipode of such normative practice.

Mundane encounters with queer, or sexual diversity in general, can be artistically expressed and negotiated through visual arts, performance, language, fashion, film, music, dance, literature, poetry, etc. by any humans (not only by those commonly considered artists) in contexts stretching over and interlinking various spaces, e.g., the home, the gallery, the museum, public space, the city/urban development, the governmental sphere and/or online communities. We are interested in how such socio-spatial artistic practices, expressions, mobilities and negotiations are (un)critically queering social identity and how art in and of itself can be queered according to sexual normativities.

Sexual (contra)normativities are played out in social regimes over space and time and in so doing in interface with social identity markers of gender, ethnicity, class, age, health, (dis)ability, religion, nationality, etc. Particularly along these time-spaces of intersectionalities, we wonder how artistic practices may articulate kaleidoscopic pin-points to radically challenge queered sexual citizenships. How may such layered understanding of queer(ed) art critically redress – and potentially put in a caveat against – sexual normativities and as such offer an intellectual platform for radical social change towards a more sexually inclusive society here and there?

This session looks for papers or academic op-eds that meet the above research niche and thus provide theoretical, methodological and/or empirical gravity to envisage radical social change through the window of queer(ed) art. We invite scholars across disciplines, stages of career and research phases to engage with this subject, departing from specific pertinent social and cultural theories that speak to the scope of this Call.

Also, we explicitly invite artistic interventions – think of photography, film, music/song, dance, poetry, multi-media installation or virtual exhibits – which may enable cross-disciplinary, cross-place and multi-sensorial renditions of the theme in more-than-human assemblages.

Topics may include but are not limited to:

•       Epistemologies and uses of queer(ed) art.
•       Multidimensional spaces of queer art.
•       Queer art and heteronormativities vs. homonormativities.
•       Queer art and sexual prejudice and stereotypes.
•       Authorities, queer art and (homonationalist) sexual citizenship.
•       Queer art politics.
•       Queer art, affect and belonging.
•       Queer art and sexual trans-identities.
•       Queer art-making as collaboration between the human and non-human.
•       Queer art and post-human ethics.
•       Queer art, social media and virtual potentialities of social change.
•       Sexual normativities of public art.
•       Radical media technologies of queer art.
•       Queer-art-led urban regeneration.
•       Queer art activism and urban change.
•       Cultural policy and queer art.
•       Home-based artefacts and queered sexualities.
•       Youth queer art vis-à-vis adulthood’s queer art.
•       Intergenerational engagements with queer art.
•       Racialisation of queer art.
•       Queer art and sexual health.
•       Disability, art and queer life.
•       (Fundamental) religiosities and radical challenges of queer art.
•       Queer art and queer liberalism.
•       Queer art and queer times.
•       Queer art and (pro-)feminism.
•       Pornographic queer art and alternative sexual frontiers.

If you are interested in participating in this session, please provide a max. 15-word title, max. 250-word abstract/proposal and max. 200-word bio (including affiliation and e-mail address) to both of us at M.M.Zebracki AT leeds.ac.uk and A.Gorman-Murray AT uws.edu.au by 12 February, 2015. Please contact us should you require any further information about contributions.

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Dr M.M. (Martin) Zebracki
Lecturer in Critical Human Geography
School of Geography
University of Leeds
University Road
Leeds LS2 9JT
United Kingdom

+44 (0) 113 34 33350

http://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/people/m.zebracki
http://www.zebracki.org
http://twitter.com/zebracki

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