Upcoming Events

Northwestern University's Queer Pride Graduate Student Association invites you to attend the second annual “Queertopia! An Academic Festival,” to take place on Friday, May 1 and Saturday, May 2, 2009.

 Broadly conceived to coincide with our mission to foster connections among queer and allied members of Northwestern's Graduate community and groups in the larger Chicago area, “Queertopia!” represents an idealized space for queer scholars and students – an “intellectual utopia” that speaks to the broader needs of queer communities. We strongly encourage all with an interest in sexualities and queer scholarship to lend their energy to our various events.

 This year's theme, “(Re)imagining Communities” builds upon the many discussions began during the 2008 festival.  As what constitutes “community” can shift across space and time, we invite an interdisciplinary reexamination of the ways in which sexually identified communities are imagined, constructed, maintained, and contested in contemporary academic and political discourse. 

Registration

To register for the conference, please fill out this form and return it with payment to the address on the form: PDF, WORD DOC .

EVENTS

Friday, May 1, 2009

“Other Visual Pleasures – A Video Mini-fest”

7:00 pm, McCormick Tribune Center

Northwestern University

$5.00 Students/$7 General

 Sex, gender, and sexuality are integral to ways in which gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer identities are articulated. This year's opening night event showcases new work from queer film and video makers, exploring issues related to this year's theme. To this end, the show includes a talk-back session moderated by grad students and faculty, giving the performers and audience members a chance to unpack some of the issues raised and discuss how they relate to current politics, theory, and issues of everyday life for queer individuals.

Saturday, May 1, 2009

Queertopia! Graduate Student Conference

Starting at 9 am, Center on Halsted

3656 North Halsted Street  Chicago, IL 60613

$10 Registration Fee (includes continental breakfast, lunch, and reception)

 This interdisciplinary  conference provides a space for advanced undergraduate, graduate and professional students engaged in the study of sexualities to present their original work to a community of peers, colleagues, and faculty. Making progress towards our goals for professional and academic development, the conference provides networking opportunities designed to promote successful movement through higher education, thereby diversifying academia and the professional world at large.  The conference will include a lunchtime keynote speaker by a young up-in-coming scholar engaged in queer scholarship, and sermon competition and talk-back that explores the intersections of sexuality and spirituality.  Reception to follow.

This year's keynote speaker is Jeffrey Q. McCune, Jr., Assistant Professor in Women's Studies and American Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park.  Dr. McCune received his Ph.D. in Performance Studies at Northwestern University; his scholarly interests include popular culture, critical race/gender/sexuality theory, masculinities, whiteness studies, and 20^th century African American literature and culture.  Currently, he is working on a number of projects, including a manuscript of his doctoral dissertation, tentatively titled, Quaring the Closet: Black Masculinities and the Politics of Sexual Passing, an ethnographic and media-centered exploration of representations of men on the Down Low and their lived experiences.   Beyond his academic pursuits, Dr. McCune is also a playwright, actor, and public speaker.  Presently, he is at work on a play that re-visits notions of the “racist south” in the mid-twentieth century, based on his grandmother's experiences in rural Mississippi. 

 "Dr. McCune's keynote address is entitled "Hip Hop Can Make you Queer."