Monday, November 30, 2009
Q+P+P Tea Time: "Queer/ing/s Online," Monday, 12/7, 3:30-5:00 PM, CMU 202
Monday, December 7
3:30-5:00 PM
Simpson Center Conference Room
University of Washington, Seattle
Queer/ing/s Online
The first of three Queer + Public + Performance Tea Times invites two PhD Candidates, Jessica Johnson of Anthropology and Edmond Chang of English, to share their current work, their research questions, and their objects of study. This quarter's Tea Time, entitled "Queer/ing/s Online," takes an interdisciplinary approach to the intersection of queer scholarship, cultural studies, and online texts, publics, and technologies, even pedagogies. Each discussant will give a brief presentation of their work and a lively discussion will follow.
Q+P+P Tea Times will be held once per quarter. These colloquia hope to encourage conversation, exchange, and open discussion. Each Tea Time will invite two or three faculty members, graduate students, even undergraduates who will start the conversation by briefly sharing their work, highlighting how that work aligns with the working goals of the Q+P+P and how their work negotiates the intersections of queer critique, public theory, and performance studies. The main goal of the Tea Times is to foster intellectual, academic, and political exchange that crosses disciplinary boundaries. Refreshments will be served.
This Q+P+P Tea time is co-presented with the HASTAC Scholars at the University of Washington.
"Looking for Mr. Good Avatar: Playing & Queering World of Warcraft"
Edmond Chang, English, HASTAC Scholar
My discussion of Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft attempts to identify and interrogate sexuality, gender, and race in WoW to theorize and analyze the ways these logics are both normative and subversive. In other words, in a game of fantasy race and cybermediated desire, how and where and why might real world queerness, gender, and race be rendered and taken for granted? Furthermore, in the imagining (perhaps intrusion) of real world logics into the game, how might other formations, such as sexuality, be left unsettled or open? Looking at game play and game narratives, particularly the in-game Valentine's Day holiday event "Love is in the Air," my work argues for a productive opportunity in the play of, with, and play in
sexuality, gender, and race to discover countergaming potential and practices that challenge and exploit in- and out-of-game stereotypes and normativity.
"The Circulation of Biblical Porn: Masculine Visuality, Evangelical Publics, and Shock as a Political Affect"
Jessica Johnson, Anthropology
In my presentation, I will explore how and what kind of evangelical publics are generated through the digital circulation of sermons, blogs, and visual texts. I examine discourses on gender, sex, and sexuality as produced by a Seattle megachurch that specifically targets the least likely demographic to attend Christian services in the United States: 18-30 year old males. Reading the texts generated for and in response to a particular sermon series that explicitly discusses sexual freedom within a "biblical" (normatively gender distinct, heterosexual) marriage, I ask what it means to deploy "shock" as a political affect in the transnational dissemination of "biblical porn."
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Writing with Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Museum of History and Industry, 2700 24th Ave. E, Seattle, WA
Friday November 13 & Saturday November 14
Doors 7:00pm / Curtain 7:30pm
Join Bent Writing Institute for 2 nights of Seattle's best in queer writing and spoken work featuring Leah Lakshmi (more info below). $15 Student w\ ID, $20 General Admission.
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha Mentor Writing Workshop
Lifelong AIDS Alliance, 1002 E Seneca, Seattle, WA
Saturday, November 14
11am-1pm
Secrets, stories, scars, survival: Writing your dirty laundry, transforming violence and living to tell. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from a queer femme desi visiting town! The Bent Institute wants to encourage Trikone Northwest members to attend by offering the tickets to this event for $15, instead of the regular $25. Also, if you volunteer to table for the showcase events, you can get a FREE ticket. For more info on tickets, please contact nitika.raj@gmail.com
Brunch with Leah Lakshmi
Sunday, November 15
Time & Location: TBD (Please stay tuned!)
LGBT Funders Racial Equity Toolkit
In addition to reviewing the Toolkit, we’re kindly asking for your assistance in helping spread the word about this valuable resource.
(1) Can you send any portion of it out to your organizational contacts and colleagues?
(2) Can you post a link to this site on your web site?
(3) If you have a Facebook (or other social networking page) page, would you be willing to post a mention? Something such as, “Check out a new site on supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender communities of color” (Attach a link to http://www.lgbtracialequity.org)
We sincerely appreciate your help in spreading the word and hope that you find our LGBT Funders Toolkit on Racial Equity helpful to you in your work.
Thanks so much.
Ellen Gurzinsky
Program Director
Funders for LGBTQ Issues
116 East 16th Street 6th Floor
New York City, NY 10003
212-475-2930 ext. 12 ( voice)
212-475-2532 ( fax)
Monday, November 9, 2009
The Impact of Homophobia on LGBT Citizens @ UW-Seattle, 11/17, 4 PM
4:00 pm
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Parrington Hall Forum
UW-Seattle Campus
Featuring Douglas Janoff, Author, Pink Blood: Homophobic Violence in Canada
The Canadian Studies Center is pleased to present a roundtable discussion with special guest Douglas Janoff, author of Pink Blood: Homophobic Violence in Canada. Janoff will provide an overview of the struggle for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights in Canada. In spite of impressive political gains, however, homophobic violence persists.
Join us for a roundtable discussion on the impact of homophobia on LGBT citizens on both sides of the border. Legislative staff from Olympia, as well as a volunteer attorney on LGBT Issues from the ACLU, will also be on hand to discuss homophobia emerging from recent voter referenda and legislation.
Douglas Janoff
Doug Janoff works is a senior policy advisor for the Government of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario. He has degrees in political science, creative writing and criminology and is a Ph.D. candidate in Canadian Studies at Carleton University in Ottawa. His current research interests include violence against transsexuals and transgendered people, as well as the different forms of homophobia and transphobia that occur throughout the Americas.
In addition to his academic research, Doug has published several articles for newspapers and magazines. Over the years, these articles have covered a broad range of queer-related topics: AIDS in Brazil, AIDS in Toronto, gay marriage, AIDS in Vancouver, drag queens, and homophobic violence in Vancouver, Mexico, and Istanbul. For more information on Doug's research, visit www.pinkblood.ca.
This roundtable discussion is sponsored by the Canadian Studies Center, the UW Libraries, and the Q Center.